Allow me to share my journey to health with you!  It is a multi part story that will likely resonate with many of you, especially if you have children, anxiety, ADD, chronic health issues.

We think we shed a lot of the issues we go through as kids and teens when we mature, but so many get carried with us.  Some even creep up on us as adults when they weren’t much of an issue for us as kids.

That is definitely the case with me.  I am about to get very real with y’all!

First, my story with regards to my weight loss struggle.

I was Skinny my entire life.  When I say skinny, I mean SKINNY!  My grandmother used to call me a long, tall drink of water.  I was taller than most girls when I was in my pre-teens and skinny as a pole!  Eventually my growth stopped with regards to height and it seemed to stop with regards to weight as well.  I topped out at the age of 18 at 5′ 6″ and 110 lbs.  I looked way too thin.  Yet no matter how much I tried, no matter how much I ate I didn’t gain weight.

Fast forward several years and several children later….no real change.  After having four children I was still pretty much as thin as ever.  I think after my fourth child I was around 120 lbs but that was about it.  I would gain a bunch of weight while pregnant but it would melt away about 3 months after giving birth.

I would eat and eat…anything and everything…and never gain an ounce.  I tried!  I didn’t want to look so skinny!  But nothing worked.

I didn't want to look so skinny! But nothing worked. #faithfullyfit
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My mother used to watch me eat and say, “Wait until you’re around 35…you won’t be able to eat like that anymore!”

Watch out…when your mother says that it is just like when she says “I hope one day you have a child that acts just like you act!”….it comes to pass!

I hit 35 and after my fifth child…the weight didn’t come off like it did the other four.  For the first time in my life, I experienced true weight gain!  Part of me liked it, but part of me didn’t because I realized…it was now continuing to happen even after I had my fifth child.  I went from a size 5 to an 8 to a 10.  Then I had my sixth child.

Then I went to a 12.  Then I had my 7th and last child and I was up to a size 16.  And from there I would teeter between a 16 and a 14…once even going up as high as a size 18!

Why did I get this way??  What happened that made me go SO far in the other direction!?

Why did I get this way?? What happened that made me go SO far in the other direction!?
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Two words: Bad habits!

During my entire skinny life, I had developed bad habits.  I didn’t have to watch what I ate and I had a mean sweet tooth!!  Fast food was a rare treat but one I indulged in as much as I could when I did have it!

Exercise?  HA!  What was that!?  The only exercise I had was after child number five and six….I co-owned a martial arts school and worked out there doing TKD and Kickboxing.  It did help.  I lost some weight but then when I got out of that business in 2004, I gained weight right away.  Why?  My habits never changed.  I still ate poorly and I had a sedentary job with no exercise now in my life.

I tried Diet after diet, once even getting down to my ideal weight range!  But I would bounce back again and gain it back because the diets I was on weren’t ideal for long term change.  They were diets.  They weren’t changing my habits.  They were short term fixes.

They were diets. They weren't changing my habits. #faithfullyfit
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Fast forward again to 2014 and I decided to have liposuction.  I had my stomach done, my outer thighs, my lower back and I had a fat transfer to my rear end because I had always had a flat butt.  I wanted to give it some shape.

But I knew lipo was not for weight loss.  It was body shaping.  And while I wouldn’t gain weight back in the spots I had the lipo on (unless I gained a LOT of weight), it wasn’t going to stop me from gaining weight in every other area of my body.  So I knew, now that I got this head start, that I needed to do something life and habit altering.

My niece had become a Beachbody coach and invited me to a clean eating group.  I learned about eating clean for the first time.  It wasn’t a diet.  It was changing how you view food and how to change bad habits.  I needed that!  So I signed up as a coach!  It was FABULOUS!!  I was losing a LOT of weight and I felt better than ever!!  I was motivating people too and I loved that!! I wanted to help people who struggled the way I did!

But then something happened.  I had developed cysts on my back from a complication from my lipo.  I couldn’t work out, I was in extreme pain because I have a back condition called spondylolisthesis and the cysts were causing such bad nerve pain on top of the pain in the skin.  I had to quit my job and I had to stop working out.  I fell away from Beachbody and gained the weight back that I had worked so hard to lose.  And while I didn’t gain it back where I had the lipo…I gained it back in other places.

I was back to square one.  I was miserable and I was back where I started, just different spots.

Over time I healed.  The cysts had burst and it took me over a year to heal from that alone.  It was a long, painful and depressing process.

Several months ago, I got in touch with a friend from high school.  My niece was no longer doing Beachbody and my friend Kathryn was a coach and she was so positive and motivating.  I told her that I wanted back in.  Beachbody was the ONLY thing that ever worked for me.  I had tried everything else.  I wasn’t in the mood for diets and quick fixes that didn’t last.  I wanted long term lifestyle changes.  I wanted to eat clean and I wanted workouts I would actually do!  I wasn’t going to go to the gym.  I knew I wasn’t because my life was so hectic and I would get exhausted by the end of the day.  I needed workouts I could do at home and that I enjoyed.

It wasn’t just about losing weight.  It was about taking care of the body God gave me.  I was feeding it complete and utter junk.  I wasn’t being a good steward of all He has blessed me with.  It was time to change!

It wasn't just about losing weight. It was about taking care of the body God gave me.
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And that is where my story begins again………but it doesn’t come without struggles.  I will share my struggles and my success!  I will share my faith and how it helps me to get healthier!  It’s not about looking good anymore, it’s about being healthy!  And I will share my journey toward my personal training certification!!  I want to help people, both in their faith and in their fitness journey!!

I wasn't being a good steward of all He has blessed me with. #faithfullyfit #proverbs31
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Next post Coming Soon – General Anxiety & the Role It Plays In My Weight Loss Journey & My Faith

The post My Journey to Health – Part One: My Story appeared first on Worth Beyond Rubies.