The first 90 days of my weight loss journey…

So, as some of you may know, I’ve been working out lately. In March 2013 I hit my all-time heaviest weight of 236 pounds. I was miserable. I hated the way I looked, I felt so bloated, I wasn’t happy, I couldn’t bend over to tie my shoes, I hated being around my husband because I was embarrassed of how I looked. But I didn’t care enough to change anything about it.

I loved to eat and I loved to eat all the wrong things. And way too much of the wrong things. I downloaded the myfitnesspal app and started counting my calories. I told it that I wanted to lose 2 pounds a week and it told me that I shouldn’t go over 1200 net calories. Just for the heck of it, I counted up how much I had been eating…Starbuck’s for breakfast and coffee, snack at work, out to eat for lunch, another snack, and then dinner. And then maybe another nighttime snack. 🙂 It was easily over 5,000 calories a day. That scared me. No wonder I had been piling on the pounds.

It was a combination of different things that finally motivated me enough to want to change.  In February, my nephew was diagnosed with brain cancer.  Soon after that, my great aunt was was diagnosed with cancer for the 2nd time.  Then my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer.  I was asked to be in a wedding in November 2013 and really wanted to look good for it.  I was tired of buying bigger and bigger clothes.  I just wanted to feel good and actually look good.  I wanted my husband’s eyes to light up when I walked by him like they do when Jennifer Aniston is on tv!  Then my great aunt and grandmother passed away and I was told I was no longer going to be in the wedding in November 2013…  It just motivated me even more.  I needed to do this for me, not for anyone else.  I needed to be as healthy as I could so that I can be here for my kids and their kids.  And not just be here; I needed to be able to actually run around with them.

So, I started out just by watching what I was eating.  I tried to start running again but running on my already bad knees was not a good idea with all that weight.  My shins wouldn’t stop hurting and I just couldn’t do it yet.  So, I was going to try to lose some weight through portion control first.  Then my sister-in-law and her friend and I did a little summer challenge – whoever lost the most percentage of weight from May-August would win the pot of money.  Then someone I went to school with created a Facebook 90 Day Summer Challenge Group.  I joined it, not really knowing what I was getting into.  The only stipulation was that you had to do a 90 day workout program (like P90X or something).  I looked on the Beachbody website (which is the company who created P90X) and looked for some other ideas.  I had bought Turbo Jam back in 2008 and lost weight from it back then and really enjoyed it.  So, I decided to buy TurboFire and try it out.  I started on June 3rd with the following measurements:

Weight: 226
Smallest part of waist: 41″
Hips: 48.5″
Chest: 40″
Bicep: 14.5″
Thigh: 27″

I really enjoyed TurboFire.  I love Chalean Johnson, the music was awesome, and there was a variety of workouts.  The HIIT workouts were short, which were awesome, but they were intense.  The longer workouts were fun and made you sweat too.  I really got into eating healthy and am slowly trying to eliminate all processed foods from my diet.  The food has been the toughest for me because I always went back for seconds and thirds.  It is a lot easier now, though.  I have much more control!

I have debated on posting these pictures, but I figured it will help keep me accountable.  And seeing other peoples pictures helps motivate me, too, so I figured I would go ahead.

Here are my 90 day measurements:

Weight: 198 (loss of 28 pounds)
Smallest part of waist: 35.5″ (loss of 5.5″)
Hips: 42.5″ (loss of 6″)
Chest: 35″ (loss of 5″)
Bicep: 13″ (loss of 1.5″)
Thigh: 24″ (loss of 3″)

I was so excited when I saw this picture because I could actually start to see the muscles in my biceps!  I’ve never had muscles that I could see and I can’t wait to see more!

My goal weight is 150, or whatever I need to weigh to comfortably fit into my size 8 jeans.  I can tell I have more muscle than I ever have before, which weighs more than fat, so I don’t know if I’ll get that low again.  Which is fine with me…I just want to wear my old clothes!  I have a space in my closet to keep clothes that are too big now…I’ve never had that problem before!  It’s such a good feeling to be able to put on clothes that haven’t fit in so long.

I’m going to technically start Insanity today (even though I’ve been doing it some for a week now).  I know I will get good results with it because of how insane the workouts already are.  Thinking back now, it seems like the TurboFire workouts were a piece of cake compared to Insanity.  But I’ll get through it.  Then maybe do another round of Insanity or P90X to get some muscles.  I don’t know what my plan will be after this.  But I do know that I’m never going back to what I was before!

Stay tuned…