A health journey is a very personal one and it is something that will never be the same between each person. With that said this is my personal story that continues to be written. I’m telling my journey in hopes it may inspire others out there to start making more healthy choices rather than making comparisons. If you wanting to start your journey towards better health what I can tell you from personal experience is that you can read all the inspirational stories or out there but, it’s only you that can make a mental change inwardly when you are ready to move forward.
As far back as I can remember I was always overweight. Second grade was the year I really remember being different than all the other girls. My legs or tummy didn’t look the same as all the other girls in our school uniforms. I moved schools a lot and I remember hoping that there would be another girl that would look like me, so I wouldn’t stand out or at least felt comfortable making friends with her. I grew up in the age of processed neon colored foods, poptarts for breakfast, and every meal came with fries on the side. My parents fed me fruit and veggies and I ate them reluctantly. Let’s just say I could make my own choices and I didn’t make good ones. Looking back on it, I was addicted to crappy food. I never could understand why I never felt full or felt like there was a vibrant life inside of me.
Fast forward to high school. I played sports, was social and I never let my weight define what I did but I was for sure insecure about it. I soon became the heaviest weight I ever was. Then after I graduated I felt like I could have a fresh new start and try to get the weight off. That was when I joined Weight Watchers for the first time. I worked the program well and lost a good amount of weight but did not get to my goal. I still wasn’t making the best choices. The program wasn’t perfect and when I had to make the choice of spending my daily allotted points on food that was processed snack or produce I picked the snacks of course. A couple years after joining Weight Watchers I got engaged. I knew I wanted to get to my goal weight before the wedding because I wanted my wedding pictures to be always something I looked at and was proud of. I got to my goal right before our wedding but didn’t stick around for the maintenance program which means I did not become a lifetime member.
Marring a guy that has a crazy high metabolism, could eat whatever and not gain a pound, and has never once thought about having to lose weight was hard for me. I literally was eating the way he was, and my weight slowly climbed back up. Over the next couple years, I had tried different diets like the diet shakes, the three-day military diet, and even diet pills. Nothing really worked of course, and my weight got even higher, but I always had Weight Watchers in the back of my mind because it was so flexible and I could lose weight while following the program. I really wanted to lose weight before I got pregnant but that didn’t happen. I became the highest weight I had ever been in my entire life while pregnant with my son. I had a crazy surgical scare while having an emergency c-section. I knew being unhealthy may lead to more crazy health scares and I knew something had to change. I couldn’t keep living like this and start teaching my son these same bad habits I developed over all these years.
When my son was 6 weeks old I walked back into Weight Watchers. This time was different though, I told myself I wasn’t giving up and I was getting to goal and to lifetime no matter how long it took! The lifestyle eating plan had changed for the better since I was there last. Instead of fruits and vegetables costing you part of your daily points allowance they were free or 0 points. I started in incorporate fresh produce, lean protein, and less packaged food into my diet more and more. Soon my son started eating and I just started to use everything I was learning from Weight Watchers to feed him too. I rarely bought him the processed baby food and made my own for him. He became a wonderful eater and still is to this day! (That is something this mama is very proud of!) I was a very slow loser but kept going to my weekly meetings. I got to my goal weight almost two and a half years later! I went through the six week the maintenance program and made it to lifetime at goal!
A couple months later Weight Watchers magazine reached out and wanted to feature me in the magazine! A whole team of people that came to my house, I mean the works… wardrobe, hair/makeup, videographer, photographer, and editors from the magazine. It was an amazing experience! I was in the Nov/Dec 2016 issue of Weight Watchers magazine, I never thought this could be my life! (Here is my online feature from Weight Watchers)
I have now kept that 50 pounds that I lost off for over 3 years! I have never felt so good and I don’t ever want to go back to the way my body felt when I ate and treated it poorly! I consistently still go to my Weight Watchers (now WW) meetings. Because I’m lifetime at goal means I’m free, so duh, why wouldn’t I keep going to the program that totally changed my lifestyle! I have even taking my health a step further after getting to goal. I found a workout that I absolutely love and even crave call Essentrics, like I never would have thought I would say that haha! I found more naturally healthy ways to support my body even more through Young Living’s essential oils/products because anything that goes on our body should be good enough to go in our body. (read about my essential oil journey here) I’m slowly even trying to cut out more packaged/processed foods, buying organic when I can, and I’m even started making some own goods like bread with a unhybridized einkorn flour.
Everyone starts their journey at different times and I struggled with mine for a long time. Nothing worked until I mentally changed and wanted it for myself and myself only (not just to look good in wedding pictures). Your health is a journey of a lifetime. I knew that I could never give up and if I failed the next day was a fresh start. I kept going one foot in front of the other towards a healthier me, I eventually made it, and I’m still slowly making changes for the better. All those sayings that I use to roll my eyes at like “it’s the journey not the destination” or “nothing great comes easy’ or “progress not perfection” makes so much more sense to me and I fully embrace them now! If you are just starting your health journey or starting over just remember you don’t have to be perfect to be successful and never give up on yourself! This is the only body you get so make it a healthy one!
