When I began this journey in February, February 18th to be exact, I really never thought I’d still be blogging about it. I hid the posts on a Saturday, hoping that nobody would notice that my feeble attempt at working out + when I stopped talking about it, well… no one would ask. I mean, there’s nothing worse than people pointing out that you were getting fit and then you put your ass back on the couch and gave up.
Now I sit here writing my SIXTH freaking post in this journey! I still cannot believe it.
I can’t believe I’ve made it this far…
I can’t believe I continue to go day after day, even when it’s hard….
and y’all it’s so stinking hard every. single. day!
I can’t believe that I actually fell in love with working out….
Mostly, I can’t believe it’s actually worked!!
I shared the first time I got measured with you at the end of February, 2 weeks after I began working out.
I was the heaviest I’d ever been, minus when I carried my two children for 10 months and they stretched out every ounce of skin on my body. I didn’t like the way I felt about myself. I wasn’t confident and I felt like everyone could see all the same inconsistencies that I could see in every picture I would post. Yet, I continued to take those pictures day after day long before I got off my ass and actually started to do something to make a change. For myself… for my children to see the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Back to that date in February. I shared with you my beginning measurements, even though I almost deleted them after the post went live, and I’ve continued to do so each month.
| Handstands with the TRX and the Boce Ball|
Along this journey, I’ve been open about my struggles, frustrations and how hard it’s been to make this lifestyle change. I still have days where I’m the last one to finish our sprints or that I really am the last one to finish anytime running is involved, but I’m trying to look at it all from a different perspective. I’m trying to remember that it’s not when you finish, but just that you finish and do it with a smile on your face. I will tell you that smiling is the worst part, but the most important part because that’s the moment you remind yourself that you did it. It hurt, you’re in pain, you completely pushed yourself and you finished!
| Handstands with the TRX, almost all the way up |
Last month I shared how for the first time I felt exhilarated and excited by the loss I was beginning to see. Instead of it coming off 1/4 in here and there, I felt I really shed a few inches, which resulted in a total loss of 7inches since I started working out. 7 inches in 5 months. Not bad for a chick who has never enjoyed working out or really anything that involved sweating, unless it was in a bikini on a beach in Hawaii with a bottle of Maui Baby tanning oil in hand.
Despite my 6 days of “workout vacation” while I was in Chicago for BlogHer last week, I measured in this week right on time. I was so nervous! I mean, y’all I pigged out in Chicago! Yes, I did a lot of walking, but I also did a lot of Taxi riding and I was pretty sure it wasn’t looking good. That was until we started measuring. Y’all I lost another 3.25 inches this month which takes my total loss to….
10.25 inches!!!!
I mean are you shitting me?! I know it’s an all over loss, meaning that it’s from my face to my ankles, but still!!!! It’s pretty damn amazing!!! I’ve also lost almost 6lbs!!! Don’t believe me, let me show you!
Oh baby, oh baby!!! If you’re not putting on your tennis shoes and running out the door to get started, you should be!
| Push Ups with your legs up on your “exit buddy’s” back |
Ok so now that I’ve shared where I’m at in my journey, I want to touch on some of the things that I’ve changed in the last 2 months. As many of you know I began with changing my diet. I’m much more aware of what I eat and how much I eat (Chicago last weekend doesn’t count) and I’ve stopped eating dairy and sugar 90% of the time. I say 90% because, I’m human and I fail. I fail and I’ll eat a donut with my kids or enjoy Pieology with my friends and family. At first I felt guilty, but then I realized that it’s not just what we eat, but how much and how often we eat it, especially when we’re not working out at the same time.
The other thing that I’ve changed is that I started drinking Spark by Advocare on the mornings that I work out (Mon – Fri). Spark is a mostly all natural energy drink that tells your body to burn fat during your workouts. It helps me warm up faster, causes me to sweat more and what I love most is that it gives me clarity and natural energy all day long and I don’t have highs and lows I have when I drink soda and coffee. When I drink coffee, I’m tired 4 hours later, when I drink Spark, I’m good all day long. I do believe it has attributed to helping with the inches lost the last couple of months. My trainer and my friend Margaret are actually reps for Advocare, so email me at alissa@ragstostitchesblog.com if you’re interested in learning more, or are interested in placing an order you can click here.
Before you balking at me, I’ve had two friends I completely trust and are complete eat clean health nuts take a look at the instructions and they’ve told me that there’s nothing in there that will have damaging long term effects and would both take it themselves.
Now…. I can’t leave you with a new side by side progress picture, right? Ok here it goes. On the left is me at the end of January and on the right is me last weekend in Chicago when I shopped with this amazing stylist!
Soooooo, what do you think?
Now are you getting off your butt, throwing on your tennis shoes and headed out the door to workout?
You better be!
If you want to read the rest of my Fitness Journey, you can find it HERE.
The post My Fitness Journey: Part VI appeared first on Rags to Stitches.
