Hey, my name is Monica. I guess you have to know the story to see the whole journey, so here's a little background for you.
At 18 years old I was (and still) 5'4" tall. I weighed between 105 and 110 pounds. I played basketball all the time. I loved being outdoors, swimming, walking, occasionally running, going down to Philly and racing my Z-28. I was all over the place, hyper as can be. I met my husband, Travis, in July 2001. We were engaged in 6 months. We waited until October 2003 to get married. When we got married my weight had gone to 150 pounds. Why? I have no idea. Not caring, not exercising, not playing sports, stressed, working, take any number of reasons. You think putting on 40 pounds it would have clicked, but it didn't. I would just buy another size up in pants and go on.
The end of May 2004 I found out I was pregnant with Aryanna. I was still at the 150 pound mark. When I found out I was pregnant with Ary, I quit smoking cold turkey - just a little side note. By the time I had Ary, I had gained 50 pounds, seriously. So, I weighed 198 at my first doctor's visit after having Ary. Do you see that....it's a whole other person I added to myself. All I could think about was, I can't believe this. I used to think I was overweight, had a little stomach back when I was 18. Now what did I do to myself?! I walked around in sweats all the time. Probably about two years after I had Ary, they put a Planet Fitness in down the street from where I live. $10 a month, Travis can't yell at me for that, so I signed up. I would go late at night when Ary would fall asleep. I think my normal time was 11:30 p.m., and I would stay for about an hour. I worked the elliptical and the stationary machines. Dieting, ha. I love pasta, so this is a tough one for me. Celeste, my sister, and I were taking our kids to church on Wednesday nights and while they were there, we would go to Amelia's Discount Grocery. I would stock up on Lean Cuisine for $0.99 a box. I would either eat salad or Lean Cuisine for lunch and then just monitor dinner. That's about as far as dieting would take me. Anyway, I think I would go to the gym three or four times a week. After a year's time, I had dropped 35 pounds. Hey, better than 198, right?
I pretty much maintained my weight for a while. I did lose about 5 pounds in two years. Let's see, that brings my total to 158 pounds. Okay, so it took me 5 years to almost get back to where I was when we got married.
End of May 2010, guess who just found out they were pregnant, me and Travis. We were extremely excited. Unfortunately in between the time I had Ary and the time I found out I was pregnant again, I had started smoking. So, as you guessed, I quit cold turkey again. This time I think I had really bad withdraw symptoms along with morning sickness. I was sick all the time, laid out on the bed, to the hospital three times to get fluids. My heartburn was unbearable. Around August I started feeling better, not too much, but better. I was holding down food and fluids but the heartburn was still there, always. The only thing that helped was bread and pretzels. I was eating them all the time. Then I was just eating because when food was going down, the heartburn was not there. Okay, cut to the chase. A week after Tristan was born, I weighed, 197 pounds. I know, I was kind of freaked out myself. I stayed at that weight until I stopped breast feeding. After I stopped breast feeding, my weight increased quick.
So, this kind of brings us current. Sorry, I know, it's a lot for a first post.
214 pounds, yep, that much. Exhausted, lazy, depressed, wearing sweats again, no attempts to look nice, BLAH. That's a perfect word for it, blah or icky.
All this time, I am still enrolled at the gym, paying my $10 a month, even though I don't go. I tell my neighbor that I am going to start going and she joins with me. "It will keep us more motivated to go, especially having someone to keep you in check." We went twice a week, after the kids went to bed, and stayed for an hour and a half. We walked the treadmill and talked. I think this lasted for about three months, and if we actually made it once a week, I was surprised.
So, at this point I'm frustrated. I've lost 2 pounds in three months, that sucks. I saw a Jillian Michael's (JM) 30 day shred in the store. I'm thinking, I can do this and I did. I woke up early and started the video. Silly me, thinking because I was in my living room that I don't need to wear sneakers. Now I have to say the S word, sorry, SHIN SPLINTS (SS). AHH! They got to a point that I was having a hard time walking. So, I had to stop my videos until the SS went away. A month or two goes by and my SS are almost gone. I gain back the wonderful 2 pounds, HA, jokes on me, right. I wanted to start the JM video again. While walking through Target, I spot a workout video of JM's called Extreme shed and shred. I'm like, yes, definitely need extreme....threw it in the cart and off we go.
I am getting to the point, promise.
So, I started this new video. In the video she does a few kickboxing moves. As I'm doing them I'm thinking, wow, that was fun. I wish there was some class around here I could go to. But there was no way I was paying LA Fitness money each month to go to a class. I inquired around and no one knew of any outside of an actual gym.
Then, one day I am on my way to pick up Ary from school, and what do I see? I see some girl with carved abs and I'm like, great, just what I want to look at twice a stinking day. I get closer and I see the whole sign and I'm flipping out. ilovekickboxing.com, 3 classes for $20 and a pair of gloves. I pick up Ary, go home and jump online. Where is it located? Oh, it's only 6 minutes down the road, sweet!
I enroll online for the three classes. I'm excited and scared at the same time. Travis said go for it and see how you like it. Ugh, I don't want to go alone. What if I can't make it through the whole class? I don't have anything to wear there. You name it, I thought it to try and talk myself out of going.
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| Taken October 2012 |
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