So many reasons...

I follow a guy named Ralph Marston on Twitter (@Ralphmarston). He calls himself "The Daily Motivator". I checked my Twitter yesterday and found a quote by him that said:

"To win the race, know why you're racing."

So it got me thinking about why I'm on this journey! I guess there are many reasons.. some more important than others.. some are just little things that make me feel better! I know there are more and I will continue to add to this list, but for now, here ya go.

1. To love who/what I see when I look in the mirror.
2. To not constantly worry if my size will affect what I'm able to do.
3. To be comfortable with my body.
4. To not be forced to buy an extra plane ticket.
5. To not have to request a seat belt extension on a plane.
6. To fall in love (I don't think any guy should have to love a 450lb woman)
7. To be able to wrap a normal size towel all the way around my body.
8. To just be healthy.
9. To not think about the possibilities of heart attack, stroke or diabetes.
10. To not have random strangers feel the need to ridicule me.
11. To live the life I want to.
12. To shop in any clothing store that I want to.

Plateau

In May of this year, one of my trainers, Amanda talked me into going to her Turbo Kick class! I had been in a month long plateau of losing NO weight! So I figured, "Why not??! I'll at least give it a try!!" It was possibly the best fitness decision I've made so far! Turbo took a lot out of me in the beginning, but now my stamina is beyond what I ever thought it could be! I can rock out to a whole hour and have burned as many as 1200 calories in that short hour! (And not to mention my AMAZING Turbo Kick family!!! Love them)

For the month of May, I lost 20 pounds! FINALLY out of my plateau, I thought it would be smooth sailing for a while! And that didn't happen! I'm still losing, but have only lost another 15 pounds in the past 2 months. Of course, in that time, I was away from the gym for 10 days of vacation and wasn't necessarily sticking to my strict diet because of random summer get togethers with friends!

Now, please don't think I'm trying to make excuses, cause my lack of weight loss is all on me... but I realized something yesterday that I never really thought was true!

You always hear that muscle weighs more than fat.. or what I've always thought was a super lame excuse for gaining weight or staying the same: "I must be gaining more muscle than losing fat"!! That always got on my nerves! I had just assumed that because I wasn't eating the BEST... that I wasn't losing as quickly as I want to!

That is until yesterday!! Last night was my last training session with my trainer Kendel (She's leaving for grad school.. I'm gonna miss my Kendel)! So we needed to take our measurements just to see how we did! It had only been a month since our previous measurements, but we knew there should have been a little change! Truthfully, I was just hoping I didn't gain! Yes, I had lost about 8 pounds since the last measurements, but I was SCARED! But it was time to face off with the measuring tape.....


The first numbers are from June 28th, second set from July 28th!!!

WHAT?!? Are you kidding me?!? I couldn't believe how many inches that I had lost! 17.5 inches total in just one month!!

So I guess I can't be too down on myself... I am still losing!! Now to just get the pounds rolling back down again!!

Will it ever get easier?!?

The answer: NO

Well.. technically, Yes!

I tend to ask myself a lot if exercising will ever be any easier! And I always tell myself NO! And not because I won't be getting stronger or used to the exercise I am doing, but because when it gets easier, then I know I'll have to step it up to the next level!

When I started out at 450 pounds, I really couldn't do much! I walked on the treadmill and usually around 2 miles an hour. Anything else seemed WAY too fast for me! Slowly but surely, I made it around to the bike and elliptical but still really didn't do much more than that! A friend and I took a weight training orientation and added on some weights.. yet I knew that still wasn't enough!

That's when I signed up for the Biggest Loser contest through Riverplex (my gym)! I knew it would break me out of my comfort zone of pretty much all cardio! Twice a week for ten weeks, I worked out with two trainers and my group of wonderful women! I was pushed further and further in what I could do! Push ups, sit ups, crunches, planks, lunges, squats, weights.. You name it, we did it.

At some point during this 10 weeks, one of my trainers, James, told me I was going to run the track. Wait.. WHAT?!? Me? Running?!? But with him by my side, I ran (Well, closer to a jog) as far as I could! I couldn't believe it! It was beyond what I thought I could do!

Back then, I could get to about 5 push ups and need a break... Now I can rip out 20 push ups and be ready to go! But they only expected 15 total push ups at a time. Now we do 25 or more, as many as 50! (Depending on how my trainer wants to kill me that day)

So yeah, it does get easier.. But just when you think the work out gets too easy, the intensity shoots up!!

Don't get comfortable with your work outs!!

What would you choose?!?

Its true what they say... The key to weight loss is "Calories in VS Calories out"

But that's really not ALL there is to it! 100 calories of carrots is VERY different from calories of french fries! Check out these stats.. For approx 100 calories, You could have 31g of french fries... OR ... You could have 285g of carrots! I'm not sure about you, but 31g of french fries doesn't sound all that satisfying. Of course, it might be a bit much to eat all 285g of carrots (That's over a 1/2 pound)

Let's put this into a dinner situation..

Here's what I had for dinner:

Marinated Turkey Breast
Brown Rice
Peas

Now for this RIDICULOUSLY large meal, it cost me 678 calories, 8.5g of fat, and 104mg of sodium!!!




This is the part that makes you go HMMMM?!?... I could have easily decided that I was tired from working out tonight and stopped at, let's say, Burger King. I'd probably grab a Whopper with Cheese, Large Fry, and Large Soda... But for this comparison, we can only use the Whopper with Cheese.


And here's the SCARY part... For JUST the whopper with cheese: 720 calories, 44g of fat and 1240mg of sodium. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?

Now if that doesn't help you make the decision, I'm not sure what would! Maybe the heart attack you'll have after eating a few too many of those Whoppers!!!



What would you choose?!?

I'm not in this alone!

If I had to pinpoint the one thing that has kept me going, it would definitely be all the amazing support that I have recieved.

I'm used to disappointing myself. I would always make plans to lose weight, eat healthier or even just get my life organized.. By not doing it, I was only letting myself down.

But now, I have a support system. I have people from the east coast to the west coast, Alaska down to Texas, and even people over in Europe that are looking forward to me seeing this journey thru to the end. Its all too easy to give up on myself, yet there is NO way I could let down 100s of people that have done nothing but support and encourage me.

And its spread like a wild fire. I recently ran into an old friend of mine who tld me how awesome I am looking. They were so genuinly happy and proud of me. Just him saying that made me want to go lose more weight so the next time I see him, I can impress him even more.

I truly get my drive from all the support I recieve! Thank you all SOOO MUCH!!

And so it begins!!!

Hey there!

I started this blog for many reasons... Mostly to put my thoughts somewhere other than my head! Also, I wanted my people to know whats going on and how my progress is coming along!

I started this journey to a healthier me in May of 2009! I started it cause I didn't want to be a fat maid of honor at my friend's wedding. The wedding has come and gone, but I'm still going strong cause it's all about ME now! I've lost a total of 115lbs so far! I started out at 450lbs (It still hurts to say that number) and am now down to 335! I have come far, but have a LONG way to go still!