Day Five of a Healthy lifestyle

[itsbygrace]

         Last week I got a sudden desire to really change my lifestyle. Changing how I eat and exercise more. Of course I have been working out regularly for the past year or so off and on. I ran into several obstacles this past year that I couldn't work out as much as I would have liked to. This not really a New Years Resolution. I don't really do those. This is just for me to become healthier in general. Sure loosing weight is a huge bonus! This whole thing just came on as an impulse.

         Life can sure make a person gain weight and or become very unhealthy. For me it first started when I got pregnant with my first daughter when I was 17. Being so young didn't help the factor any at all. I got very sick during that pregnancy and that made me gain a bunch of weight. Before baby #1 I was a healthy 135 pounds which was just right for my height but had a gained one more pound I would have been classified over weight as it was. After my daughter was born, I worked hard to loose the weight that pregnancy and all the complications that I had brought on. I was doing pretty good it took a few years but I was just 2 sizes away from being the size that I was pre-baby. Then I got married and was pregnant again so that didn't help me any. Of course things went a whole lot smoother with this one, and nearly all of the weight I gained from this pregnancy came off rather fast and before you know it I was just one size away from being in the same size jeans that I was before baby #2 that would be three sizes left to get down before every having any kids.  But then of course before that could happen I was pregnant with my 3rd and my last child that I was going to physically carry. This pregnancy I gained the least amount off weight and would have been the perfect amount had I not already weighted to much before I got pregnant. It's funny how I gained weight while pregnant. my first I gained the most and she was just under 6 pounds. My second I gained just about half of what I gained with my first and he was just over 9 pounds and my third I gained 12 pounds less than I had with my son and this baby weighed right at 11 pounds when she was born. Anyhow this is how my weight issue really started, and I just haven't be able to loose the weight since.

       Now that I am getting older according to studies I have read about and Doctors it is only going to be hard to loose weight the older I get. And then of course because of my weight I can be at risk for all sorts of health issues. Well I have decided to nip any health issues in the bud before they start. I have already been having some slight high blood pressure issues which could be a number of things other that my weight. I have five kids living in my house one of which is a teenage girl of course I am stressed out! My husbands ex just took us back to court for the 2nd time in 3 and a half years of course that causes stress and not really getting along with his ex really doesn't help any at all. This is why I aim to avoid her as much as possible. I can feel myself tensing up to an extreme when she pulls up to pick up my step kids. Then there is the fact that I had a full hysterectomy last Feb and I am on HRT's and one of the side effects is high blood pressure but I will have to talk with my regular Dr. more about that when I go in. So I have a number of huge things that could be the cause for my issue other than weight. But hey it can't help to help that by becoming lighter and healthier.

     My biggest reason for loosing weight is to be healthier. Of course I would love the idea of becoming smaller. I would really love to enjoy trying on clothes again when I go shopping. But mostly I just want to be healthy and live for as long as God has alloted me.

       So I began this lifestyle change Jan 1. I chose that day just because it was the first day of the month. Had I not done it so totally impulsively I would have waited until Sunday this week just as I have done in the past.  For the first four days I followed the "Flat Belly Diet" book first four days menu almost to a T. I had to make some changes because there were some things that I refuse to eat like mushrooms or squash. I know that they are good for you but I still refuse to eat them. I also subsitted skim milk for 1% I hate milk as it but can't stand skim. But over all it was pretty easy to follow. This four day plan was just to loose the water weight and any bloating you might have. I didn't loose any inches in this short time, but I did loose 4.8 pounds which is really awesome in such a short time. I know that it's just water weight but it still provides me with that motivation to keep going. So today I have more food options to choose from and I can intake a couple hundred calories. This is for the long hall.

       My workouts are pretty simple. I do 30 minutes on the elliptical everyday. I do alternate the workout levels each day so I can burn more calories and so my body doesn't get to use to one level. In each level on my elliptical it automatically changes the intensity every few minutes depending on the level I have selected. I am also doing some toning and weight training. I will do the weights Mon-Wed-Fri and on Tues and Thurs I will do my Jillian Michael's DVD. I did that today for the first time. Oh my gosh I am so feeling it right now, in this DVD weights are used also. So five days a week I am getting some form or weight training. Maybe my wings will go away eventually.(flabby arms) Sat and Sun I am just sticking with the cardio part of the workout to have some form of rest.

      So far everything has been pretty good. I have felt a little irritable and stressed out at times but that is most likely due to my lack of caffeine or the kids whining or both really. I am trying to stay positive about this as much as I possibly can though at times it's going to be hard that much I know. Last year I did the South beach diet and I did loose 30 pounds and only gained back 10 which isn't bad but I had hit a plateau and fell off the wagon and just never got back on, and then I had surgery and couldn't workout for sometime but just never fully started back up with anything regular with eating right and exercising. In order to get the full benefit of exercising and eating right you have to both not just one or the other.

     "I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

                                                                                       Psalm 139:14

[Mom2Kyle03]

Jan. 5, 2010 at 1:14 PM

Good for you! Keep up the good work! I am doing the same, to be healthy. I think if we don;t look at it as "dieting" and just make better choices, it doesn't seem so hard.