From Start to now....

Well, there is one thing that is a little more embarrassing then the last pictures I posted...My actual weight! For those of you who know me, please pretend like I didn't actually tell you what my weight was!

  At my heaviest I weighed a staggering 228.5 lbs!!!! I will NEVER EVER EVER let myself go to that ridiculous number! I look back now and can not believe how I let myself go that far! But I guess the important thing is where I am now!

   I now weigh 187 lbs. I have lost 41.5 lbs!!!!!! It has not been easy BUT it has ALL been worth it! I have taken myself to a level of fitness that I had when I was in elementary school!!! I have accomplished something that I NEVER thought I could accomplish! The funny thing about this whole thing is that I started HATING the gym! I had to fight with myself everyday to go to the gym, and these days, I feel like CRAP if I miss a workout day! If anyone ever thinks that they are unable to lose weight...YOU ARE WRONG!! With a lot of perseverance and will power, you too CAN DO IT!!


June 2010                                                                         December 2010 (190 lbs)

The beginning of the best decision I have made in my life!

Well, after I made the decision to lose weight, I knew the first thing I needed to do was to cut my caloric intake!! I had to cut all the burgers, french fries, and junk food! It sucked to think that I would not be able to eat all that amazing stuff anymore. As the weeks went on, it got a lot easier to not think about all that food. The exercise component was very important (and difficult!). The beginning of my exercise regimen was the following:

 5 X/week
35 minutes of Cardio (treadmill, elliptical, swimming)
30 minutes of free weights
and 10 minutes of abs, planks, and leg raises

Day 1

35 minutes of a mixture of a light jog at 4.5 to 5 and walk at 3.5 when I would get tired (and that was often at the beginning!)

Chest (I did 3 or 4 sets of 15 reps): Abs, planks and leg raises would be 5 sets of 30

Bench press
Chest Press (on the yoga ball)
Dumbbell fly
Push ups

Planks
Abs
Leg raises

Day 2:

35 Minutes Elliptical (On the sports training setting)

Shoulders (3 or 4 sets of 15 reps):

Bent over lateral raise
Extension rotation (On yoga ball)
Front raise (dumbbell)
Lateral Raise (standing)
Lateral raise (on yoga ball)
Shoulder press (dumbbell)
Shoulder press machine

Abs
Planks
Leg raises

Day 3:

70 Laps swimming

Back:

Back Extension (on yoga ball)
Bent over row (dumbbell)
Dumbbell shrug
Lat pulldown
One arm Dumbbell row
Seated cable row

Abs
Leg raises
planks

Day 4:

Same as Day 1 for Cardio

Legs:

Calf raise (on yoga ball)
Inner thigh lift
Kneeling kickback
Leg curl
Leg extension
Lunge
Squat (on yoga ball)

Abs
leg lifts

Day 5:

Same Cardio as day 2

Arms:

Dip (On yoga ball)
Dip (on bench)
Bicep curl (dumbbell)
Concentration curl
Lying triceps extension
Overhead tripes extension
seated bicep curl (on yoga ball)
tricep kickback
Wrist curl

Abs
Leg raises
Plank

Since I work shift work, It would depend on when I did my workouts. I would sometimes do 2 days on and 1 day off or 3 days on and 2 off. It would just depend how I felt and the kind of time I had. I would almost always do 5 days a week!

Nutrition:

Well, this is the hardest thing for me. It is hard for me to resist bad food because I have been addicted for too long! For the most part, my eating has been clean. I have done 5-6 small meals a day. My caloric intake began with 1680 calories a day. Here is an example of my day when I started this.

Breakfast:

Cereal 1 1/4 cup (corn flakes) and 2/3 cup of skim milk- 186 calories

Snack #1:

Apple (large size) 106 calories

Snack #2

Banana (large size) - 115 calories

Lunch:

Smart ones (Frozen dinner- Weight Watchers). Spaghetti and Shrimp- 190 calories

8 Melba Toast crackers: 160 calories

Snack #3

2 cups of Salad - 35 calories(mixed greens) and Balsamic vinaigrette (60/ tablespoon)- 155

Snack #4:

Fruit salad cup- 60 calories

Dinner:

1 chicken breast- 200 calories
Tex mex cheese-90 calories
1/2 cup of rice- 160 calories
5 tablespoons of tomato sauce- 30 calories=====480 calories

Total Calories: 1452 Calories

This is just an example of what I would eat. I eat a lot of cottage cheese, vegetables, fruits, and oatmeal. I also eat salmon, turkey breast, bread and so on.

 As I went on and lost weight, I downsized on my caloric intake. I downloaded a program called "lose it" on my iphone and that gave me a guideline of how much calories I should eat as I lost weight. I recommend this program to anyone who is looking for some help!

I always kept a food diary! This helped me keep a track of all the calories I was consuming a day!

Cheat Days:

I would cheat once a week. Eat whatever I wanted (I drank A lot of water though!)

Water:

I drink about 5 litres of water a day! This flushes out all the toxins! Water is VITAL to any weight loss program!

My (many) decisions to lose weight!

Well, as many people who are overweight, I decided many times that it was time to lose the extra pounds. Unfortunately I never stuck to the diet and the exercise.

  The first time that I decided it was time to lose weight, I was 15. There was this new and exciting diet that was a no carb diet and guaranteed results in a short while. Well, I was young and  naive, and of course I did it! Well, I got amazing results! I finally had the body that I always wanted! I did not have to exercise and only had to follow a diet. It sucked that I could not eat pasta, BUT I could eat chicken and other proteins (which I love), and the meal replacement BARS were AMAZING!

  Anyway, after I started dating Mike, I was eating a lot of junk food because that was the easiest thing when we were out. AFTER 3 MONTHS I BALLOONED UP!!! NOBODY TOLD ME THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!! I gained 55 lbs after 8 months of eating this junk food! I was devastated and wanted nothing to do with diets or eating "healthy". So I just completely let myself go!

  Then when I was in college, I decided to lose weight again. This time I did it the right way. I ate healthy and exercised! I was feeling great, I lost 20 lbs in 3 months! Then, I felt like I deserved a break and started to cheat AGAIN! FML!!! I fell into the exact same trap I did before...I gained that weight back again! I never really thought about it and moved on!

The next time I dropped 20 lbs was when Mike's brother got married! I did not want to be feel fat or ugly and most importantly I wanted to find a nice dress that fitted me nicely. I began to exercise and eat right and this time Mike started to do it with me so it was a little easier! I lost 20 lbs and found an awesome dress that I LOVE to DEATH! I felt ok ( I was still not where I wanted to be but it was a start). After the wedding I forgot about how good it felt to lose the weight and continued my old crappy ways! Again, I gained all that weight!

FINALLY, on 2010 August 4, I started reflecting on my life as a whole. I was turning 24 and still working as a Security Guard. I want to move on to my career (but I cant unless I am physically fit). I want to get married and someday soon start a family, but I cannot do any of these things until I am settled into my career. I was not feeling very good about myself because I was very overweight, nothing that I wanted to wear fit me! I was not able to really do my job properly because I could not run very fast and I would easily run out of breath! I hated it! I looked at the people around me and a lot of them are fit! My friends are thin, my sister in law is fit and I would yearn for that! I was realizing that I was not breathing very well (even though I quit smoking 2 years ago). So this would really FREAK ME OUT! My sister had a big 15th birthday party and we had a photographer. When I saw the pictures, I freaked out, because I finally saw what other people probably saw and I DID not like it!

   I started on the day above and to this day, I am still going strong! My next series of blogs are going to be about the diet and exercise that I have followed for the past 8 months!


 *** This is the picture that made me cry and me made me change my filthy ways! (This is really embarrassing!)

                      

In the beginning....And in my teenage years...and now...

My story starts in my early childhood. I was born in Guatemala (the Province of Mexico as some of you gringos like to call it!) and lived there until the age of 7. Anyway, if any of you know anything about Latin culture, it is that we like our fatty greasy foods and our HUGE meal portions! My Grandmother always taught us to eat eat eat! She would always make sure that we were full at all times of the day! Even if we were full, she would still find a way to make us eat!

In Latin American countries, meal times are breakfast, lunch and dinner. When I was growing up, my parents never taught me to eat small meals or in moderation. In fact, I am now a coke (soft drink) addict thanks to my father! At the tender age of 3, I would ask my father for money so I could go to the store and buy myself 1 litre of coke and 2 nusitas (a choclate pudding like snack). This did not happen once a month or even once a week...it happened EVERY SINGLE DAY my dad was home! I did not mind it because I loved coke in my bottle and I loved my nusitas, and well, my dad did not oppose to it either because that meant I would shutup and leave him ALONE!

For breakfast, in Central America, consists of fried black beans, huge loafs of bread, sour cream and eggs....and maybe some champurradas (baked goods) and a cup of coffee to wash all that down! (this qg a lot of the other stuff wasn't healthy.

When we came to Canada, our customs came along with us. Our diet did not really change, but i was introduced to "junk food". My parents joined a Church that they religiously went to on Sundays. My mom would not have time to cook because unfortunately, this Church thing was an all day event. So instead of having a cooked meal, we would have Wendy's every Sunday. Again, I did not complain because Wendy's is awesome!

Then my mom got a job! This meant that it was going to be fast food galour (since my dad did not know how to make anything other than fried eggs!). KFC, chick N' joy, McDonald's, burger king, coffee time doughnouts! It was amazing! I loved every single moment of it!! I am sure that my parents had the best intentions for us, but little did we all know the horrible addictions that they had instilled in us. Everything we ate was greasy and BIG. In fact, my mother used to make me a "triple decker" sandwich! It was good, but I was always so embarassed to eat it in front of my classmates because I was afraid I was going to get teased for being the "fat kid with the triple decker sandwich" oh FML!

I continued to eat this way through most of my Elementary school days. Although I was not 95 lbs, I was also not 200lbs. I was very involved in sports. I was on every school team. Cross country, track and field, high jump, basketball...etc. I loved sports. Although, I was pudgy compared to other girls, there were still other kids who were bigger than me, so I did not see a problem in continuing my "addiction".

Highschool. A nerve wrecking time for any 13-14 year old girl. Do I look fat in my school unifrom? Is my make up ok? Am I hot? All these things we worry about. I must admit, almost all those things went through my head on the first day of highschool. Thankfully, My mom was not making me my triple decker sandwiches anymore!

My eating habbits in highscool got worse. I was no longer in the school sports teams, but instead, I thought it would be a better idea to start smoking! This inactivity left my body no choice but to gain weight...A LOT of it! One morning, I was getting ready for school (it was sometime in grade 10 and a beautiful spring morning) and I wanted to wear my cute uniform skirt...little did I know that it would no longer FIT! This was the first time that I thought to myself "you really need lose that weight". I did (I will talk about that in the next blog).

In late 2003, I began dating Mike (still with him). It was such an exciting time in my life! It was something new and I had never been happier! Finally, I felt I could be myself with this person (regardless of what my weight was!) At this point, I had lost 40 pounds (so I did feel good about myself!). Unfortunately, I let myself go because I thought that if I "cheated" a little, I wouldn't gain so much weight. Little did I know that this was the worst thing I could have done because it would take me a Looonnngggg time to snap out of this habbit again!

College, finally in 2006, I had graduated highschool with honors, and ready to take on my next challenge! Ever since I can remember, I know I wanted to be a Police Officer! I always wanted to catch the bad guy and wear the cool uniform! I knew that I had to be fit in order to make it onto any force! I thought, i'll concentrate on the academic now and the physical later. As most of you probably figured, this was a bad idea! Anyway, I graduated college with honors, got a full scholarship and passed half of the physical components! NOT GOOD for the physical aspect!

Today, here I am! I am doing pretty good for myself. I live with my wonderful boyfriend, own a condo, have a good job (still not a cop though), do volunteering and working my ASS off to lose weight, pass the police physical test and go on to the next chapter of my life!

My very first blog!

This blog is a journal of my struggle and success with weight loss. I have finally made the decision to lead a healthier lifestyle through "clean" nutrition and a crap load of exercise.This blog is a journal of my struggle and success with weight loss. I have finally made the decision to lead a healthier lifestyle through "clean" nutrition and a crap load of exercise.

I have decided to start a blog in hopes of being an inspiration to anybody that has gone through the same struggles I have. I am also looking for any advice, inspiration and support from all of you!

Welcome and thank you in advance for taking time to read this!I have decided to start a blog in hopes of being an inspiration to anybody that has gone through the same struggles I have. I am also looking for any advice, inspiration and support from all of you!

Welcome and thank you in advance for taking time to read this!