The start

Let me start by telling a bit about myself. I am a mother to 5 wonderful children. I have a 10 year old, Kyra, an almost 8 yr old Tristan, two 5 yr olds Reina and Gavin (who is my step son) and my newest addition Caleb who is almost 7 months old. I have been married to my husband for almost 2 years. Before that I was a single mother to my first 3 children.

I began my weight loss journey after my ex husband and I went out separate ways. I was at my heaviest at the time, which was around 160 lbs. I was miserable. I felt unattractive and fat. I started to work out, and started to feel empowered. It was one of the most amazing feelings in the world. A year after my daughter was born, I had managed to lose all the weight and was at the smallest I have ever been.

Then I met my husband, and became comfortable. I quite my job, and became a stay at home mother and the weight started piling back on. I did not care. I was happy and I knew my husband thought I was beautiful. I stopped working out and starting eating foods I knew that were bad for me. I got back up to 10 lbs under where I started years before. At that point I did not care. I knew I would be getting pregnant and just figured I would lose the weight after I had that baby. But looking back at my wedding photos...I am so mad at myself for not caring.

I ended up getting pregnant and packing on 30 lbs over the weight I already had gained. I was up to 185 lbs. Yikes!!! To me that was unacceptable. After I had my son, I was anxious to start working out again. But I had a c-section and had to wait a full 6 weeks to start. I was getting very inpatient, so before my 6 weeks were up I started walking and doing light exercise. After I got the ok from my doctor, it was on.
I began with Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, and then switched to Zumba which by far is my favorite work out DVD ever.

I started to lose the weight quickly, getting down below my pre pregnancy weight within a month. Then I decided it was not enough. I wanted to become a runner. I had no clue where to start. So I decided to do the C25K program and buy a jogging stroller. It has been a slow start with the running but I am working on it. I signed up to my first 5k run in November, which sounded so much fun! I will be doing it with some great friends, and my brother. And to add icing to that cake I will be chased by zombies. What more can you ask for!

So the training has begun. Now that the kids are in school, I can go out 5 days a week for a run in the morning with my son in his jogging stroller. He enjoys it and I am getting the training in that I need.
Right now I need to work on motivation. I just got over a bout of pneumonia and had to take a week hiatus from working out. I lost all motivation, and due to coughing and inability to breathe, all that endurance is gone. So it is a slow start.

But here I am a mere 7 lbs from my ultimate goal of 125 lbs. I know I can do it. I just need to focus on eating better and getting back into the daily work outs!!

I will post some pictures of where I began and now. The difference makes me want to continue.

So that is the start, I will try and update as often as I can. I am hoping to be a continued motivation to myself and perhaps to others who are trying to lose weight as well.