The Journey to a Healthier ME

Most people repeatedly tell me I'm not fat and don't understand how I feel fat or like I need to loose weight.  But I believe this is because I have been blessed with good health and metabolism for most my life and a non-sitting job was also helpful. So the fact I ate like crap and drank buckets full of sugar made little impact on me.  But then I quit my on my feet job and got a lazy office job.  It made huge differences.  And although I may not LOOK plus sized, I was; and when you compare it to the fact I gave birth and wore a size 4 that same week or the fact I only changed 2 pant size from prior to Anthony's pregnancy all the way til 2012-- 8 years and 2 pregnancies for me it was fat and lazy.  And then when you do a percentage I had gained 50% more weight than I was used to weighing most my life and 29%of that increase in just 3 years!  That is so unhealthy and although others may not all agree if they went from weighing 200 to weight 300 in a handful of years they would feel the same about themselves as I felt about myself.

March 2012 (well before I disliked fire clearly 😜) right after I quit Burger King RGM, but with a very legitimate smile!

I have always said I'd never diet... and I proved that as I continued to gain weight, initially gradually... i have noticed I have nearly no full body phots so thisnis the best I can do.

Spring 2013

Spring 2014
By this point I was also failing my oral health and no more full smiles

Spring 2015

Spring 2016

It was fall 2016 when my friend Wendy and I started attempting to walk, more so for her and I tagged along.  She wanted to loose a little before her wedding in Spring 2017 so I was all for it.  We walked 4 or so evenings a week, but then life got busy with kids activities and our work schedules working overtime and after a month or so we were rarely exercising together, and I was back to lazy me,  I was always eating unhealthy.

During my first brief stunt of trying to be healthy-ish

By this point I was a size 12, quite the jump from my 6s of Burger King, 8s shortly after Burger King.

Spring 2017 and the weight gain was very obvious with my protruding stomach even in a size large shirt

The month before I caught on fire Nov. 2017

January 2018, still recovering and even with eating very little, bedrest and reduces activity was not kind to me

Winter 2019

Spring 2019

I knew I was fat. I knew I was unhealthy.  I wanted better but I wasn't motivated.  By this point I was a size 14 comfortably although I could squeeze into a size 12 but was very uncomfortable.  My shirts had all gone up to 1XL.
The last week of March one of the house keeper's at work who saw me in passing basically everyday asked me if I was pregnant or if I just had a baby.  Had I been quicker on my toes I should have said Malakhi was born in January.

Malakhi, Jayla and I in March 2019

 But, I was caught so off guard I didn't have a slick come back and I knew my weight gain was clearly out of control, no questions asked. I was emotionally crushed.  It is one thing to feel a way about yourself, but it's another level when others notice what you feel.  I got off and slept my Saturday away in self pitty, knowing tomorrow I am changing.  And, tomorrow I changed!

I started off at 10,000 steps a day 5 days a week. I never failed on my goal.  I typically exceeded it.

After 6 weeks, I had lost 2 pounds.  Not impressive, but I wasn't stopping.

 I can't remember for sure when I upped my goal, but my next goal was 12,500 steps 5 days a week.

visiting Nana and Papa in WV- still walking!

 The most exciting part of my fitness journey has been the motivation it gave my friends to join in.  Alisa was the first to jump on board about a month after I started, and she's impressed me!  She was probably the most out of shape of my friends considering she doesn't work outside the home and spent the previous year pregnant, many health issues for several years including fibermyalgia, and she is usually stuck at her trailer in the country, no establishments in walking distance 5 days a week as her husband works and they only have one vehicle.  But she refused to allow that to be an excuse.  Initially she could only last a few blocks with me when she came to town, and that was ok!  Everyone has to start somewhere!

Malakhi, Alisa and me

Jayna, Jayla, Alisa and me (Malakhi in stroller not pictured)

 On days they came to town, we walked together.  On days I went down there we walked her old country road together.  She literally started from no exercise to being able to do 5miles with me by the 3 month mark!  She slowed down once school started for Jayla but even til Dec she'd join me in walks when she came to town!

walking with my bonus babes

Jayla, me, Malakhi and Alisa hit 12,000 for the first time together

Next was my friend Tanya and her 2 girls.  They chose to join me in walking for a while (May- June) a few times a week, usually to Kroger and back, so about 2 miles.  Her 2 younger girls also joined me in longer walks on the trail or extra walks in my neighborhood. (Tanya doesn't like her picture posted)

Alayna walking with Jayla, Malakhi and me

Neighborhood walk

Then in July Wendy and her boys joined in for a while.  I kept her boys while her oldest was in band camp so they walked and hiked with me each day!

shadow art with Wendy and our heard of kids

Hiking liberty Mountain 

Neighborhood walks are for photo ops!

I was really surprised when Brandy joined in on this crazy walking, healthier eating binge!  We stuck with it until it got dark early and then it was difficult to walk together.  Her boy wasn't the biggest fan but Peyton was and still is eager to walk... unless she falls asleep first.

After 3 months, I had only lost 5 pounds, but had gained a lot of stamina.  Even with the disappointing scale results, I was sticking to this!
In July work started a 100 mile challenge- to walk 100 miles over June, July, August.  Well I made a different goal when I signed up and wanted 100 miles in 1 month.  I'd say I did well!

200 miles in the month of July

Then came my hardest life change at the 4 month mark at the end of July, not walking but WATER DRINKING-- and NO MORE extra sweet tea!  I wrote this when I began that task:

I'd like to claim I've lost that 20 pounds. But I haven't. However, I have stuck with it. I have walked 677 miles and growing!
And this week even AFTER just buying 56 bottles of my fav tea on sale I have given it up and traded it for 64ish oz of water a day. Fear not it isn't gone forever but until I can learn to drink water like apparently I should. Honestly although only 3 days, no craving and just determination!
This is still a long slow process but it's for good! And now my friends are choosing a healthier lifestyle too.

I never drank any of those 56 teas!  The kids did, but I didn't have any ever.  As of now 11 months in almost I have had  2 partial bottles.  The last one was in November and I no longer liked the taste.
My other bucket list item I conquered was I walked every bit of every Lynchburg Parks and Rec trail, and in only 2 weeks!  Another big accomplishment was I walked to the grocery store instead of driving all summer and fall long 95% of the time.  If I needed an item asap obviously I'd drive or if I needed something from Walmart since it's further but mostly I walked to Kroger and carried what I bought home.  Twice I'd have to call Anthony to meet me half way (which always at best meant he'd meet me at the top of our street) because the bags got too heavy.

Krogering for health

Then in July I went crazy and decided my new goal would be no less than 7.5 miles every day.  This would allow me to walk 500 miles in 3 months!
On the 28th of July I walked a half marathon!  On my summer bucket list I had written a really far fetched idea of walking 10 miles in one day.  I conquered that in June.  So I hit it up a notch and did 13.1 miles one day after work!

By the end of month four, I had lost 10 pounds at last!  Then it got impressive AT LAST!  I lost 10 pounds in August alone, for a 20 pound total loss over 5 months.  It may not look impressive, but my main goal was to become healthier.  Loosing weight was just an added benefit.  I had gained stamina and energy plus motivation and conquered exercise, portion control, limited sweets and drinking plenty of water over a five month span and that surpassed the excitement of the scale!

5 Months into my Healthier Me Journey

In September I joined the local gym to work on some strengthening type workouts.  Initially I said if I lasted with fitness a month, I could join.  I never did because I ended up enjoying walking a lot and being outdoors regardless of weather or where I was at.

after the storms knocked down trees on the trail- we still walked--- although it made it more challenging with a stroller!

I've consistently walked 2 miles a day on  my 30 min break at work, even in the rain!

Anthony and I at the gym

Gym selfie, although I don't much like the gym and haven't succeeded on going enough long term.  I definitely prefer to be outside walking not inside sweating.

By the end of September I achieved my goal and didn't miss any mileage of the 7.5 miles every single day.  Most days I did even more. 

12 out of  1900 people in our city with a total of 669.26 miles July to Sept

My emplyer took 1st place on total mileage out of all the companies.  However the average wasn't even 100 miles per person!

I took 3rd in our company out of 203 participants!

 After the 100 mile challenge I cut back to 4-55 miles a day from October thru December, and I wasn't too hard on myself if I took a day off from hitting my mileage goal, doing only half that once a week was ok for me now that life got busier with school and Jayna's play practices and basketball for Anthony.
After Christmas I realized how big my clothes were on me.  My Aunt and Uncle gifted my some Christmas cash and I easily fit into size 8 jeans.  I could have probably squeezed into a 6, but 8 truly fit properly. 


Since I don't yet know where this health journey will lead, I only got the one beloved pair of jeans and a new belt since all my work pants fit like this:

At the end of January after 10 months I had lost 35 pounds total.  My final goal is to loose 5 more pounds to reach back to the weight I was about the time Wendy and I thought about getting healthy in 2016, before her wedding.  At 5'11", going back to my 120 days is unlikely after having let myself go for so long. But going to a healthy BMI and weight has been life changing.  If you asked my 1 year ago I'd tell you it was never going to happen.  I had saved my smaller sizes for years but finally ditched them after the fire knowing it was never going to happen.  I has accepted I'd let myself go and choose laziness and food over shrinking back down in size.  I wasn't motivated enough.  I was lazy with my health in every way.  If I don't loose a single pound more I will continue with this health journey, 5 miles a day as long as my body allows.  My body did force me to take a month off courtesy to a stress fracture.  But, I have truly reached a new level because even with minimal exercise all month I haven't reversed on the scale and I can still be healthy beyond just exercise! 

But Monday I get to stop wearing that air cast and I will be back to my crazy walking self!  I've missed it so much!  It may initially be uncomfortable, but I can get right back on track and make and achieve new health goals.  In fact in November I did just that.  I made a new health goal I'd told myself years ago was a lost cause and I have faced my fears and am working right towards that as well, but that will be it's own blog, in time!

One of my favorite Healthier Me Memories