I know I had said weeks ago I was going to post a “30 Day Challenge” about what I did over those 30 days but I feel as though it’s important to share a little background to let you know how far I have come personally. If you look at my before and after pics from 30 days ago, there will not be a huge difference and that’s because I have spent year going through changed with my body and I am finally in a happy place, where I would like to stay and gradually grow from here. Now let’s take a little throwback to where it all began!
How many times have you crash dieted? Or tried these unrealistic workout plans 6 days a week, when you hadn’t set foot in a gym before? All of these things will lead you into a never-ending circle of HATING to be healthy. I know. I’ve been there!
Some people may remember me back in high school being “healthier” than I am today. I weighed 140 pounds, swam year round, and ate sonic blasts before the gym. Not to mention an 8 count chicken nugget meal, large fry, extra BBQ sauce, and sweet tea from chick fil a. Was I fat? No. Did people call me fat? Yes. Did I think I was fat? YES. I went through my entire high school life crash dieting, and I can recall one of my swim coaches saying, “If we can get you down to 125 pounds, you will drop major time.” Y’all I thought to myself, “I didn’t even weigh 125 pounds in middle school, this guy is cray cray.” But now my weight ranges from 118-120 depending on the day. So what was I doing wrong? I swam every single day, I worked out at the gym before practice, got to practice did dry land, swam for close to 2 hours…You would think I would have looked like a body builder at this point. But it wasn’t until I hit college when I realized I was doing EVERYTHING wrong.
**I skipped meals.
**I ate dinner at 9:30 & went straight to bed.
**I would stay up until 4:00 AM on weekends and then sleep in until 2:00 PM the next day.
**There were days where my “lunch” consisted of 10 Oreos.
**I would occasionally snag some fries or pizza in the cafeteria, on top of eating what I brought for lunch that day.
**My friends and I would literally stop at sonic and get a sonic blast before hitting up the gym. (We still joke about that today)
**I was eating WAY too much when going to a fast food restaurant or any restaurant for that matter.
What I changed to get my body where I wanted it to be.
For starters, everyone I talk to says, “I gain weight when I diet, I hate dieting, I rather be fat the rest of my life than diet.” Seriously, I’ve heard everything under the sun. What people don't understand, is that I DO NOT DIET. Do I look like Candice Swanepoel? NO. Do I look like Brooke Ence? HECK NO. Do I want to look like either of them? NO. I want to look like the best version of MYSELF possible. Does it sound corny? Maybe...But that’s how I genuinely feel at this point in my life. I was that girl who printed out pictures of Victoria Secret models, in hope to “inspire” myself. Well guess what, it didn’t work haha. I still dove into those double stuffed Oreos on the daily. I have never wanted to give up sweets or chick fil a, and I’m not going to!
First of all, I think the BIGGEST help for me was portion control. I went from an 8 count chicken nugget meal from chick fil a, to a 6 piece kids meal. I started doing this with EVERYTHING. If I ate 3 Oreos a days, I started eating 1. I did not go into hard core meal prepping or not eating what I wanted, I just changed how much I was eating. In addition, I was getting SLEEP. It is amazing what the power of sleep, and consistent sleep, can do for you. I stopped eating sonic before the gym! Those three things are what took me from 140 pounds to 120 pounds within a few months.
There are times like when I student taught that my weight would jump up to 125 or so but I also wasn’t working out. And the point of this blog post is for you to look at your life and see what minor changes you can make! If you see your weight is stuck, change something simple about your eating habits, or start going for a daily walk if you hadn’t before. Just find minor things in your life to start off with and change them!
