Growing up, we ate pretty healthy. I never got to eat the snacks and sodas that a lot of my friends had at home. I always tried to make up for it at sleepovers though! At home we ate a lot of vegetables and lean protein and avoided salt and sugar. I never was athletic since my parents weren’t, and I’d had asthma and allergies since I was young. While I was never overweight as a kid, my weight would fluctuate a lot. I balanced it by simply eating less when the scale went too high, and eating “whatever I wanted” when it was lower.
When I was in my 20s, I ate mostly “healthy” frozen dinners. I tended to opt for processed foods due to cost and convenience. My weight continued to yo-yo, though at times my calorie cutting borderlined on extreme. I still had asthma and allergies and I was sick with colds and flus a lot, blaming it on the long hours I worked.
When Toby and I moved in together, I learned to cook so I could start making meals for the both of us. We didn’t make a lot of money, so I made weekly meal plans and cut costs where I could. He had grown up eating a lot of processed foods, so it was always in the house, it didn’t take long till it became part of my diet as well. The fluctuation range of my weight grew, and I cut calories drastically to try and stay on top of it. By the time we were married I was frustrated with my inability to maintain what I thought was an ideal figure. It was not unusual for me to go days without eating, to drop a few pounds, only to rebound the rest of the week “because I had earned it.”
Both of my pregnancies went about the same. I gained over 70lbs in 8 months, developed pre-eclampsia, and had emergency C-sections at 35 weeks. Both of our girls were born early, and under 4lbs. Both times, I rushed to lose the pregnancy weight as fast as I could, the only way I knew how (with tons of cardio, and very little food.)
Usually in the gym I tended to opt for cardio. I’d always liked running, and signing up for races kept me motivated. I did a full marathon, and about a dozen half marathons over the course of 6 years. I had always been scared about lifting weights, and working on a military installation, the weight room was always filled with what seemed like huge intimidating men. A friend of mine and I teamed up to start working out together, starting out with bodyweight exercises and eventually earning enough courage to move into the weight room. Together we learned the basics, and supported each other through the learning process. Those “intimidating” guys actually turned out to be pretty cool, and taught us a lot. I was amazed at the confidence that comes with growing physical strength and became hooked. My body transformed with the weightlifting and the running. I felt healthy and strong, and I like I had a purpose. It took a few years for my nutrition to catch up. Mainly because I was cooking for a full family now, and getting everyone on board was difficult.
The past few years have been a whirlwind of change. Once my husband decided he needed to start eating better also, we began a transformation journey together.
