My Health Challenge Journey

Part 2

It seems to me that I have probably tried every weight loss program, food, shake or pill out there.  OK, I am sure I didn’t even come close, but I certainly tried many things.

I spent many dollars on these trends and all with the same result.  Little or no weight lost.  And a wallet a little lighter.  I am not saying that many of these programs didn’t have the potential to help me lose weight, I just simply didn’t.

I lacked the will-power needed to stay on any program or diet.  I needed to see results quickly.  I also have a body-type that does not let go of the pounds very easy, thus I would quickly get frustrated and quite whatever I was trying at the time. 

If I were to total the cost of all the things I tried, it would be embarrassingly high.

Jenny Craig twice, Sure-Slim, Herbal Magic, Nutri-system, and Herbal Life.  Weight Watchers twice.  This ‘magic shake’ and then another kind.  PGX, and and a few other supplements.  Even the Soup Diet.  The total of all these easily adds up to $4000.00 over a fifteen year period. 

I am not saying that some of these programs are not good.  They just simply were not good for me.  The only one I had any success on was Jenny Craig.  At a cost of at least $800.00 over the course of two months, and a twelve pound loss.   Jenny Craig was the only real loss I had seen on any of these programs.

This past Spring I received an invitation to  ‘The Health Challenge’.  I was intrigued by the word  ‘competition’.  So I read a little further. 

The Health Challenge seemed very simple.  No ‘special dieting’ and no ‘special pill’.  Everything that was involved simply promoted a healthy lifestyle.  One that included following the Canada Food Guidelines as well as adding in some exercise.  Very simple. No nonsense.  I accepted the challenge.

I joined my very first Health Challenge this past Spring.  I have since competed in two more and am still loving it.  Currently, I am not competing in a Health Challenge, but I am enjoying taking my turn in the organization of Health Challenge #4.

I am really enjoying sitting back a little and encouraging others along the way.  I have to admit that the competition of it all is certainly more of a motivator for me and Ilook forward to taking part in the next one.  For now, I will continue to live my ‘new healthy lifestyle’ and make small steps forward.

Best wishes to you all. Hope you all stay motivated and accept that small steps forward are just as good as the big ones!

 

My Health Challenge Journey

Part 1

My story goes back many years.  It starts about the time when I was a pre-teen.  Prior to my teens I as a healthy and active person whom absolutely loved sports.  I was always out there with the boys at lunch break playing whatever sport was going on.

Then came the pre-teen years.  I ate more and slept more, becoming far less active.  It started to become socially unacceptable to hang out with the boys, so I was left just hanging out with the girls just chatting and probably playing those hand and string games.  You know the ones:)

I steadily got heavier through high-school.  Not that I had become severely obese or anything, just past the ‘healthy’ range.  Then came graduation and the start of University.  I settled into a weight that was still not obese, but about 30 pounds overweight.

I stayed at this weight until my early to mid-twenty’s at which time I decided to take control of my weight by loads of exercise.  I got to the fittest that I had been since I was a pre-teen and stayed there for about three years.  I worked a lot.  Slept little.  Ate little.  Exercised at the gym a lot.  All those things together contributed to a wonderful twenty pound loss and I loved it.

Then I got married.

It seemed the day after I said ‘I do’ I gained weight steadily.  Seriously.  I gained five pounds alone on our honeymoon and it didn’t stop there.  By the time I had been married 1 year, I had re-gained the twenty pounds that I had lost three years prior. 

Then came my second year of marriage.  And another twenty pounds.  Wow, they were just piling on.  Why?  I was married.  So, I worked less. Ate more. Exercised less and just was less active overall.

My third year of marriage, I got pregnant with Cayden.  Through my pregnancy I gained more weight and did not lose all of it following his birth.  As a matter of fact, I gained even more.  I had reached the point of gaining another twenty pounds on top of the previous forty.

My story is not different from many.  My biggest personal difficultly was that my weight gain was so contradictory to who I was.  Through University I was studying Human Kinetics.  At the time I had planned to become a Phys-Ed and French teacher.  I was also a sports fanatic.  I played any sport I could when the opportunity would arise.   But here I was not fitting the ‘profile’ of an athletic person.

Here is a picture of me of the past.

Here is a picture of me now. Still not quite done.

 

I am so excited to share my story. Back in the day I would never have the guts to share something so personal. But I am happy to share because I finally have something to celebrate! So how did I do it?  I’ll share in ‘Part 2’.