Before&After

Losing weight. It has been something on my mind for years. I knew I needed to lose weight. I knew I wanted to lose weight. I like working out, I adore healthy foods....so what was missing?

I'll begin this story with our move to the incredible state of Oregon. One of the many reasons we decided to move here was so my stress level could be relieved by not having to work as much. That was not doable in California, where we both were working full time and still barely able to stay afloat. We moved to Oregon at the end of July 2011, and on August 1st, I began a new commitment. This commitment was something I had tried before, numerous times: work out in order to lose weight. But the difference here is that I had time to focus on myself, on doing whatever it took to drop this ugly extra weight. Never before in my married life, or even since graduating high school 12 years ago did I remember having this much free time to myself. What a blessing. My commitment began fairly simply, in hindsight. It was to work out for 45 minutes 5 times a week. I joined a gym, and began keeping track of what I was doing each day. From there, my wonderful mother bought me 3 sessions with a personal trainer. My trainer was able to assess my goals and current body weight/shape and tailor a workout for me. During my first month at the gym, I broke out of my "shy/unsure shell" and tried a few of their group exercise classes. I am SO glad I did. Once my workout with my trainer was set and I discovered the classes I liked, I had a perfect 5 day schedule. In a typical week, it looks like this:

Monday: 45 minutes of strength training (the regime set up by my trainer, which involves toning my core and lifting weights to focus on different parts of my body). This is followed by 30 minutes on the Elliptical machine, done in 2 1/2 minute x 30 second intervals. 

Tuesday: 45 minutes of strength training. This is followed by 30 minutes on the Elliptical machine, done in 2 1/2 minute x 30 second intervals. 

Wednesday: 60 minutes of Zumba. (And may I just put in a personal plug for this incredible class...I have two of the best teachers who are passionate about what they do, play current party hits during class, and who have totally turned my inability to think dancing is fun and is something I am capable of doing around to where I look forward to shakin' it with them each week.) Here's a video of one of my instructors teaching a group of people.

Thursday: 45 minutes of strength training. 60 minutes of Pilates, which focuses on strengthening and elongating your body by using your core muscles (stomach, back, upper legs). 

 

Friday: 60 minutes of Zumba. 

By the end of November I had lost 14 pounds, which was exciting and great and felt good...but after 4 months of exercising regularly for 5 days a week when I had been doing no consistent exercise before, I was beginning to get a bit discouraged that the weight wasn't coming off fast enough. It was at this point that Brian and I decided to give the Paleo Diet a try. My dear sister Rachel had done Paleo for a time and was very successful at losing a chunk of weight (I'm SO proud of her!!). She told me over and over how easy it was to be on Paleo, how her cravings for unhealthy foods seemed to stop, and how good she felt overall. With Brian by my side, we committed to try Paleo for the month of December. Making a major dietary change during the holidays was SO good for us. Although we had a few days around Christmas where we cheated one too many times, we jumped back on the wagon quickly. There are so many good things I could say about Paleo, which I will save for another time. After 6 weeks on the diet , I had lost 10 pounds and B had lost 7. Not to mention we felt great. We have decided to continue with our new lifestyle, and although I spend hours in the kitchen cutting veggies, and am eating way more meat than I ever anticipated I would, we are so happy with the results. Here are my before and after photos. Although there is lots more work to be done, I am so proud of the results thus far.