Do it for Yourself

Back in August 2011, I decided to try a website my friend Ashley used to lose 80+ pounds. It's funny how I could take this weigh-loss attempt more seriously because of that very fact: it worked for her, maybe it could work for me! Once I got signed up on My Fitness Pal I prayed, "Okay, God, if it is for me to lose weight I'm going to need Your help. I can't do this alone." So for one week I logged my food on the site and realized, after a few days, that I could log my exercise as well. Yet another mind game that worked: If you can get credit for exercising, why not exercise? Because, you know, exercising alone isn't enough pay off.

After week one I decided it was time to stand on the scale: down four pounds. I was shocked!! And then it occurred to me that I always lose exactly four pounds after week one of any diet. So I didn't get my hopes up. What the heck? Might as well see what happens after week two. And so I logged what I ate, exercised, and hoped for the best.

After week two: down another four pounds! WHAT?!?! I was SOLD! If this is why people watched what they ate and exercised, well, I could probably become 'that girl'. After eight pounds lost it's probably hard for anyone to doubt the effectiveness of staying within a calorie budget and exercising. Mind you, I wasn't doing anything crazy, I was doing exercise DVDs that had collected a lot of dust on our television stand. I didn't always keep up - probably never kept up in fact - and I didn't follow the 'advanced' version of the exercises EVER. But I was moving, which was what hooked me into this idea of a healthier lifestyle in the first place.

On one episode, Dr. Oz said something like you can tell a person the benefits of anything until you're blue in the face, but only when they themselves FEEL different, FEEL the improvements, FEEL the changes will they be convinced. Well he was right because all of my life I saw people exercise, heard that exercise makes you feel good, gives you energy, and makes you crave more, but I wasn't hearing any of that. Exercise, from my experience, only made me tired, hot, sweaty, and hungry. So I figured these amazing benefits just didn't apply to me.

Until I started exercising on a regular basis.

It took two weeks of exercising 3-4 times a week before my body craved exercise. If I didn't DO something I would feel really tight, tired, and sometimes even grumpy. No one, let alone a Mom, has time for that, so I'd exercise. In turn I felt like my new self again: energetic, focused, ready for the day. Mind you, I hadn't started seeing any physical changes in the mirror yet, but the way I felt in my day-to-day was enough to convince me that this was the way. I remember saying, "If I never lose another pound it's okay, I'll still exercise." It was for the sheer benefits both mental and physical. It was a new quality of life. I was 33 years old and had never felt that way before.

Those two weeks in August are what got me started on this journey to feel better, be better, and fully enjoy my life, my husband, my kids. Oh if I could only go back and tell my younger self...