Nov
24
I’d gained a lot of weight after giving birth to my third son
November 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
About six years ago, I’d gained a lot of weight after giving birth to my third son. I had never been what anyone would call “skinny”, my normal weight is 165, with me being five foot nine, but not being able to fit into my clothes spurred me to do something about it.
I started in January, when I weighed close to 250 pounds. I bought a bike, and started to ride the bike trail every morning for an hour. I’d heard somewhere that the more you sweat, the more calories you burn, the more weight you lose so I would wrap myself in plastic wrap, and then put on my sweat suit over it.
To me the hardest thing about excising is actually getting started, and when I don’t see results right away, I get really discouraged, but I stuck with it and it finally began to pay off!
I began to drink more water instead of the sodas that I loved. I stopped buying sugar and after a few days lost the craving altogether.
I reduced my portions, and ate lots of raw veggies.
If I wanted a snack I grabbed an apple instead of a donut. I never ate anything heavier than a peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread past six p.m., and gave up my love of ice cream in favor of fat free frozen yogurt.
In May I enrolled in school and took a physical conditioning class four days per week, in addition to still riding my bike everywhere instead of taking the car.
The instructor was a tyrant, and he pushed us to go the extra mile. I remember the first week of class, every muscle in my arms, stomach, legs burned, but I worked through it and my body adapted.
We would start class with about forty-five minutes of calisthenics, and ended with about half hour of circuit training.
I avoided weighing myself on the scale, and just used a measuring tape instead. Of course it took some time to see any real progress, but my clothes were fitting me better, and I could feel my energy level increasing.
By the end of the summer, I was down to 170 pounds, and fitting nicely back into my fav size 12 jeans.