This past year has been a struggle weight-wise. Much more than what I would like to admit.
In 2014 I was living in Australia, did my first DietBet, and got down to my lowest/healthiest weight since high school. I was at a weight where I could no longer do another DietBet because, while I could lose weight if I wanted to, I was small enough that I couldn't lose 4% of my body weight in four weeks.
In Australia I was a nanny so being fit was easy. When the baby napped, I did Insanity. When the baby was awake, we walked. A lot. At least 3 miles daily. Usually 5-7. Because I didn't have a car so anywhere we needed to go whether it be the park, the library, the store, swimming lessons, or the bus to go to the beach...it was always at least a 1.5 mile walk one way.
And then actually being at the park or the pool, I was chasing around a baby and throwing him in the air and catching him and crawling through dirt. It was nonstop movement.
When I finished doing the entirety of Insanity, my workout routine shifted to not doing as much working out while the baby napped but waiting until his parents got home and then I would run three miles and go to the gym to do weights.
But then I got back to the United States. And I wanted to treat myself with all the foods that I had not had in forever. So I had jumbo margaritas every time I went to a Mexican restaurant. And chips with choriqueso. Arroz con pollo drenched in cheese dip.
I then started hanging out with my now boyfriend. He has a six pack. Very muscular. But it's because he works construction and is a break dancer and I would eat whatever he wanted to eat.
So we would go get Buffalo Wild Wings and french fries with lots of blue cheese and ranch dressing. And every time we rented a Red Box movie we would split a six pack of beer. Which is a lot of calories. And we would eat popcorn. And chocolate covered pretzels. And it became such a routine.
Then when he went to work out of state, I stayed with his dad's wife for a few months. She is a wonderful cook but to fry an egg, rather than lightly spraying the pan as I do, she fills the pan with oil and cooks the egg in that. And they are Mexican so every meal was accompanied by A LOT of tortillas.
And I just fell into this perpetual hole of bad eating habits without going to the gym very frequently.
To top that off I got a sedentary job in April. And I fell into that hole too. Most my coworkers are latino so every week we have someone bringing tamales, quesadillas, empanadas, candies from their native country, baked goods from their native country, etc etc. And not to mention the fact that multiple times a week there are tons of donuts and cookies in the kitchenette.
And it's like a drug because the more you do, the weaker your ability to say no becomes.
And one day I realized that all of my jeans didn't fit me anymore. And I just sat there and cried to my boyfriend because obviously this was not an overnight change. I knew what I was doing but I just kept doing it. My resolve was super weak and I didn't care enough to change it.
But not anymore.
I joined two DietBets, a Transformer and January Jump Start and I am down 5 lbs in two weeks. I am tracking EVERYTHING I eat in MyFitnessPal. I am no longer eating any sweets because I have no self control with sweets. I have cut off alcohol to help speed up my metabolism and cut out empty calories.
I started doing Insanity again - Month 2 right off the bat. I've noticed that I am way worse at Insanity than I used to be but I am pushing through and sweating and noticing changes.
I feel good and I can do this. We all can. No matter how far you fall, you can still get back on it!