My Health Journey at 179 pounds

What is YOUR Health Story? 

I just wanted to share a little bit of my health journey with you all. Trying to keep it short (yeah right) at the same time because I know we all have two seconds in our day to devote to reading blog posts!

First thing to keep in mind as you are reading this is I AM TALL. I’m 5’10” so I have always been able to hide weight well. But once I hit a certain point, I get PUFFY (see pic on left).

I know I’m lucky to be tall when it comes to weight and smacking the heck out of a volleyball and pulling down items off the top shelf at the grocery store. But that isn’t the point of this blog post.

The fact is the photo on the left shows me at 179 pounds. THE BIGGEST I have EVER weighed in my life (UNTIL I had babies). No, I wasn’t obese or totally unhealthy (I was still quite active) but I felt like junk. I know I don’t ever want to feel that way ever again. And I haven’t.

The photo on the right is of me at 179 pounds, 34-weeks pregnant and VERY healthy.

What happened???

Let me share with you what I felt every day at the weight in the first photo. I remember it VERY well. How? Well, I journaled about it EVERY night because it bothered me THAT much. Makes me sad because all that time was WASTED feeling bad about myself. And there I was writing about it and coming up with excuses when I could have been DOING SOMETHING about it. Life shouldn’t be that way one bit!!!

At age 24/25 and 179 pounds I felt:

• UNCOMFORTABLE EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF THE DAY (jeans never felt right. Buttons kept digging into my stomach.) I felt my thighs growing like Slimer in Ghostbusters every time I yanked on a pair of jeans. I refused to go up a size. Instead, I worried about how tight my jeans must have looked all day long and picked myself apart internally.
• My legs and feet were always swollen. Even made a trip to the ER because my heart was skipping beats and I felt like passing out in the mornings. My family has quite the heart history but that didn’t even register with me...yet.
• I was TIRED. All the time. I am not one to take naps (ever), but I did around this time, and a lot. Shhh. Don’t tell Karl. He doesn’t know that person.
• My skin was gross so I thought laying in the sun would fry all my zits. STUPID. 
• My hair was falling out.
• I worked out a ton. I worked out to make up for the numerous beers and pizza I drank and ate over the weekends. I didn’t want to have to worry about the calories. Figured the more I worked out, the more I could eat.
• I ran three half marathons at my highest weight. Except I kept GAINING. See why in the bullet point above.
• I’d eat ONLY fat-free, sugar-free, low-fat EVERYTHING during the week thinking I could eat MORE of these foods. NEVER EVER was satisfied. So I’d get frustrated.
• Weekends came and I’d go out and drink (hoping MAYBE that night I’d find Mr. Right) and then I’d come home ALONE and bake a whole pan of brownies and eat most of them. Poor me.
• Don’t worry, I’d run 8 miles the next day.
• Blood pressure was in the 120s with a high BMI and higher cholesterol.
• I was playing volleyball five nights a week. But I couldn’t even JUMP! I was such a slug.
• I’d mindlessly snack all day long, but on sugary treats. Then I’d get tired. Thought maybe more caffeinated beverages would do the trick. See the cycle here?
• I was self-conscious about myself so I held back on everything. I doubted myself too much. I was a turtle hiding in my shell.
• I was bummed out. Lonely. Unhappy. Though I still loved life and all the people in it, I felt STUCK and LOST and like I was missing out. 

Then one night during a volleyball game, I sprained my ankle pretty bad and was FORCED to rest. I could NOT work out one bit. I was FREAKING out. But I was FORCED to take a look at myself and change my ways. 

What was I doing?? Where was I going? Did I want to feel this way forever? It was time for a CHANGE. It was time for Christie to SHINE.

I didn’t work out for one whole week and lost three pounds. Without trying. I wasn’t hungry because I wasn’t working out, therefore I was eating less. Things started clicking for me. Wait a second here, it really is about the calories in, isn’t it… Hmmm.

Second photo is of me at 34-weeks pregnant! And ALSO 179 pounds. Yes, I know I’m headed for the “high-end” of the average pregnancy weight gain, but that is OK. Why? I know I’m HEALTHY. And I feel awesome.  I’m going off that. This is how I feel now (35-years-old at 179 pounds):

• Crazy amounts of energy. Sometimes my husband suggests I SHOULD take a nap so I take it easy.
• When I do get tired, I drink water. Tons of it. Works like a charm.
• CONFIDENT and comfortable in my skin, clothes and body. Ready to let my light shine!
• HAPPY
• Skin is great! Just getting older. 
• Hair is great (and growing at an insane speed. Thanks to those prenatal vitamins)!
• I workout 3-5 times a week and only 20-35 minutes. LOVE PiYo right now! I need quick solutions and popping in a DVD is IT for me!
• I eat CLEAN foods but also allow myself to eat ANYTHING I’m craving but in small portions. Haven’t made a pan of brownies and devoured the whole plate yet! Whew. I have made brownies but now incorporate healthy ingredients. I LOVE THIS!
• I eat full-fat everything. I don’t buy low-fat, sugar free anything. 
• Guess what? When I’m not pregnant, I STILL drink beer and wine. I LOVE IT. But, I savor it. Karl and I like to try craft beers and pick out the hints of flavors in each sip. I don’t need more than one or two beers. I love sipping a glass of wine. When I get the urge to chug anything, that’s when I know something isn’t right and I need to take a step back. What’s REALLY going on? What am I trying to run from?
• I’m able to remember how I feel when I eat TOO much of a bad thing. Kind of like a hangover. It’s VERY easy to forget, but sometimes a really bad one stays with you. So is it worth it to eat a bunch of junk? NO. Why? Because I need all the energy I can get with a toddler and baby on the way. I need to be on my A-game ALL THE TIME. And I know that energy comes from fueling my body with the BEST of the BEST.
• Hear me out though… we DO have pizza most every Friday. I don’t need more than 2-3 pieces. I add TONS of veggies. We either make our own or scope out the pizzerias that aren’t big chains and that we know use a lot of the good stuff.
• I have dark chocolate in the house. I have ice cream in the house. We eat burgers and brats and all those yummy summer foods. I am human. I just add good stuff along with it. Like I said, nothing is off limits and that makes me NOT crave it. If that makes sense?
• Blood pressure is 102/50, BMI around 18 and fab cholesterol levels! I now take my family’s heart history very seriously. It’s up to me to PREVENT my heart from getting weak. To prevent trips to the doctors. To put my health FIRST if I want to be around for a LONG LONG time. 

Why am I sharing this?

Because I have been there. I have been in that darker place where you feel stuck and frustrated and annoyed with yourself and mad at everything. It’s SO easy to point blame at someone else. But this is about YOU. YOUR BODY. YOUR LIFE. It's time to take a look at YOU. 

I also get it. You know you need to do something but you’re just not sure what. Or you’re not sure HOW to change? How you’re going to get there? You might even think you’re too far gone, that there’s no turning around because it’ll take FOREVER to get results.

NOT TRUE.

I want to HELP you get out of your FUNK. I want you to be the BEST YOU!!!! You are so deserving to live the best, healthiest, happiest life EVER!!!!!!

We are blessed with ONE body and ONE life here. This is it, folks. Why disrespect it? Why disrespect YOU? Why not treat your body like royalty for once? I promise your body will be NICE back to you!! It’ll take you places you’ve never been.

We might not totally like the body we’ve been given. Heck, I was born with several things I’d like to change, but guess what? I can’t and I’m OK with that. We are SO FORTUNATE and LUCKY to be here right now.

We can fuel our bodies with good and try to be the person we were created and meant to be! I don’t know about you, but that makes SO much sense to me when I feel my best!!! I feel unstoppable. Doors start opening. Opportunities start banging at the door. Your heart feels fuller. Happier. Life is just so much better!

So what do you say? Ready to get healthy??? Let’s do this!

MESSAGE ME!!! Let’s unleash the beast best in you!

Xoxoxoxoxo

Christie