My Journey

This was me back in 2009. This is me unhappy (can’t you tell by my face??). This is me at my heaviest. This is me thinking that I was being healthy by eating Lean Pocket Pizza pockets daily, no veggies, chugging Diet DP like it WAS water, lifting weights (if you even want to call it that) once a week, and frolicking on the elliptical if and when I felt like doing cardio.

  

My already double digit jeans were tttiiiiigggghhhtttt and begging me for an even bigger size. My cheeks looked like I was playing chubby bunny all day. I tried Hydroxy cut for a while (mom, don’t be mad) and was disappointed when I popped those pills day after day, didn‘t change my habits, and STILL didn’t see any results and I was mystified (insert sarcasm here). I even went through a phase (while working night shift) where I didn’t eat hardly anything. I drank NO water, ate 2 toaster strudels for dinner, and 1 tortilla or granola bar while I worked. Did I lose weight? Yes but I felt terrible, I was irritable, my skin was a grease pit, I had no energy, and I was soft. It didn’t’ matter that I was a few pounds lighter, I was hating myself. I hated that since I was am an athlete, specifically a weight lifter, that I just stopped caring. I used to write people diet plans and got a degree in Nutritional Science from Texas A&M for heaven’s sake and I should KNOW better! I KNEW better but I let my job be my excuse. I let stress get to me in all of the wrong ways. I even let myself think,”Well, I’m married and we plan to have kids so I will get big anyways.” Who thinks like that???? Sound familiar to anyone out there? Stress, marriage, job?

It was February 2 years ago when I saw an Oxygen magazine with yet another ridiculously chiseled woman on the front making me want to chug my Diet DP and eat my woes away even more. I opened it and started reading and found an article from Tosca Reno. She’s a 50 something BEAUTY with a body that I would kill for NOW. I read through her own personal story and her eating clean philosophy and that is when I made my decision. I decided for myself that I wanted to be better for my family, for my future children, for my husband, but most of all, for ME. It was then that I decided to create myself. I bought almost all of Tosca’s The Eat Clean Diet cookbooks, I stopped drinking Diet DP, I subscribed to Oxygen magazine, I cleaned out my pantry and got rid of processed foods (small tear when I threw away my box of frozen Lean Pocket pizza pockets), and I started a food journal on my phone that I emailed to my MOTHER at the end of every day. She became my accountability partner. I knew my husband wouldn’t care if I told him that I ate a handful of Sour Patch kids but if I had to tell my mother that?????!!!! Knowing that I had to email my mom at the end of the day, stopped me from eating many a cupcake and pizza! For 6 months, I emailed my mom at the end of every day detailing what I had eaten for the day, how much water I had drank, and what I did for exercise. In just 6 months, I lost almost 20 lbs. (You can see my most recent progress pictures on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/BeAFitFox)

Since then, I’ve found BodyRock (gotta love 12 minute workouts!), I’ve completed 3 half marathons, I prep my meals for the week on Sundays, I’m the crazy lady getting on the plane with a cooler, I now have a job (with the same company) that I enjoy, I am in love with my husband more today than I was the day I married him (stop rolling your eyes, it’s true), and I love myself. That’s the most important part. I love me. Because I finally love myself, I have found that I am happier and all around nicer to the people that mean the most to me (mainly my mom, dad, sister, brother, and husband that had to deal with me).

But I’m not done yet………..I’m still creating myself. I have new goals. I am pushing myself harder. I am eating cleaner. I am drinking so much water that my pee is nearly clear (I probably should’ve left that part out). I am still a work in progress, under construction, creating myself, however you want to put it.

July 23 rd, 2012 marked Day 1 Week 1 of the Get in Shape Girl’s 12 week bikini guide and I’ve done enough push ups, pull ups, and burpees that my husband had to ask if I showered in my gym clothes (I did not, mind you). https://beafitfox.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/my-starting-stats-photos-and-the-winner-winner-chicken-dinner/

I encourage you to ask yourself what you want. Ask yourself who you want to be and do it. Stop making your job, your family, your stress, your “I can’t change the way I look because it’s in my genes and I am just built that way” thoughts your excuses, and make the change today.

I know you can, heck I am sure your friends and your family know you can but do you? Do you KNOW, do you BELIEVE that you can do it? It starts there and never stops. You will be a constant, beautiful creation.

As always, eat clean, pump some iron, and be a Fit Fox!