My weight loss story and what's working for me

I’ve always struggled with my weight.  I have seen the scale go up and down my entire life.  I am by no means a weight loss or fitness expert, but I know some things that have instrumental to my success and I know a big key for me is fun.

When I moved away to grad school I finally made the decision to get serious about becoming a happier and healthier person. I had a fantastic support system, with friends to join me for kickboxing, friends to get up with for 6am Spin class, and friends to push me through the class that made all the difference – Core Circuit Training.

With great support, a class that pushed me to try everything and push as hard as I could, and determination, I was able to successfully lose 50 pounds.  I kept up that healthy lifestyle until graduation.

Summer 2008

After I returned home, I had no gym, no classes, no fantastic groups of friends to enjoy working out with, and I slipped back into old habits. I struggled   to keep myself from going too far off track until my wedding day in 2010.  

After I successfully fit into that dress, all bets were off!  

When we found out we were going to have our first child three months later, I was already gaining weight at a rapid pace.  I gained 70 pounds with that pregnancy and never managed to lose much before finding out we were having a second child.  (In all honesty, about six months after my son was born, I decided it would be easier to have a second than to lose the weight.)

When my daughter was 6 months old, I decided to get completely serious about making a healthy lifestyle and modeling healthy habits for my children.  Through a commitment to doing this for my kids and all the support I've found through social media, with dietbets, myfitnesspal, and runkeeper, I have lost 40 pounds.                                                                       

My goal is to create what I had when I was so successful in grad school.  I no longer have the benefit of having a great recreation center without a great cost.  Not only is the money of a gym membership limiting, but getting to the gym is limiting as well.  I also haven’t found any classes like the core circuit class I loved so much.

Let me tell you some of the things that have helped me so far.

·       Writing.  Writing on the blog, tracking onMyFitnessPal, and reading the writing of others has made a world of difference!  I get such inspiration from reading about people struggling with weight loss, people who are fitness fanatics and totally motivating, and people who have all sorts of great recipes and dietary information to share.

·       Dietbets. This has been sucha great thing for me!  I am incredibly cheap and I WILL NOT lose money based on something I can control like losing 8% of my body weight in 4 weeks!  I do have to say that this is only good as a short-term goal, and I have a tendency to give myself too much of a break between bets, but I stay right on and motivated when I’m in a dietbet.  It helps me stay focused and build those healthy habits. In case you're wondering, I have won 16 dietbets and play multiples at once.  I have also won $278.91 and lost 21.2 pounds since my first dietbet.  Read more about my dietbet tips and join my Lean and Mean in 2014 dietbet starting on the 1st of the year!

·       Social Media. A whole new world has been opened up to me with Twitter! Why did I take so long???  I also find a lot of motivation from Pinterest and Instagram, but Twitter is amazing!  I have been able to follow some amazingly insprational people and have found some great challenges throughTwitter.  I’m participating in#Elf4Health, #12daysoffitness, and the #sweatpink and #runnerbox challenge.  They have all been great, especially Elf for Health, and the people I have met and been supported by are amazing.  Also, how did I ever live without Twitter parties?!  I love the #justcrunchemtwitter party during Biggest Loser and have won two prizes from Grimmway Farms, and I almost crashed my car when I learned I won a Polar Loop from a Fitfluential twitter party!!!  I learn so much and meet such fantastic people, and it’s opened a whole new world to me!

·       Running.  I can’t believe I can say I enjoy running!  I was the girl that dreading running the mile in gym class and the first time I ever completed one was in 2007!  I started this past Spring with Couch to 5K and ran my first 5K at the end of the summer. I actually enjoy running now and want to run!  Amazing!

·       Cooking/finding new foods.  When I lost weight the first time around, I lived alone and ate the same things most days: cooked cauliflower, salads, eggs, and 100 calorie packs.  That’s about it.  Now, I have a family to cook for and I have to be a lot more creative.  I've found a lot of great things that are healthy for me and the family and I've shared a lot of them because they've been so successful for me.

·       Quick home workouts.  This is something I’m working on, but I’m making an effort to get in quick workouts when I can.  The challenges I mentioned before help and I've been doing things with the kids.  We've done kids yoga, quick pyramid workouts, and videos.  I’m learning, but I learn a lot from the people I've met and hope to get better at this one!

Last, because they're so important and because I love linking up with Katie each week, here are some of my non-scale victories from this past year: more energy for my kiddos, healthy and balanced meals are the norm, I actually want to exercise, I'm fitting back into old clothes, I don't hide out from social situations like I did when I was ashamed of my size, I'm involving myself in interests that support my healthy changes, and I feel so much better about myself.

Ok, there is my novel for the day.  If you made it through, thank you!  What are your tips, and what are you becoming an expert in?  Have you done adietbet?  Do you follow me on Twitter,and which is your favorite form of social media?