I won!

I won! I cannot believe it! Charlie’s family decided on Christmas that we would start a biggest loser competition in January. Charlie’s sister, Britani had done it with friends and was so successful. She looks amazing and she was very encouraging to all of us that we could do it too! We decided we would start on January 3^rd and do it for 8 weeks. The person with the biggest percentage of weight loss at the end of the 8 weeks, wins.

I was really excited to do it because I have struggled with my weight for several years. I am ashamed to say this but when I started this competition I was 3 pounds heavier than when I went to the hospital to deliver Shawn. How ridiculous is that? We want to have baby number 2 in the near future but I did not want to get pregnant at the weight that I was at. Losing weight has been on my mind nonstop for at least a year. I just had no idea how to do it without spending lots of money on special food or at the gym. I was very unhappy with myself and did not feel attractive whatsoever (even though Charlie told me all the time how pretty was/am).

My mother-in-law let me borrow her book called the “4 Day Diet”. It was perfect because it told exactly what foods to eat and what days to eat them. They were not outrageous foods that I had never heard of before, they were normal everyday food. This really helped me and I lost 8 pounds in the first week just by following this book. I am still following the book, kind of. I still eat the foods it lists just not on the certain days. I like to think that I have weaned myself off the book and am still successful with weight loss with my own food choices.

In addition to a healthy diet, I have upped my exercise that is from hardly anything to running or doing my workout DVD 4-5 times a week. Charlie’s family and I participated in Susan’s run. Some ran the 10k and some ran the 5k. Needless to say I ran the 5k. I was really worried when I found out we were doing this because I literally could not run to the end of the street! I am not kidding, even ask Charlie! How in the world was I going to run 3.1 miles if I can’t run to the stop sign? I decided to I had to start somewhere and would run as long as I could and then walk, then run, then walk and so on. Within a few weeks I could run 2 miles in 20 minutes! Now I had to add on that third mile! This was harder than I thought. I ended up doing the 5k in 33 minutes and 55seconds. I couldn’t have been happier!

This weight loss could not have happened without the support of Charlie. He has been so wonderful to eat salmon and brown rice for dinner even though I know he doesn’t really like either one. He has also encouraged me to go running even when I am dead tired from work and just want to lay on the couch.

So today was the end of the 8 weeks. I have lost 26 pounds which is 15.66%. I have dropped 3 pant sizes and am wearing clothes I haven’t worn in years. I have learned that weight loss is a small part physical and a HUGE part mental. I still have about 5-10 more pounds to go. My goal to get those pounds off by Shawn’s birthday which is in a month!