I was just like everyone else. At my heaviest I was 170lbs. The top two pictures were taken of me in 2005 and 2006 when I quit smoking the first time because I wanted to get pregnant. My husband Aaron agreed to having a baby but only if I quit. Well I got pregnant had my beautiful son and dropped down to 150lbs because of breastfeeding. When I stopped breastfeeding and stopped losing weight, I started smoking again. My thinking was I would rather be a smoker and skinny then a nonsmoker and overweight. (Yeah I know, not very smart on my part.) Smoking made me drop down to 130lbs. Then I came to a point where I was tired of smelling like cigarette smoke and not being able to walk from the parking lot of my job with out being out of breath and the amount of money I was spending on them, was ridiculous so I decided to quit again and for the last time. However we all know what happens when you quit smoking..... :-(

        The third picture is me back up to 160lbs, so I started the wonderful (I use that term loosely) phentermine to help me lose the weight. Well as most of you know the stuff works awesome and you drop the weight fast. But the bad part is, as soon as you stop taking it the weight comes back. I did this several times, I would get down to 130 then stop taking and shoot back up to 160.

        I finally got tired of being on the weightloss/gain rollar coaster ride. I decided I was going to change my life and get back into shape. You always hear people saying the only way to get weight off and keep it off is to change your lifestyle. First thing I did was change what, how often, and how much I was eating. I always heard to help you, you should keep a food diary; so I downloaded an app to my droid called FatSecret.com. Keeping this food and exercise diary was one of the many keys to my success. It helped keep me accountable for everything that I put into my body. I began to ask myself "Do I really want that bag of chips that has 300+cals in it that will satisfy me now but will leave me hungry and wanting more 30mins from now? Or do I want to have some Chobani yogurt that only has 140cals and is good for me and will not only satisfy me now but because of the 14g of protein will fill me up and keep me full for a couple hours?" Another thing I did that helped me cut my calories was to eat every 2-3 hours. Eating this way not only helped me cut my portions (because I knew I was going to eat again in a couple hours) but it also prevented my body from going into starvation mode.

      

        A lot of people are in starvation mode now and don't even realize it. Our bodies are so afraid of starving to death that the person who only eats once or twice a day will not lose weight. Your body will hold onto everything you put in it because it doesn't know when you are going to feed it again. After about week your body will say to itself "hey, I can dump some of this fat because she is giving me food all the time." The first week is actually hard. Even though your body is not use to eating more then once or twice a day, you were most likely consuming well over 2000 calories when you did eat. I also weened myself off of cokes and started drinking coffee sweetened with skim milk and splenda, I had one cup in the morning. On occasion I would have a Diet Coke but other then that I only drank water or Powerade Zero. Now I only drink my coffee black, our bodies really do not need all that sugar. For those who do not like plain water add a lemon, lime ot some other type of cut up fruit. I also started eating a ton of fruit and fresh veggies. Espcially salads!!! However if your eating a salad you have to be careful with what you are topping it with. Replace the croutons with nuts or seeds and if you must have them have 1
serving which is usually about 10, not 20! Also watch your dressings, vinaigrettes are the best. Adding fresh fruit is another wonderful way to add toppings without all the calories.

     I also started EXERCISING!!! My main form of exercise was running and let me just say I was NOT a runner. My original goal was to be able to run for 30mins without stopping. I asked my friend, who is a Marathon Runner how I can acheive this. He told me to start out by walking for 1min then jog for 1min, I did that for a couple days, then I kept increasing the time between running and walking till I was running for the full 30mins. After I achieved that goal I changed it to picking up my pace and working on running for 3miles without stopping.

      

I began this lifestyle change on March 2, 2011, at that point I had gotten back up to 150lbs. By July 21st I had reached the goal that I had set out for myself which was to get back down to 120lbs and I had lost 16" from around my waist! Why did I pick that number; because that's how much I weighed when Aaron and I got married.

Now here I am 3 years later and I can happily call myself a long distance runner. I've ran 5k's, 8k's, 10k's, Half Marathons, 30k's and Full Marathons! This year I was asked to be part of a Racing Team!!!

To date I have ran 3 marathons and I am currently training for my 4th!

 My first Marathon Knoxville 2012

 My second Marathon Disney 2013

My third Marathon Nashville 2013

I am also really big into yoga and weight training. I also decided to get Certified as a Personal Trainer in hopes of helping many people achieve their lifestyle dreams! People refer to me as a health nut, which is alright in my book! However on occassion I do splurge and eat a handful of oreos or a bowl of ice cream or a bag of popcorn. I can do this now without guilt because I know that I don't have to worry about the weight anymore. I feel better and that comes across in everything I do.

I hope this post will help encourage you to get out there an make your lifestyle healthier!

Stay tuned because there is more to come!!!