Elle asked me to post before and after photos. I figured I'd include my story too since I'm home today with some spare time.
I grew up in the deep fried South. Most of my family is overweight. I was lucky enough to be average size most of my life. I recall my Mom yo-yo dieting pretty much all my life. My Dad was a regional salesman for a music company so he was on the road travelling a lot. He had a pretty unhealthy diet and was quite sedentary. My mom has heart issues and has had two knee surgeries. Both due to weight. My Dad was diabetic and lost all his teeth before he passed away from lung cancer a couple of years ago.
When I was little we'd go on road trips. We'd visit national parks and such. We'd always find the closest parking spot and walk just to the areas that were easily accessible. No hiking or real work put into seeing the sights. I was never into being an athlete at any point in my life. Physical activity wasn't something that was important.
After the birth of my gorgeous son in 2006 I started to slowly put on the weight. I went from a size 8 up to I'd say around a size 14 maybe even 16 within a few years. It was gradual and I noticed it but then again I didn't. We went out to eat all the time. We too were fairly sedentary. We'd take our son to play or to take walks but never spent a lot of extra time being active. I recall trying to join the local YMCA when my son was around 1. The trainer I met with at the time made me feel so utterly awful about myself that I refused to step foot back in there again.
In 2011 I participated in a 5k WALK with friends. I remember it taking about a hour to complete. I remember thinking all the runners passing me were batshit crazy!
This wasn't me at my biggest. I shyed away from the camera and was the one taking most of the photos. Here's a rare glimpse post hike...of which I huffed and puffed my way up hills.
Shortly after this I found myself hooked up to heart rate monitors in my doctor's office after having chest pains and erratic heart beat. I was scared. I looked at my hubby and said "I have to change. I'm following in the footsteps of my parents." I started paying attention to the food we ate. It took around 6 months more before I decided I wanted to try working out. I started with Jillian Micheal's DVDs in my living room! Me and my little pink baby weights were BFFS several mornings a week while my guys still slept. I dedicated myself and started seeing/feeling results.
I started using the apartment fitness center cardio machines and turned into a cardio queen. I LOVED the big burns. All I cared about was a lower number on the scale. I dropped down to about 105 pounds at my lowest. I had a friend mistake me as a tall child from behind. Grossly enough, I was excited by this for a while!
I took up running and got super into it fast. I found out I am actually not a sucky runner! FINALLY! Something I was good at! Running is still a great love of mine...I just know that when I start upping the mileage, I start losing my gainz...anyway..jumping ahead here...sorry!
I ended up feeling puny all the time. I decided I want to try putting on some muscle. I fell in love with weight lifting. I found out I'm a VERY hard muscle gainer. Keep in mind, I was still running all the time on top of lifting. I kept this up for a few years. Saw my body changing. Felt pretty good.
We moved to WA a couple of years ago and I decided to finally try crossfit. I never found a box where I felt like I "fit in". I always felt like an outsider. I also was still running/training for races and I hated that the wods were kept secret til the day of. It was hard for me to plan my training around their programming. I stopped going to the box. I'd still hit some wods with my girlfriends in their garages when I could but mostly I focused on typical gym rat lifting/running.
Fast forward year before last. I went from hitting my deadlift PR and running 6 miles without thinking about it to not being able to walk my kid to school...all within a couple of days! I got hit with adrenal fatigue and had to take some major time off. I did gentle yoga and walking...that was it! Everything else exhausted me and left me totally tanked. I was pissed off and scared! It took about 6 months before I could even attempt lifting or running again.
Recently I started gaining weight again. Woke up one day and was 135. I'd gotten really lax with my eating and even though I was still training, I was packing on the fat. Started tracking my macros several months ago. Here's a recent photo....Thanks for sticking with this long ass story if you did!
