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Hey there, welcome back!
This post has been a looooooong time coming and it's definitely been
quite the journey for me and a looong journey at that.
If you want to skip my story and get right to what I'm doing and how I got my results CLICK HERE.
To read more about my weight loss journey, see more before and after photos and find out my top 3 tips to achieving your goals then keep reading!
First I want to address some common questions and misconceptions about myself and my weight loss journey. My most asked about question is if I'm naturally skinny or naturally smaller built. To start with that answer I'm super short, 5ft tall to be exact so any weight can seem like a lot on my frame. My weight fluctuates really easily, I'm naturally curvy and no matter how skinny I get, I will always have curves. I have gained and lost weight multiples times throughout my life and I don't expect that to stop anytime soon.
I lost almost 50lbs after college, the stress from school, commuting, no workout routine what so ever, plus WAY too much junk food really took a toll on my body. After graduating college and taking a few months off before starting my career I started loosing weight pretty quickly and that was my first sign of how much stress really took a toll on my health. Using that as a way to jumpstart my new lifestyle I started from square one on my fitness journey. I got a little carried away and got pretty thin for awhile from eating SUPER healthy and running everyday and from then on it was kind of yoyo dieting lifestyle. I would eat super healthy and workout a ton, achieve my weight goal and then essentially stopped working out and binge ate for a while until the lbs snuck back up on me and then I would have to start the crazy cycle all over again. I lost 15-20lbs before my wedding and was back at my goal weight. A month after our wedding we found out we were PREGNANT! YAY!
I thought I would be the kind of pregnant women who would take yoga classes basically up until I gave birth and would stay really fit, but that just wasn't the case for me. My first trimester I pretty much just slept all the time or at least it felt like it, and I also had pretty bad morning sickness. Luckily that ended and I was getting my energy back heading into my second trimester. I still felt really weird when I tried any classes so all I did was walk 3-6 miles EVERY SINGLE DAY literally up until I had a baby. I never missed a day. Rain, snow, shine I was out walking with my dad and our dog Ellie every single day! That's what worked for me and I stuck to it! I also probably over indulged on the food a bit but that's okay, It was totally worth it... Until I hopped on the scale heading into the delivery room learning that I had gained almost 60 lbs during pregnancy. OMG! My doctors weren't concerned at all, I never had gestational diabetes or anything like that and we ended up having a beautiful, healthy baby girl! A lot of the weight was water weight, and almost 7 of those lbs were a beautiful baby! Even with all of that I didn't magically go back to the weight I was pre-pregnancy. The weight actually came off really REALLY slow, and you know, life happens right?
I started walking 2 days after leaving the hospital and I was right back to walking every single day until I was cleared to start working out. The one thing I recommend out of everything that you do is TAKE PROGRESS PHOTOS! It is seriously so mind blowing and amazing how our bodies change over time. What may not seem like any change since we see ourselves everyday looks like a HUGE transformation when you look back at progress photos. I will share all my progress photos, but please be nice! It is such a hard thing to share, but I have really learned to love my body every step of the way. I put my pregnancy first, I put my baby first, I put my family first and more importantly I LIVED! Each pound I put on is a reminder how I carried a baby passed term, was strong enough to have an amazing labor (I only had to push for 8 min and she popped right out!) and sharing so many amazing meals with all of my loved ones. I don't regret any of it, but I know it took some serious determination and hard work to get to where I am today so don't let my story discourage you. Instead let it be a motivation and know that if I can do it you can too! I'm not back at my pre pregnancy weight and I'm not sure I want to be. I feel really comfortable and I have finally found a routine that is easy to maintain.
After having a baby I have stretch marks. I have sagging skin. That's just the reality for me and I'm just so okay with that, it was all worth it to me! Most importantly to me I feel healthy and like my self again. I'm able to lift my little girl, run and chase her and not get totally winded or feel like I'm going to pass out. This is my NEW lifestyle and it's so easy to maintain. I feel like I'm going to stick to my new routine and I love that I have finally found a program that works for me and I will definitely be doing this a lot sooner after having more babies in the future!
BIGGEST TIPS:
1: Take Progress Photos & Measurements
2: If you're going to weigh yourself buy a scale that tracks weight, body fat %, water %, BMI, and muscle %. You can find the scale I use HERE. It makes a huge difference in your outlook when trying to loose weight. The number on the scale doesn't always change but it's amazing to start seeing the changes in loosing body fat %, gaining muscle % and staying more hydrated!
3. Set small attainable goals for yourself. I'm the queen of shooting for the stars but that can sometimes bite me in the butt and leave myself feeling more disappointed and defeated than when I started. I used to think of what I "should" be able to accomplish or what I "used to" be able to accomplish before baby. I would've started from not working out at all to thinking my goal should be to work out 6 days/week for an hour+ at time like I used to and honestly that's not a realistic goal for myself anymore. I would always be setting myself up for failure rather than for success. Life changes all the time and so should your goals. I start small with something like working out twice a week for 20 min and getting in family walks when I can. That was easy to accomplish starting out and I could easily add in more days or longer times for workouts when I felt comfortable.
HERE'S HOW I GOT MY RESULTS:
Before this progress photo was taken I was naturally getting great results loosing half my baby weight in 4 months. Then Ryan's dad got in a really bad accident which sent him to the hospital for about two weeks and then he ended up passing on with Ryan's Grandpa who passed away two days after his dad's accident. It was a really hard time for all of us, and because of our situation I had gained most of my weight back and was starting all over again. October- February of last year I only lost a total of 5.3 lbs but lost 12% body fat and gained 8% of muscle. The pounds don't seem like much for the amount of time but there is progress happening if you're looking at body fat and muscle. How I got to this point was just by eating a balanced diet and trying to stay away from carbs and working out as often as I could for as long as I could.
Keep scrolling to read how I realized this is not the best way to go about loosing weight and how I found a quicker alternative.
After February came and passed it seemed like I was working so hard and seeing very little results so I started looking for something else out there. Were there different workout plans I could try? Or diet programs I haven't looked into? At this point I felt like I would try just about anything to start feeling like myself again. I came across a program called Faster Way To Fat Loss if you follow me on Instagram you saw my journey and watched my pounds fall off my body. I first started seeing quite a few girls on instagram try this program and knew of a few girls who also had babies start this and they all had AMAZING results. I hadn't heard one bad thing from my research looking into it. In my head I was like, well you can't argue with real life proof of your results... especially when you know them and see their results in person. I realized I need to try SOMETHING different so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try in mid April.
It's a 6 week program.
With this program they combine intermittent fasting, carb cycling and macros. When you combine these three habits you're able to burn fat quicker. They also have you input your information into an app with your height, weight, age and your specific goals to figure out exactly how much macronutrients you should be eating for your specific goals which I just think is so incredible(it takes the hard work out of macros)! I have tried a few diet programs before that tell you to stop eating dairy or carbs (good carbs actually help regulate your hormones and we NEED them) or gluten and anytime I told myself I couldn't have something, I wanted it even more. This was the first program that was all about balance and eating the right foods at the right times and combining how you eat on certain days with specific exercises to ensure maximum fat burning. It's more structured in the sense that there is an eating schedule and certain foods to eat on certain days but less structured in the sense that I'm able to still eat all of the foods I love (including the bad foods) and still get amazing results. No cutting anything out! My husband did it with me, he was super into health/nutrition when he was in college, he basically lived at the gym at the time and even he said it's the easiest program to follow and it focuses more on balanced eating habits than any other diet program he's ever heard of. I lost 5 lbs the first week of doing this 6 week program and I ended up losing a total of 17 lbs at the end of the 6 weeks. I was able to accomplish shorter workouts that the plan suggests and got in some short cardio sessions once/twice per week. I also had an amazing coach that I checked in with everyday on a private facebook page and she was able to help me along my journey and answer every question I had along the way. I will definitely be continuing this program. Even if I get pregnant again I'll be following this and definitely using these tools to help with postpartum in the future.
I'm so sad I didn't find this program sooner, I had waaay better results in these 6 weeks than I had the 12 months prior. Oh well, I'm just glad I have it now and I'm so happy it gave me an extra boost of confidence, I'm feeling so strong and like myself again! If you want to try out the program and see more info on it you can click HERE. If not just know that if I can do it, YOU can too! Our health is the most important thing we have especially if we have little ones that rely on us. We can't take it for granted. I hope this post gives you that boost of motivation and a little inspiration to get back on track to feeling better and healthier! <3
My journey has been a long one but it's been so worth it! I'm sure I'll keep having more of these progress photos as life continues to happen and possibly more babies in the future!
"(fun fact Lb is an abbreviation for libra which means balance or scales in latin! That's where Lbs comes from, thanks mentalfloss.com)"-ryry
