What's your excuse?

For years I could always think of an excuse not to workout or eat right.  I had been my lowest weight in years before I got pregnant with my now six year old.  I has lost the majority of that weight by really watching what I ate and worked out very little. Honestly, if it came down to being honest I would say I was probably in not the healthiest shape, but thin at the time.  Here is a picture of me at that time.

Taken in 2006

When I got pregnant with him I had terrible morning sickness. Nothing like I ever experienced with my girls and it seems like if I ate then my sickness would stop but only for a little while.  I ended up gaining about 45 pounds with him and sadly not all of it came off.  My end weight once it was all said and done stayed at around 145 lbs.  Funny how I always had excuses.  I would say that I couldn't eat healthy because I didn't have the time and forget about working out, right? Who can workout with a little crawling around at your feet, needing to potty, running through your legs during yoga and better yet, military crawling under your body during a plank.  Those excuses went on for a few years and then we decided to have another baby.  At the end of my pregnancy with my two year old, I was absolutely the heaviest I had ever been, but this time the weight didn't want to budge at all.  I struggled for a year with crash diets and failed attempts and let's not forget the excuses.

When I finally decided to turn my life around I was my heaviest ever.  I was between 162-163 pounds, was out of shape, on depression meds, blood pressure meds,  heart meds.  You name it and chances are I was on it.  I knew that I had to do something because I wasn't as young as I once was and all this extra weight and lack of exercise was starting to take a toll on my body.  I wasn't able to enjoy my kids like I wanted, I was always tired and dragging and forget about going outside for activities.

One day it hit me that it was time for a change.  That's when I ended up at the hospital with my heart going crazy and it scared me to DEATH.  I couldn't imagine being taken away from my kids with a heart attack when it was something that I could easily  prevent by changing my eating habits and working out.

Taken in June 2013

When I first started working out, I took it easy. I would walk a few miles a day and I gradually increased what I was doing. I started jogging some and then walking.  At the time my oldest son was four years old and in Pre-K so my little guy would go in the jogging stroller.  I did this for a few months and then school was out.  Instead of thinking of excuses I got us a three month pass to our local gym.  This allowed me to work out and then afterwards I would take the boys swimming.

At the time I had no idea what I was doing. I would do a little cardio and lift a little but I wasn't seeing results that I had really wanted. I had also changed my food choices since we all know that most change you see will happen in the kitchen.  Although I wasn't seeing a change I was creating a habit.  You know they say it takes 21 days to create a habit and that's what I was doing during that three months of hitting the gym pretty much five days a week.

Fast forward to my gym membership coming to end.  I knew I had to find a program that I could do at home.  I knew I loved lifting weights so I went with that route and chose Chalean Extreme.  You can see my results HERE:  Remember how I said I could always find an excuse? Who could workout with little ones under your feet?  Let me say that where there is a will, there is a way.  I looked forward to pushing play every day. I would either do this during my little guys nap or he would would play at my feet.  Sure there have been times over the past 11 months that I have had to hit the pause button or even completely stop a workout and go back to it, but in the end  I can say that I am achieving my goal of health and fitness.

I have set goals for myself that I want to achieve this year and while I haven't reached all of them, I have reached some of them.  For example, one of my goals was to complete P90X this year.  I purchased this program for my husband several years ago and neither one of us had ever finished, but I was determined.  I started in February and finished it.  Ended with pretty good results.  So that is one goal I can cross off my list this year.  Here are my 60 days photos from that program.  I was lazy and forgot to do 90 and went on to another program:

I guess is what I'm trying to say through all this is, as long as you can think of an excuse and that excuse wins then maybe you aren't 100% ready for a life change, or maybe you need encouragement.  I was seriously lost in what I needed to do.  During this journey I chose to become a Beachbody Coach because my coach has had such a positive impact in my life.  I love the fact that I can help people daily to achieve their goals and improve their health!

Oh and for the record.  My boys (2 and 6) still climb under me during workouts, they put up their Imaginext castles all around me, but the greatest feeling in the world is when I look over and see them working out with me.  Makes me feel on top of the world knowing that I am teaching my boys at such an early age that eating right and working out is important.

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