Thanks for taking the time to read my first post. Quite a few people have asked me about my weight
loss journey so I decided what better way to get the information out than to
start a blog. I want to start with my background…..
These jeans are rather tight……
I have always been a “thick” girl as black women like to
call it, and I have lost weight at various points of my life but I always
gained some of it back. My lowest clothes size was a size 12 around my
sophomore/junior year of college. The summer before my final year of college I
came home to help take care of my aunt and run errands for my grandmother. That
meant day after day of fast food lunch, energy drinks, sodas, and sweets. By
the end of the summer I was back into a 14. Then the stresses of Senior year
kicked in along with the weekly phone calls about my aunts medical setbacks. I
was stressed, depressed, and continuously putting on weight. When graduation came around, I was not so
easily squeezing into a 16.
Workplace weight gain…..
I started my new job a month after I returned home from
Gainesville. Much like the majority of cubicle dwellers, my lunches consisted
of high sodium frozen dinners or chicken tenders and fries from the cafeteria.
There was also mid-afternoon Oreo's for a snack, and Mt. Dew for caffeine when
that 2pm dragging feeling started. Since cooking dinner was not a priority,
dinner most nights was a turkey sandwich, chips and yet another Mt. Dew. Towards
the end of summer 2010 I was buying clothes in an 18, and I hit my highest
point of 232lbs!!! I had officially hit chunky monkey status.
But I was working out…...
The entire time I was putting on weight I was still active.
While in college, I was running stadiums and in the gym doing cardio and
strength training. During the summer I was home, I was on the track in the
mornings running. When I started working, I was in my buildings gym 4 days a
week. Sometimes I was doing an hour of cardio a day. From August 2010 to
January 2011, I had lost a total of 5 lbs. I was at a loss for words. I was always
in the gym. I was punching faster and kicking harder than anyone else at
kickboxing, but my weight wasn’t moving.
Help was on its way……
Fast Forward to June 2011. I met a guy at a work conference
that owned a nutrition store. He started telling me about low carb diets, whey
protein, and eating 5-6 small meals a day. That weekend I bought my first tub
of whey protein (shout out to my friends at Absolute Nutrition-Madison). I posted on Facebook that I was going to
start a low carb diet, because it’s not real until you post it on Facebook right, and a
fellow Gator came to the rescue with the nutrition plan she used to get into
competition shape.
Now I am starting to see results….
The next week I started my nutrition plan. Sodas? Gone!
Fried Food? Gone! Fast Food? Gone! Sugar?...you get the point. My meals now
consisted of lean protein (Tilapia and grilled chicken breast), and veggies. I
started cooking everything I was eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Snacks
were usually fruit, nuts, and veggies. I continued my same workout routines,
but this time it was combined with clean eating and protein shakes. I started
losing 2 lbs a week. By March 2012, I had lost 60 lbs and wearing a size 10. Healthy
eating has now become a necessity for me, and I LOVE challenging workouts. I
feel like a beast when I successfully make it through workouts. My alter ego is Warrior Princess. She takes over when I walk through the door of the gym. Seriously!
What’s next for me……
The scale hasn’t moved since March 2012, but I am still
doing my strength training and I am now in a size 6/8. I am now a self-proclaimed
fitness junkie, and I subscribe to Oxygen, Women’s Health, and Fitness
magazine. I also purchase Fitness Rx and Muscle and Fitness Hers every month.
These are some great magazines for recipes and workout ideas. My fitness
priority now is lowering my body fat percentage. I take a group training class at my local gym
that I LOVE, but I am still having nightmares of that Christmas Eve
workout. I am going to start incorporating
some of my old strength training back into my routine. I was introduced to
weights in HS, and I have fallen in love with the iron. It probably sounds
crazy, but the squat rack is my serenity and I really want a heavy squat.
Here’s the takeaway…
This was the introduction to my blog, and I wanted to
provide you guys with my background story hoping that you can relate and
realize that you are capable of the same journey with the same results. It just
takes hard work and discipline. You will probably never see another post this
long. Future posts will consist of recipe ideas, workouts to try, and a quick
status on how my new journey is progressing. I hope you enjoyed my first post.
Remember bikini season will be here before you know it….unless you live in
South Florida where its bikini season 90% of the year.
Next week: grocery lists, recipes and more.......
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