Hello to whomever, besides me, has ever viewed this blog...
Just a quick update.
I have fallen victim to the in-school curse. My mom and Grandma recognized it before I did, but politely waited for me to mention it before concurring. The pale, acne-laden, pudgy face I am now donning is almost the exact same face I donned back in the early 2000s when I was an undergrad. It's not QUITE as pudgy. But if I don't keep continuing to work hard, it will be soon.
Anyway, I am excited to see more changes in my physical abilities. I am back to being quick on the ball in soccer. A couple of weekends ago I had a girl who is probably about 5 years younger than me whine to me, "you're too freaking fast!" :) Biiiiiiig smile. I haven't been called fast in almost 2 years. I do feel it. Although I am not slimming down yet (more on this in a second), I feel my strength and speed improving. I feel aerobic kickboxing has a lot to do with it since it works my quads a lot-having strong quads allows me to out-maneuver my opponents and then explode with speed to execute what us soccer players like to call a "juke" (see youtube videos of Cristiano Ronaldo for the definition of "juking").
My friend Bobbi suggested I try a new workout DVD by Jillian Michael's so I purchased it and WOW. I started with 20 minutes of pretty strong cardio to Biggest Loser's Cardio Max DVD and transitioned right into the Jillian Michael's workout (level 1 of course). Jillian's technique focuses on circuit training that combines 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs. Once you've done 6 minutes, you start all over again for circuit #2 and then circuit #3. It REALLLLY pushes you but it's very doable because when you're feeling like you're maxed out in exhaustion you think to yourself "I can SO do just 3 more minutes of strength training/2 more minutes of cardio." For me, the strength training is the most difficult and I actually look FORWARD to the cardio section. Then once I am exhausted from cardio I say "Yay-now it's abs!" Folks, that is the only time you will hear me say something like that lol. Anyway, if I don't make it to AKB tomorrow, I will be doing this same combo.
Now what to do about my EATING HABITS??
Stay tuned...
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Discoveries
Okay so today I had a good realization, as well as a bad discovery...
I'll start with the bad (because it's better to get it out of the way first...).
I am past the 190 mark.
There. I said it.
I weighed myself today in the afternoon and felt shame as I saw the scale read 193. That is 7lbs short of the 200 mark. Wow. I can't believe I am back to this. This is SERIOUS.
I will not dwell-just work to change that!
Now for the good news...I am hot!
Not in the vain, appearance way. In the body temperature way. Now you might think to yourself "well yah, fat people are hot all the time." But not with me. When I am unhealthy, I am nearly always cold. My brother says it is related to metabolism. I'm not quite sure, but I know my body and I know when there is a significant change. I was hot all day today even though it was crisp and cool outside. I nearly broke a sweat carrying groceries to my car from the store. I am excited about this because it is a sign that my body is starting to respond to phyiscal exertion more quickly again!
Today I did 30 minutes of cardio on my Wii Fit system using the new Jillian Michael's Fitness Ultimatum game. It's actually really good. I selected the weight-loss system which included 20 minutes of jogging (broken into about 8 2.5 minute intervals), and 10 minutes of other plyo-type exercises (fast squats, arm exercises, etc). All together I burned approximately 400 calories and really broke a sweat! Yesterday I attended Aerobic Kickboxing again and felt it HARDER than before because I pushed myself a lot harder this time. The day before (Sunday) I played a 50 minute soccer game with my team outnumbered by 4 players (we only had 7 as opposed to the usual 11). This definitely gave me a strong work out.
I am on an exercise streak and am going to do my best to keep it going. In fact, it's 10pm and I have the urge to go do something else for exercise! I think I am going to talk my BF into letting me do some Yoga on the Wii instead of playing guitar hero! :)
So yes, I am at a dangerous weight again, but I WILL change it!
I WILL!
I'll start with the bad (because it's better to get it out of the way first...).
I am past the 190 mark.
There. I said it.
I weighed myself today in the afternoon and felt shame as I saw the scale read 193. That is 7lbs short of the 200 mark. Wow. I can't believe I am back to this. This is SERIOUS.
I will not dwell-just work to change that!
Now for the good news...I am hot!
Not in the vain, appearance way. In the body temperature way. Now you might think to yourself "well yah, fat people are hot all the time." But not with me. When I am unhealthy, I am nearly always cold. My brother says it is related to metabolism. I'm not quite sure, but I know my body and I know when there is a significant change. I was hot all day today even though it was crisp and cool outside. I nearly broke a sweat carrying groceries to my car from the store. I am excited about this because it is a sign that my body is starting to respond to phyiscal exertion more quickly again!
Today I did 30 minutes of cardio on my Wii Fit system using the new Jillian Michael's Fitness Ultimatum game. It's actually really good. I selected the weight-loss system which included 20 minutes of jogging (broken into about 8 2.5 minute intervals), and 10 minutes of other plyo-type exercises (fast squats, arm exercises, etc). All together I burned approximately 400 calories and really broke a sweat! Yesterday I attended Aerobic Kickboxing again and felt it HARDER than before because I pushed myself a lot harder this time. The day before (Sunday) I played a 50 minute soccer game with my team outnumbered by 4 players (we only had 7 as opposed to the usual 11). This definitely gave me a strong work out.
I am on an exercise streak and am going to do my best to keep it going. In fact, it's 10pm and I have the urge to go do something else for exercise! I think I am going to talk my BF into letting me do some Yoga on the Wii instead of playing guitar hero! :)
So yes, I am at a dangerous weight again, but I WILL change it!
I WILL!
Hydroxycut-failure!
Hello again,
It has been nearly 6 months since I posted this initial blog. I thought about hiding the evidence but decided to continue with my candid account of my weight struggles. Let's do some catching up...
In short, hydroxycut was not for me. Weirdly, I felt none of the benefits that others claimed to have (super energy, lowered appetite, etc) nor the disadvantages (high heart rate). I felt pretty much exactly the same except I started getting these really painful blemishes (pimples) that would develop in less than a day and be like a full pustule by the night time. I was getting like two or three a week so I decided to stop taking it. All together, I tried hydroxycut for less than a month and no I didn't eat less or exercise more...
I was so ashamed that I had tried hydroxycut. I finally felt guilted into "Confessing" that I tried it (like it was a bad drug lol) to my brother, Bren. He's almost three years younger than I (see above photo) and an incredible athlete. Just like my dad and I, he's been involved in sports his whole life. At one point he was a ranked runner in southern california for cross country and probably could have been a great soccer player if he would have stuck with it (he gave it up for running). Anyhow, one day I told my brother I was ashamed of something I had done, and I told him I tried hydroxycut. Surprisingly, he did not respond with a verbal lashing or belittling (what I would normally expect)...he responded rather comfortingly by telling me, "we all get desperate, Jidger" (his nickname for me since he could speak-it was his attempt at saying "sister"). He pretty much said to just use that as motivation.
The following month, September, I began my 2nd year of graduate school. This was, by far, the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, thus far. Harder than running a marathon! To be blunt, I have been blessed with a strong academic mind. I'm not necessarily that intelligent-I just have a strong ability to focus, organize, and learn, thus I've never really had to "try" in school. A's were my most common grade with nothing under a B in highschool (except for the C+ I got in my first semester of Freshmen geometry-I fixed that quickly!). In my undergraduate years, same deal. I just naturally got high grades. Grad school, however-not the same deal!
The program is very intenstive, as the field I am going to be in is as well. Speech-Language Pathologists treat a multitude of disorders and impariments and we need to learn how to treat disorders effectively within two years. I had several classes, one clinic, and an online course that added a lot of extra stress and extra hours sitting at the computer. Basically, I was sitting in class 3-4 hours/day then coming home and sitting 4-5 more hours to do research, type papers, email, etc. I even gave up two of my three soccer teams because everyone had convinced me that it was adding too much stress. Let me digress about this...
This recommendation to drop soccer was probably the worst recommendation ever given to me. It taught me that I need to stop trying to listen to everyone around me so I may please them. I know what I can handle and NOT playing soccer was way worse for me than if I had continued to play. Now I already mentioned how hard grad school was and I was inundated with work and obligations related to school BUT I do believe that if I had kept my exercise outlet, it would have helped me make it through the semester with a little less stress. I have returned to the two teams and added an additional team and I'm already feeling better! :) Okay, back to the story...
So there I was, sitting 10 hours/day and getting less and less exercise. I was ALWAYS tired and always felt hungry. I did not discriminate what I ate very well. I tried eating healthy during the week but pretty much Thursday night through Sunday night was all junk food (takeout, fast food, pastas, sweets, etc) in execessive amounts. I was back to ordering a meal at Del Taco (my achilles heel) and an additional order of chili cheese fries and would finish it ALL. Yup-a quesadilla, two soft tacos, chili cheese fries, and a big ol' coke. I was lucky that the weight increase didn't show up right away...I still felt somewhat trim in September for my birthday party on the 26th , but by the end of Fall semster (early December) I could see a definite weight gain...I refrained from actually stepping on the scale, out of pure fear.
I didn't do much better during the holiday break. I planned to wake up early to exercise but I ended up sleeping in nearly every day. It was the laziest I had ever felt. Part of me doesn't feel guilty about it-I had worked my ASS off for three months (ask my boyfriend who dealt with two or three crying stress breakdowns he endured from me lol) and I wanted to do NOTHING. But the "reality" part of me knew I was making myself worse. It was common sense:
Low activity level + Unhealthy foods =increase in weight
My metabolism was already floundering again and not exercising much definitely didn't help it. Toward the end of November, my brother gave me some simple fitness/nutrition tips to get me back on the path to healthy: 1) watch my carb intake (don't do atkins or go non-carb, just be aware), and 2) reduce my salt intake. I have manged to do those things and he's right-just those simple changes make me FEEL better (less bloated!). He also suggested I start scheduling in thee days of exercise per week. He emphasized that it was not to be strenuous- this could be dispairaging to my motivation and wanted it involved simply to start building the habit. He informed me that all my committments to others were taking priority over my committments to myself and it needed to change. It was hard to work in the exercise at first but I MADE myself do it. This brings me to a big point...
Changes take time! Of course even with the nutritional changes and slow increase in exercise, I wasn't really getting the results I wanted. My brother stressed that this would be the case but I was not to let that defeat me! In fact, I can use my dad as a good example. As I was re-reading my previous post, I saw that I referred to my Dad as "obese" but this is no longer the case!! At thanksgiving, after not having really seen my dad for a couple of months, I was shocked and excited to find that my dad has dropped about 30 lbs! Of course this didn't happen over night. He has been trying to do this since about June but it just now, in late 2008, started to be really apparent. So, it was encouraging to get that first-hand reminder about how long of a process it can be to become more fit-but how worth it it is!
On Christmas day, I saw a picture of myself wearing my most "slimming" black sweater and wanted to vomit at the sight. I am back to overweight. The next day I set forth to REALLY get back into shape. I got in contact with my friend, Bobbi, who is a true fitness nut! She recommended I come to her kickboxing class (they use real bags, not just cardio) and instead of saying "oh I'll wait until the new year," I decided I couldn't waste another day! I went to the class and felt embarassed at my size as compared to all the fit and trim folks around me, but I just had to ignore it as much as I could. After all-I was there so I didn't have to look like this anymore!
I went to her class again the next week and am pretty much set to sign up for a membership. I made my semester schedule that includes cardio scheduled-in to my agenda. I also hope to fit in some yoga and resistence training in the evenings!
Once again, we will see what happens. I spoke with my Dad tonight about my goal of losing 25lbs and this is a big step for me. Once I verbalize a goal, it becomes a reality for me. In the past year or so, I haven't verbalized a specific goal because I don't think I was really serious about it. This time-I am serious! Stick with me and I shall keep you updated.
Thanks!
It has been nearly 6 months since I posted this initial blog. I thought about hiding the evidence but decided to continue with my candid account of my weight struggles. Let's do some catching up...
In short, hydroxycut was not for me. Weirdly, I felt none of the benefits that others claimed to have (super energy, lowered appetite, etc) nor the disadvantages (high heart rate). I felt pretty much exactly the same except I started getting these really painful blemishes (pimples) that would develop in less than a day and be like a full pustule by the night time. I was getting like two or three a week so I decided to stop taking it. All together, I tried hydroxycut for less than a month and no I didn't eat less or exercise more...
I was so ashamed that I had tried hydroxycut. I finally felt guilted into "Confessing" that I tried it (like it was a bad drug lol) to my brother, Bren. He's almost three years younger than I (see above photo) and an incredible athlete. Just like my dad and I, he's been involved in sports his whole life. At one point he was a ranked runner in southern california for cross country and probably could have been a great soccer player if he would have stuck with it (he gave it up for running). Anyhow, one day I told my brother I was ashamed of something I had done, and I told him I tried hydroxycut. Surprisingly, he did not respond with a verbal lashing or belittling (what I would normally expect)...he responded rather comfortingly by telling me, "we all get desperate, Jidger" (his nickname for me since he could speak-it was his attempt at saying "sister"). He pretty much said to just use that as motivation.
The following month, September, I began my 2nd year of graduate school. This was, by far, the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, thus far. Harder than running a marathon! To be blunt, I have been blessed with a strong academic mind. I'm not necessarily that intelligent-I just have a strong ability to focus, organize, and learn, thus I've never really had to "try" in school. A's were my most common grade with nothing under a B in highschool (except for the C+ I got in my first semester of Freshmen geometry-I fixed that quickly!). In my undergraduate years, same deal. I just naturally got high grades. Grad school, however-not the same deal!
The program is very intenstive, as the field I am going to be in is as well. Speech-Language Pathologists treat a multitude of disorders and impariments and we need to learn how to treat disorders effectively within two years. I had several classes, one clinic, and an online course that added a lot of extra stress and extra hours sitting at the computer. Basically, I was sitting in class 3-4 hours/day then coming home and sitting 4-5 more hours to do research, type papers, email, etc. I even gave up two of my three soccer teams because everyone had convinced me that it was adding too much stress. Let me digress about this...
This recommendation to drop soccer was probably the worst recommendation ever given to me. It taught me that I need to stop trying to listen to everyone around me so I may please them. I know what I can handle and NOT playing soccer was way worse for me than if I had continued to play. Now I already mentioned how hard grad school was and I was inundated with work and obligations related to school BUT I do believe that if I had kept my exercise outlet, it would have helped me make it through the semester with a little less stress. I have returned to the two teams and added an additional team and I'm already feeling better! :) Okay, back to the story...
So there I was, sitting 10 hours/day and getting less and less exercise. I was ALWAYS tired and always felt hungry. I did not discriminate what I ate very well. I tried eating healthy during the week but pretty much Thursday night through Sunday night was all junk food (takeout, fast food, pastas, sweets, etc) in execessive amounts. I was back to ordering a meal at Del Taco (my achilles heel) and an additional order of chili cheese fries and would finish it ALL. Yup-a quesadilla, two soft tacos, chili cheese fries, and a big ol' coke. I was lucky that the weight increase didn't show up right away...I still felt somewhat trim in September for my birthday party on the 26th , but by the end of Fall semster (early December) I could see a definite weight gain...I refrained from actually stepping on the scale, out of pure fear.
I didn't do much better during the holiday break. I planned to wake up early to exercise but I ended up sleeping in nearly every day. It was the laziest I had ever felt. Part of me doesn't feel guilty about it-I had worked my ASS off for three months (ask my boyfriend who dealt with two or three crying stress breakdowns he endured from me lol) and I wanted to do NOTHING. But the "reality" part of me knew I was making myself worse. It was common sense:
Low activity level + Unhealthy foods =increase in weight
My metabolism was already floundering again and not exercising much definitely didn't help it. Toward the end of November, my brother gave me some simple fitness/nutrition tips to get me back on the path to healthy: 1) watch my carb intake (don't do atkins or go non-carb, just be aware), and 2) reduce my salt intake. I have manged to do those things and he's right-just those simple changes make me FEEL better (less bloated!). He also suggested I start scheduling in thee days of exercise per week. He emphasized that it was not to be strenuous- this could be dispairaging to my motivation and wanted it involved simply to start building the habit. He informed me that all my committments to others were taking priority over my committments to myself and it needed to change. It was hard to work in the exercise at first but I MADE myself do it. This brings me to a big point...
Changes take time! Of course even with the nutritional changes and slow increase in exercise, I wasn't really getting the results I wanted. My brother stressed that this would be the case but I was not to let that defeat me! In fact, I can use my dad as a good example. As I was re-reading my previous post, I saw that I referred to my Dad as "obese" but this is no longer the case!! At thanksgiving, after not having really seen my dad for a couple of months, I was shocked and excited to find that my dad has dropped about 30 lbs! Of course this didn't happen over night. He has been trying to do this since about June but it just now, in late 2008, started to be really apparent. So, it was encouraging to get that first-hand reminder about how long of a process it can be to become more fit-but how worth it it is!
On Christmas day, I saw a picture of myself wearing my most "slimming" black sweater and wanted to vomit at the sight. I am back to overweight. The next day I set forth to REALLY get back into shape. I got in contact with my friend, Bobbi, who is a true fitness nut! She recommended I come to her kickboxing class (they use real bags, not just cardio) and instead of saying "oh I'll wait until the new year," I decided I couldn't waste another day! I went to the class and felt embarassed at my size as compared to all the fit and trim folks around me, but I just had to ignore it as much as I could. After all-I was there so I didn't have to look like this anymore!
I went to her class again the next week and am pretty much set to sign up for a membership. I made my semester schedule that includes cardio scheduled-in to my agenda. I also hope to fit in some yoga and resistence training in the evenings!
Once again, we will see what happens. I spoke with my Dad tonight about my goal of losing 25lbs and this is a big step for me. Once I verbalize a goal, it becomes a reality for me. In the past year or so, I haven't verbalized a specific goal because I don't think I was really serious about it. This time-I am serious! Stick with me and I shall keep you updated.
Thanks!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Hydroxycut Prologue
Hello out there!
This is Christina. I am 25, soon to be 26, a full-time graduate student in Speech-Language Pathology, part-time developmental interventionist, full-time girlfriend and auntie to my new baby nephew, Brenden!
This is my blog about my adventures in losing weight. I have decided to do something I've never done before- take "diet pills." I am excited and nervous at the same time. Here is some information regarding the path that led me to this point.
I am 100% Mexican-American which automatically means I most likely don't have good health genes lol. Both of my parents were trim when they were younger but are now overweight (more like obese). Both sides of grandparents suffer from weight problems, diabetes, heart problems, and high blood pressure. I was born at a healthy weight of 8.5 lbs and have been a "big kid" ever since. The notable thing about my childhood is that it was spent consistently engaging in sports and other activities. I began dancing and playing soccer in Kindergarten and in 5th grade I took up running as a hobby. In order to train for a local 5k, I would wake up at 6am every weekday morning to go running with my Dad. I was only 10 and definitely a big girl (I think I weighed 130 lbs!), but my Dad understood my athleticism and believed in me enough to let me run with him (he was a seasoned marathoner and triatholoner at that point; a USMC Gunnery Sgt as well!). I finished the 5k with ease and with a good time (I think it was approximately 24 minutes- not bad for a fat 10 year old lol). I was a runner from that time forward until NOW.
I'll return to running in a minute...my true passion has always been, still is, and always will be soccer. I loved it when I was 5 and I still love it at 25. I play for three teams, all strong and competitive, and with 20 years of experience, you better believe I am a consistent goal scorer! Even on my co-ed team, I get a good 5 goals per season (10 games). I played avidly in my childhood beginning in AYSO, moving on to club soccer in 7th grade, making th JV team at a VERY competitive high school (I was 1/5 Freshmen to make JV, only another 5 made Varsity, the rest of the freshmen played on the Freshmen squad or were cut all together), and became a Varisty captain in 10th grade. When college came around, I decided that after over 10 straight years of intensive training and playing, I would take a break...big regret!
Not only did I miss soccer (so much that I started playing on an intramural team less than 6 months into my freshman year at UCI), but I put on the infamous "Freshman 15" AND THEN SOME! Lack of physical exercise, and poor eating habits combined with a poor relationship with a man who constantly lowered my self esteem led to an estimated increase of about 30 pounds by the end of my 4th year at UCI. I was large and NOT in charge. At approximately 212 lbs, this was me:
Discouraged and depressed, my favorite roommate ever suggested I try weight watchers. The fact that I was now outgrowing the standard PLUS sizes (18s were getting tight on me) meant I needed to stop the upward spiral and try something. So I went the next week (mid April) to register and hit the "points" system with full force!
The weight steadily slipped off and by graduation in June, I had lost 22 pounds and was weighing in at 190! I was so excited but still not satisfied. Here's me at graduation with my brother (still have that round face):
As a graduation gift I was able to travel to New York, Amsterdam, and Italy and was sure I had gained some weight back but when I returned I was happy to find that all the walking, and firing metabolism helped me to lose another 5 pounds without really trying! Here I am leaving Amsterdam with my travel partner and best friend:
I finally had shoulders and my face was starting to slim down! BUT I STILL WASN'T SATISFIED. I realized that I could really make some changes if I dedicated myself to exercising so I started training for a marathon in October of 2005 and the weight just melted off.
By the time I completed the marathon, my fittest level ever, I weight a healthy 165 lbs (lower than I was in high school). Now I know 165 lbs doesn't sound all that healthy, but I had my body fat checked and I was 22%, which is considered "great" for a woman. Again, I have an athletic build...Here I was at my favorite point ever:
All was well for about a year until July 31, 2007. I broke my wrist in my soccer game-BADLY. Here's a picture of it:
Gnarly huh?? It required an immediate closed reduction (so my bones would not be on top of each other) and surgery with three pins to hold the bones in my wrist in place. I was put off work for three months which also meant no exercise. Big bummer! :( I know I probably should have REALLY watched what I ate (I was back to being able to eat mostly anything like I used to in high school) and done some light walking to stay in shape but I became depressed and decided I didn't want to do ANYTHING.
I gained a good 13 lbs as a result and even when I was able to return to soccer and exercising, those 13lbs wouldn't budge! My metabolism had slowed back down and I was once again frustrated. By December of '07 I decided it was time to return to the tried and true weight watchers. Here I am, pre-weight watchers (part 2) with the extra 13 lbs (183ish) at a wedding:
I worked my ARSE off on weight watchers (an upcoming family member's Vegas wedding was a huge motivation) and struggled just to lose approximately 10 lbs. I was back to 173, my steady weight for the previous year. It was hard but definitely noticeable. I became faster in soccer and was getting a lot of "are you losing weight?" from people. Here was myself and my *wonderful* boyfriend at that wedding in late April 2008:
The biggest difference was in my face and shoulders. Anyhow...after the wedding, I was supposed to keep working hard to lose another 10lbs for my June 2008 Bahamas trip, but I was exhausted from dieting at this point. It was an uphill battle for nearly three years and I completely gave up. I didn't stop exercising, in fact, I rejoined my girlfriend Bobbi with some friends to run 3xs a week in the A.M. I completed an 8K (5 miles) the week before the Bahamas with an average time, but I had absolutely NO motivation in continuing to run. I have decided I am pretty much done for good with running-especially since it really jacked up my knees (had never had problems until the marathon).
I also stopped tracking what I ate and dropped weight watchers again (I said I didn't have enough money to pay the 40 per month fee...partly true). By June I was back to 179 and although I was uncomfortable the entire time in the Bahamas in my 2 piece bathing suit, I decided I didn't care since no one knew me there lol. Here's me at the Bahamas:
This time what was different was my face was filling out and my ARMS were getting DIMPLY. The final straw came this weekend when my boyfriend took a picture of my cousin and I at a party and my arms looked like this:
YUCK! They look like the arms of an old lady.
SO HERE I AM!
Now, I did a lot of research about hydroxycut. I read the good, and the bad. I KNOW the best thing for me to do is "Eat healthy and exercise" but I find it incredibly loathsome at this point. After reading multiple accounts from successes and failures, I decided I would give it a shot. I have a pretty addictive personality so I know that I will follow the procedure to a tee and hopefully I will see some results!
Thanks for reading my epic journey of weight issues. I will be searching for some childhood/teen year pictures so you can get a good idea of what I was like as an adolescent lol.
This is Christina. I am 25, soon to be 26, a full-time graduate student in Speech-Language Pathology, part-time developmental interventionist, full-time girlfriend and auntie to my new baby nephew, Brenden!
This is my blog about my adventures in losing weight. I have decided to do something I've never done before- take "diet pills." I am excited and nervous at the same time. Here is some information regarding the path that led me to this point.
I am 100% Mexican-American which automatically means I most likely don't have good health genes lol. Both of my parents were trim when they were younger but are now overweight (more like obese). Both sides of grandparents suffer from weight problems, diabetes, heart problems, and high blood pressure. I was born at a healthy weight of 8.5 lbs and have been a "big kid" ever since. The notable thing about my childhood is that it was spent consistently engaging in sports and other activities. I began dancing and playing soccer in Kindergarten and in 5th grade I took up running as a hobby. In order to train for a local 5k, I would wake up at 6am every weekday morning to go running with my Dad. I was only 10 and definitely a big girl (I think I weighed 130 lbs!), but my Dad understood my athleticism and believed in me enough to let me run with him (he was a seasoned marathoner and triatholoner at that point; a USMC Gunnery Sgt as well!). I finished the 5k with ease and with a good time (I think it was approximately 24 minutes- not bad for a fat 10 year old lol). I was a runner from that time forward until NOW.
I'll return to running in a minute...my true passion has always been, still is, and always will be soccer. I loved it when I was 5 and I still love it at 25. I play for three teams, all strong and competitive, and with 20 years of experience, you better believe I am a consistent goal scorer! Even on my co-ed team, I get a good 5 goals per season (10 games). I played avidly in my childhood beginning in AYSO, moving on to club soccer in 7th grade, making th JV team at a VERY competitive high school (I was 1/5 Freshmen to make JV, only another 5 made Varsity, the rest of the freshmen played on the Freshmen squad or were cut all together), and became a Varisty captain in 10th grade. When college came around, I decided that after over 10 straight years of intensive training and playing, I would take a break...big regret!
Not only did I miss soccer (so much that I started playing on an intramural team less than 6 months into my freshman year at UCI), but I put on the infamous "Freshman 15" AND THEN SOME! Lack of physical exercise, and poor eating habits combined with a poor relationship with a man who constantly lowered my self esteem led to an estimated increase of about 30 pounds by the end of my 4th year at UCI. I was large and NOT in charge. At approximately 212 lbs, this was me:
Discouraged and depressed, my favorite roommate ever suggested I try weight watchers. The fact that I was now outgrowing the standard PLUS sizes (18s were getting tight on me) meant I needed to stop the upward spiral and try something. So I went the next week (mid April) to register and hit the "points" system with full force!The weight steadily slipped off and by graduation in June, I had lost 22 pounds and was weighing in at 190! I was so excited but still not satisfied. Here's me at graduation with my brother (still have that round face):
As a graduation gift I was able to travel to New York, Amsterdam, and Italy and was sure I had gained some weight back but when I returned I was happy to find that all the walking, and firing metabolism helped me to lose another 5 pounds without really trying! Here I am leaving Amsterdam with my travel partner and best friend:
I finally had shoulders and my face was starting to slim down! BUT I STILL WASN'T SATISFIED. I realized that I could really make some changes if I dedicated myself to exercising so I started training for a marathon in October of 2005 and the weight just melted off.By the time I completed the marathon, my fittest level ever, I weight a healthy 165 lbs (lower than I was in high school). Now I know 165 lbs doesn't sound all that healthy, but I had my body fat checked and I was 22%, which is considered "great" for a woman. Again, I have an athletic build...Here I was at my favorite point ever:
All was well for about a year until July 31, 2007. I broke my wrist in my soccer game-BADLY. Here's a picture of it:
Gnarly huh?? It required an immediate closed reduction (so my bones would not be on top of each other) and surgery with three pins to hold the bones in my wrist in place. I was put off work for three months which also meant no exercise. Big bummer! :( I know I probably should have REALLY watched what I ate (I was back to being able to eat mostly anything like I used to in high school) and done some light walking to stay in shape but I became depressed and decided I didn't want to do ANYTHING.I gained a good 13 lbs as a result and even when I was able to return to soccer and exercising, those 13lbs wouldn't budge! My metabolism had slowed back down and I was once again frustrated. By December of '07 I decided it was time to return to the tried and true weight watchers. Here I am, pre-weight watchers (part 2) with the extra 13 lbs (183ish) at a wedding:
I worked my ARSE off on weight watchers (an upcoming family member's Vegas wedding was a huge motivation) and struggled just to lose approximately 10 lbs. I was back to 173, my steady weight for the previous year. It was hard but definitely noticeable. I became faster in soccer and was getting a lot of "are you losing weight?" from people. Here was myself and my *wonderful* boyfriend at that wedding in late April 2008:
The biggest difference was in my face and shoulders. Anyhow...after the wedding, I was supposed to keep working hard to lose another 10lbs for my June 2008 Bahamas trip, but I was exhausted from dieting at this point. It was an uphill battle for nearly three years and I completely gave up. I didn't stop exercising, in fact, I rejoined my girlfriend Bobbi with some friends to run 3xs a week in the A.M. I completed an 8K (5 miles) the week before the Bahamas with an average time, but I had absolutely NO motivation in continuing to run. I have decided I am pretty much done for good with running-especially since it really jacked up my knees (had never had problems until the marathon).
I also stopped tracking what I ate and dropped weight watchers again (I said I didn't have enough money to pay the 40 per month fee...partly true). By June I was back to 179 and although I was uncomfortable the entire time in the Bahamas in my 2 piece bathing suit, I decided I didn't care since no one knew me there lol. Here's me at the Bahamas:
This time what was different was my face was filling out and my ARMS were getting DIMPLY. The final straw came this weekend when my boyfriend took a picture of my cousin and I at a party and my arms looked like this:
YUCK! They look like the arms of an old lady.
SO HERE I AM!
Now, I did a lot of research about hydroxycut. I read the good, and the bad. I KNOW the best thing for me to do is "Eat healthy and exercise" but I find it incredibly loathsome at this point. After reading multiple accounts from successes and failures, I decided I would give it a shot. I have a pretty addictive personality so I know that I will follow the procedure to a tee and hopefully I will see some results!
Thanks for reading my epic journey of weight issues. I will be searching for some childhood/teen year pictures so you can get a good idea of what I was like as an adolescent lol.
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