I am the last of the Lifestyle Challenge group to make my inaugural post here, so now that the novelty has worn off, allow me to introduce myself… (wait, has Stacia posted yet?) Â :-)
I’m Jennifer, your (hopefully weekly) Tuesday guest blogger. A little about me: I am the wife of TC, another member of the Lifestyle Challenge group. I just turned 40 this year (and I have the gray hairs to prove it, but you wouldn’t know, thanks to Loreal) and I have been overweight all of my life – and obese to morbidly obese (ick, I am eeked out by that medical term!) all of my adult life. For reasons I have still not figured out, I accepted my unhealthy, overweight body as what was “normal” for me for years, and assumed that I would never change my outlook on my body. Luckily, in March of this year I had a huge epiphany about my health and quality of life (or, lack thereof) and decided to make a change. It began with me moderating and cutting my caloric intake and making healthier choices in my diet, which eventually led to a daily walk with my husband, and several days a week of 15 minute vigorous cardio on my stationary bike that had been collecting dust since I moved to Minnesota 3 years ago… and if I’m being honest, before that, as well. I was fairly motivated to exercise over the summer, but needed to make a plan for winter since it’s not realistic to walk during the winter months in Minnesota.
So, in November I joined Anytime Fitness in Woodbury after hearing about the Lifestyle Challenge from a fellow group member on Twitter (that would be James, a super cool prior fat dude). At that point I had lost around 70-75 pounds on my own, but was kind of at a stall. At the time I was (and sometimes, still am) seriously paranoid about working out in public. It was a scary step to walk into a gym for the first time, but I am so glad I did it. It wasn’t long before I fell in love with the elliptical and strength training, and soon found myself working out 6 days a week. Plus, I feel blessed to be part of such a motivated and sincere group of people, and I can’t wait to see where we’ll all be in a year. If you are reading this, I hope you’ll stick around and encourage us along the way!
This week finds me trying to get back to my 6-day gym routine after an extended trip to Colorado to be with my mother as she had surgery to fuse vertebrae in her neck. I was away from my gym and my wonderful trainers Sharon and Herm for 3 and 1/2 weeks, and only hit the gym twice while I was gone. I stayed very active; took some walks and did some brief cardio while on the road, but nothing compared to what I’d become accustomed to. It’s not easy coming back, as my stamina isn’t what it was, but thankfully my pace on the cardio machines doesn’t seem to be off, and I still seem to be able to lift the same amount of weight I had prior to leaving. That being said, I need to get my eating habits back in check – I find journaling my food intake to be very helpful, and I need to get back in that habit. If you’ve never tried it, I can’t recommend enough that you do… I have to say it’s made a significant difference in my ability to lose weight. Once you’ve made it a habit, it’s so easy to do!
I look forward to reading the weekly updates from my partners in the Lifestyle Challenge here. We are all so different, so I think most people reading this that are fighting the weight battle should find common ground with at least one, if not all of us.
Before I go, I should mention that TC and I were featured in an article about the Lifestyle Challenge group in the Woodbury Bulletin this week, and the article is online now via the following link if you’d like to check it out: http://www.woodburybulletin.com/event/article/id/36955/
See ya next Tuesday!
~ Jenn
