Fitness Friday

My Health Journey Part 1

In the hopes of sharing some of the MANY things that I have learned over my recent weight loss/health seeking journey I decided to focus on fitness every Friday.

I'll start with how I got to where I am,  or at least my theory.

Ready? It's actually a mind blowing concept. Get ready to wet yourself.

I do not have ANY self control. None, zip, zero, zilch, none-ya.

This is not a slam to my parents (the two best parents a girl could ask for in fact) but I was never taught self control either. Stop, think about it, is any American taught or MADE to show self control? We live in a society where anything we want is within our reach. When we deny ourselves something (like dessert) we call it a sacrifice for crying out loud. We live a life of INDULGENCE. We indulge in our behaviors, our speech, our food choices, our recreation life, our spending, etc and instead of realizing the effect it has on us we like to think that WE DESERVE IT ALL. I deserve this luxurious day at the spa because I am a full time teacher and mom . I deserve this cheese covered pasta, wine and chocolate cake because I made it through another whole week of life. I deserve to indulge in this gossip filled conversation (ouch) because I have knowledge that others aren't privy too or because I need others opinions on it (geesh).

I started thinking through all the different ways that I wasn't showing self control in my life and realized that I indulged myself in almost every areas of my life instead of the one area that deserved it, MY WALK WITH THE LORD.  Proverbs 25:28 A man (or woman) without self control is like a city broken into and left without walls. --MY GO TO VERSE FOR OVER INDULGENCE (thats another post). So, I made a plan and enlisted others to help me learn how to live this life with "self control".

I of course waited until the day after we got back from Disney. Hey, don't judge me, we had a paid for meal plan, sister was not going to turn down a Darth Vader Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake with every meal!!!!

But then friends, I got serious! My sweet, very supportive, very encouraging, very willing to to tell me how proud he is of me (daily) husband bought me a 24 Day Challenge from Advocare. Now you need to know two things about me to understand why this was the best first step for me in my health journey. One, I am a FRUGAL beast. That challenge is not cheap so when I saw the cost I had a nice long chat  with myself about how I was not going to cheat one iota (like I didn't even lick the spoon when I made a peanut butter pie--thats serious) during those 24 days. I am also competitive. Okay, there I have said it. I entered a weight loss contest with a monetary prize at work that coincided with the time I would be on the 24 day challenge and then for 6 weeks after. If I am challenged and told that I will not win (which I was) I will fight with everything I have to prove others wrong. I walked away from that weight loss challenge as grand champ and with a nice $250 in my pocket...which by the way paid for the 24 Day Challenge and then some.

As much as I would love to, I can't say that Advocare is the reason why I am where I am now, 20 lbs lighter, running on average 12-20 miles a week, weight lifting 3x a week, sprinting until my thighs burn, wearing clothes that I haven't worn since 9th grade, etc. Nope the 24 day challenge retrained my body and my mind as to what healthy, nutritious food is but the biggest step to my success has been learning Self Control.

More to come...