It Was Time To Make A Change. Bye Bye McDonald's!

Making changes in our life can be scary.  They can be especially scary when you don't feel good.   Many do not realize that the food we put into our bodies, the processed foods/fast foods affect our brain function and the way our body itself functions.  The word weight loss turns many people off.  It turns them off because it means CHANGE.  Change can be scary can't it?  But, when is enough, ENOUGH?

I want you to meet Lori. Lori has changed her life and watching the changes are simply amazing!  Lori's going to share with you, the journey that she is now on.

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Almost 5 years ago I changed careers. I went from a very active job to a desk job. Over the years I started putting on weight. I realized I was not my happy go lucky self anymore. I would get mad easily. I started to become real moody, sometimes asking myself why I let the little things bother me so much. It's very hard to explain, I wasn't sure why I was feeling this way. I had no idea that my weight gain over the years had brought me to this point. I had said for quite sometime that I needed to get healthy, but never had the motivation to do it. My daughter would always try to get me to eat better and workout, but I would never listen, I just wasn't ready.  I put up the excuses barrier.  I LOVED to eat out a lot. Double cheese burgers from McDonald's were my favorite.   Oh, it tasted so good.  After, I would go straight home and lay down.  I never did much of anything. Still at this point, I did not know my weight had any impact on the way I was feeling mentally, I did feel like crap physically and knew my weight played had to be playing a role in this. 

Physically I was a mess!  When trying to walk up the stairs, I would become out of breath. I didn't like that shortness of breath feeling at all!  Taking long walks just wan't for me.  I pretty much didn't want to do anything.   Trying to do the most basic exercise was uncomfortable to me and I didn't like it.  So I stayed in denial. I didn't think at the time my weight gain was playing a big role in the way I was feeling mentally.

Doing it alone?  I wasn't ready for that yet.   I text my best friend and told her let's join Fitness 19. Thankfully, she was all for it! March 26, 2015 I walked into the gym by myself and signed up.  I JOINED A GYM!   Keep in mind this is my first time ever joining a gym. My palms were sweaty I felt sick, but I knew I was ready. On that same day I met with a personal trainer. I knew going in that I wanted a personal trainer because I had never been a member of a gym before and I didn't know what I needed to do to accomplish my goals. I did not know how to use the gym equipment, I was afraid people would look at me crazy because I wasn't doing something right. But thankfully, a couple days later my best friend joined too!  She became my motivation. She had been down this path before and assured me everyday that I had this! I never worked out, only for short periods of time. When I say short periods I mean,  two week would be the maximum, in a little gym in my apartment complex.   Now that I think about it, actually joining a gym was a huge step for me! 

On that day my personal trainer took my measurements and got me on the scale. OH THE SCALE!!!  I weighed 180 lbs. My waist measured 39.5 inches my hips measured 44.5 inches. I set my goal with my personal trainer to lose 15 to 20 lbs and build lean muscle.   

Here we go!  I started off at the gym with four, one hour sessions. My first personal training session was on March 29,2015. I did this training by myself as my best friend worked out on her own. I broke it up into one day a week sessions with him. My personal trainer was great! He guided me and gave me routines to do the rest of the week. I started off learning cardio techniques that would activate my metabolism (the one that somehow got lost). 

On July 25, 2015 my best friend and I bought a one month group training session with him. We started progressing, at this point I am proud to say I had lost 20 pounds!! I reached my first goal!!! Now I just needed to focus on building lean muscle.   My personal trainer started us on light weights so we could build our strength and progress.  But, at the end of July we joined a new gym.  This time it felt different.  I had lost 20 pounds and we went in knowing we wanted to continue with a personal trainer because we were starting to see results! We signed up with a personal trainer and he put us through high intensity circuit training. Wow!  We train with our personal trainer five times a month and do circuit training two to three times a week. The other days we're on our own. Our new personal trainer started us off with weight lifting. I was scared as I had never lifted before, I thought I was going to hurt myself. It took me some time to start enjoying it, but as soon as I started seeing my body change I loved it!  I can truly say, I never thought I would be one to enjoy the gym as much as I do today. It has changed me! In fact when I went to Hawaii for work, when I got off the plane and checked into my hotel room, I put my workout clothes on, and went and found the hotel gym.  The old me would've plopped down on my bed and either played on Facebook or watched television and ate food that wasn’t helping my health.

I'm back to my happy self again, I do not let the little things bother me like they use too!  I love myself again!  Wow, I never realized I stopped loving myself.   It is sad for me to think about it.  To really confront how I was truly treating myself.   I feel like a whole new person, it's hard for me as I sit her and type my story out.  The tears are flowing down my face because I did not know I was damaging myself.  I was not living. I was existing.  I am not that woman any longer!     I love my results thus far, I feel more confident and I am so glad that I have more energy.    The couch is no longer winning!

   

I last weighed myself about two weeks ago.  I'm happy to report that I weighed 157.2 and my measurements reflected that my waist was down to 33 inches, my hips were down to 42.5 inches. This has been the best change I've made in my life!!!    I'm learning new things everyday.  I'm still going, I'm not done!  I'm a work in progress.  My eating habits aren't perfect, but they are my choices are healthier and much better than they were.  I realize now that it's true,  this is a lifestyle change.  I'm glad I pulled myself up off that couch and chose this new lifestyle!

My best friend has been with me on this journey, having her by my side has been a tremendous help, we motivate each other! We hold each other accountable.  Especially when one of us has those "I don't want to" days.   I'm not a lazy person when it comes to everyday life things.  You mention the word, GYM, negative thoughts reflected in my attitude about it.  I had every excuse not to include the word GYM in my vocabulary let alone my life.  

I know it's hard to motivate yourself and go for it.  But,  if I can do this, I know you can too!  It's got to be for you.   You have to want it bad enough to get it, you can't make excuses, just like everything else you have to fit it in your schedule. In the beginning it was a real struggle for me to get off work at 5 pm get home change and head to the gym.  Working out is a huge stress reliever and I would have never believed that, although I would hear that all the time, had I not experienced it myself. If you set your mind to do it you can do it! You can accomplish anything, I was 38 when I decided to make this lifestyle change.  I believe that it's NEVER TOO LATE! 

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