This has been a struggle for me most of my adult life - chalk it up to laziness, enjoying the brewskis too much, enjoying good food even more, lack of motivation, lack of time, money, etc. I could probably publish a novel with all of the excuses I've used over time as to why I couldn't work out and the justification to eat/drink whatever I felt like. I would never have been labeled obese...but most definitely overweight.
I first joined a gym back in 2000. At the time, the company I was working for had moved into a new building and a new gym was put in there. It took a while to find my groove...but midway through 2001 I lost weight...actually over a period of three months in the second half of that year, I lost about 50 lbs. as well as finally got smart and left my ex-boyfriend (so I guess all told, you could say I lost over 200 lbs. that year).
Since 2000, I have always had a gym membership somewhere (the majority of that time was Lifestyles for Ladies Only, but I eventually gave that up as many of you Toledo-area ladies know the drama with that place) and for the most part, I really didn't pile the pounds back on. Nope. It was more of a steady, very slow weight kind that kinda crept on me and then all of a sudden, it was like "what the hell happened to me????" I have an excuse for that, I really do! I blame some of that on my husband. You all know how it is...that whole 'comfort' thing. Where you meet someone (we met in 2006) and you're still looking pretty darn good, but over the course of that relationship, you grow comfortable with one another, and then gradually, the pounds start coming back. Now mind you, I did still hit the gym on occasion...but often I chose to spend time with my new love and socializing (in our early days, we had quite the full social calendar).
We got married in August of 2008...you would have thought squeezing into a wedding dress would have been great motivation to hit the gym, right? Um. No. Apparently wasn't enough for me. I mean, I thought it was...and honestly I was in the gym religiously...almost daily. But it didn't happen. I have pictures of the back fat being proudly displayed in my halter-style wedding dress.
Over the next couple of years, my weight seemed to have gone down a little...actually, I think in 2010, I made some progress. Then I started a new job (my current job) September of that year. That hurt the waistline my weight crept up to around 178 lbs. (I think back in 2000, before joining a gym, I was actually close to 190)....despite the fact we had a nice new gym, free even, right there in the building. I was slowly expanding again. We started a Weight Watchers at Work program, and I joined. And in the first couple of weeks following that diet, it seemed I was starving all the time, but darnit - I lost a few pounds! And then...a month and a half, not even that much time actually, after starting that new job, I found out I was pregnant. So much for weight loss!
I vowed with my pregnancy that I would continue working out! And I tried! But darnit...I got to a point where every time I tried the cardio machines, I had to jump off every five minutes to pee! And then I just got so busy with work. And a pregnant woman's gotta eat, right? I have huge regret that I did not continue working out. I developed gestational diabetes (I actually question that diagnosis, but whatev) and towards the end of my pregnancy, walking was a chore. It was bad. I topped out somewhere around 210 or above (I quit looking, didn't want to know).
Let me tell you - being a new mom gave me a whole new set of excuses as to why I couldn't work out, or not workout as frequently! My diet got horrible (pretty much a grab what I could when I could kinda thing)! It was just bad...but those maternity clothes kinda got comfy! I returned to work two months after having Stella and was probably around 186 lbs. Between August of last year and May of this year, I dropped another 10. My husband decided early on in the year that he was going to start training for triathlons...and that was a little motivation for me (wouldn't look good for the wife of a triathlete to be a dumpy fatass, would it?).
And then...in May, I had an unexpected day off work - I had a regularly scheduled doctor appointment that morning and had planned to go into work after. But daycare called, Stella wasn't feeling good, picked her up, got her to do the docs (double ear infection followed up later that day by the start of hand foot and mouth disease). While she was napping that afternoon, I headed out to try on bathing suits since I had planned to start her in swim classes. And for some reason, that was the final motivation I needed.
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