Friday, March 23, 2018

6th Month Check In & Progress!!

I know, I know...I haven't been on here in a hot minute. What can I say? I suck at consistency! Lol. It's mostly because it's super hard to make time to blog daily or even weekly. And then also, I get to the point where I feel like nothing much is changing so what am I even going to say?

Well it's been OFFICIALLY 6 months. This is my 3rd weight loss attempt. My first one was in 2012, I made it 4 and a half months and lost 72 pounds. I burnt out. I was in a competition, and as soon as it was over, I had to treat myself, and again and again. I deserved it. I deserved a break. And before I knew it, I was out of control.

Then in 2016, I started it up again. Mid-Jun...I was at my all-time high of 371 pounds and feeling miserable. I had been to my first Cardinals Baseball game and left with bruises on my hips because I couldn't sit in the seats. I was at an all-time low. I put my butt in gear and did what I do best. I put 100% of my efforts in to losing weight. I found the Diet-Bet App, and it was just what I needed to get that extra push to stay on track. 5 months later, I had lost 73 pounds. I had bought our first home with my husband, I had a million things to do with the move, and making it my own and all of that, and I lost it. I did ok maintaining up to Christmas, and then in 2-3 months or so I packed it all back on with a vengeance and a LOT of Reeses Hearts and Reeses Eggs. I mean a LOT.

Fast forward to the end of May. My sister decides she's going to try the Keto diet. sounds scary. But interesting. I start listening to what she's doing and learning a LOT about carbs that I didn't know, and every day I start the day saying, "Ok, I've got to stop eating like crap, let me not worry about a special diet, let me just worry about not eating all the garbage and just do better and then I can ease back in"...months go by....my sister is LOSING, and I'm bitter. Every day is a struggle. Every day I beat myself up. Every day I give up. Tomorrow is a new day.

Fast forward again to Thursday, September 21st, 2017. OB/GYN appointmnet. Doc comes in and says, "Honor, you've gained over 70 pounds since you came in last year, what the hell happened?"

Ouch. That hurt.

He said, "I thought you wanted to have a baby?" Oh...I don't know doc. I'm getting older now, and I just feel like it's not in the cards for me. He says, "You're 33...you are not too old, stop using that as an excuse. And it doesn't matter, you can't just gain 70 pounds in a year. You're killing your body and confusing the hell out of it" (Yes, this is how my doc talks to me. And I Love it! Honesty, even if it's brutal, lol) He listened to me. He let me cry about my own frustrations and stressors and straight up titty baby excuses. I left that office in tears, and ashamed of myself. But with a resolve to make a change. 2 days later I did an outdoor session for some friends of mine. At a big park in Jackson. It was a million degrees outside and I seriously may have had a heat stroke that day. I had the worst migraine for the rest of the day and I was straight up miserable. I KNEW that was it. I didn't eat anything until lunch that day. I was at Olive Garden with those same friends and my cousin. I ate normally for lunch. I went home and I cried myself to sleep. I slept half of the afternoon. And I woke up on a mission. I found out about a weightloss challenge that started that same day on Facebook and it was after the cut off to get into it. I messaged the person running it and she agreed to let me join. I was in! It was a new beginning! I was ready to go. Saturday, September 23rd, 2017...attempt #3 had begun. Except this time is wasn't an attempt. This time, I KNEW I was going to do it differently. My focus was NOT going to be to spend hours a day, every day in the gym to lose as much as I could as fast as I could. Even though, that is a great feeling, I knew I could burn out again. This time I was making LIFESTYLE changes. LifeLONG changes. This time was going to be different.

And so far it has been completely different. I never made it past the 5 months mark...this is 6 months. Not much longer, but an accomplishment nevertheless. I did strict Keto the first 5 months and the last month or so, I've moved over to a more Low-Carb lifestyle with less restrictions and a little more freedom with my diet. I feel AMAZING. Yea, my muscles still hurt, but that's how I know I'm still doing things to push my body.

So the final results for 6 months are a 63 pound loss, and 33 inches gone! I'm super excited to see where the next 6 months take me. I remember the first mile I walked in September. I walked on my lunch break and I felt like my body was revolting. I had chafed thighs and blisters when I was done. I remember almost crying while I was walking because it took everything in me to keep going. Yesterday, I walked to the end of our road here at work. It ended up being 2.34 miles. I started my walk with blisters on my feet, so needless to say, I was hurting when I got back. BUT, I was not out of breath and feeling defeated. Nope, I was VICTORIOUS! I'm well on my way to being able to walk a 5k! And I'm SOOOO happy!!