Getting Fit Takes Time

Working out. Dieting. Trying to live healthier lives. A lot of people make new year's resolutions to do all of these things to lose weight after the holidays. Some people do this knowing they need to get healthier. Knowing they're outrageously overweight. I fall into the latter of the two. I was the person that said every new years "I will lose weight". And then when I didn't see results, I'd give up.

Two kids and almost five years later, I'm finally seeing results.

Y'all... did you know making a lifestyle change to be healthier takes time? It's not something that's going to happen overnight. It's definitely not going to happen three months into you making the decision to get healthy.

I'm not telling y'all this to bring you down. I want to tell you this to encourage you. Because if you stick with it, change will happen. I want to share this with you because I'm still struggling with this. I look at pictures of how I was in 2006, and I get myself upset because of how "tiny" I was. Then I look at this:

This was May 2011. 4 years ago. This was me at my heaviest. I'm not proud of this. In fact, it repulses me pretty greatly, and my husband has even said "I didn't realize you had gotten THAT big". Ouch. "That" big. Granted, he loves me no matter what size I am, but he has said since then that he's glad I'm getting healthy. He's glad that I'm doing this for myself.

At that time I weighed close to 245 lbs. Heck, I may have even been pushing the 250 mark. This was also a little over a year after having Zander.

I'm here to tell you that I did try the fad diets. I tried losing weight quickly. It all came back and it came back almost double from what was lost. What works? Exercise, eating right, and drinking water. Plain and simple.

Here I am at 185 lbs today.

I still have problem areas. I'm still working on my belly fat. However, I'm much happier with the way I look and more importantly the way I FEEL today. I actually have better muscle than what I had in 2006. I've learned that the number on the scale is just a number.

These pictures are 5 years after the first time I said "I need to make a change". Even after falling off of the wagon and going through phases of eating poorly, I've still been able to lose. There may be months where I just maintain my weight, and that's OK. The important thing is this has been a lifestyle change for me.

I hope if you're reading this and going through a similar journey this doesn't discourage you. I want you to keep going. If I'm anything, I want to be proof that hard work pays off. No, I'm NOT perfect. Not at all. I do still love donuts and pizza. But this journey is teaching me that a healthier mom is a happier mom.

Linking up with Kenji

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