Dog Tired

The plan was to grab the dog leash and take off. So the first couple days I did that. Then I decided that I wanted a little more. Charged up my iPod and away I went. I found that a passion for classical style music doesn't allow for much calorie burning. My next step was to load up some faster paced music. Yay Britney! :D
I set my iPod on the Pop Princess, grabbed Run's leash and headed out the door. My poor dog, two blocks from the house, gazed at me with his big brown eyes, pleading for me to slow down. There is a pace that I hit as I walked around my normal route, that made him pant and slow up, pull back a little, as we walked. The dog who usually dragged me for my walks was falling behind. Three quarters of way around my track my muscles ached, my breathing was heavier, I was sweating, and I was listening to the same song for the 4th time in a row. I realised in that moment that if I could walk to the beat of her song for the last few blocks, and keep that pace up I would feel like a superstar. I did it, and I did feel amazing. The next day I did the same thing, warming up with the fast paced song from yesterday and then working up to an even faster song and pushed myself and Rundle again. Today he was ready for it, he slowed a bit but pushed as hard as I did. My legs were stiff for weeks, the walking made my legs burn and lungs ache but at the same time all I could think was the old "no pain, no gain". I tried to get out at least three days a week, and sometimes I was able to get in four days.
Rundle and I picked a route and stuck to it. We mapped it on livestrong.com and discovered our regular loop was 3.32 miles. At the top of our game Rundle and I finished the loop in 25minutes. I made 20 minutes, only once though. 25 was our goal daily, and I busted my butt speed walking to hit our goal regularly. When we did the math we discovered that by walking our route in 25 minutes we were basically going 12km/hr. Felt pretty good to know that my power walks basically were as fast as some people walk... maybe I can be fit. Huh. Who knew?

My Plan...

Sitting at 220lbs and miserable I decided something needed to be done about how I was feeling, how I looked, and how much energy I lacked. A wonderful friend of mine had been working on her weightloss/get fit plan and she was inspirational. She pointed me towards livestrong.com, with the usual helpful advice as well as some of her personal findings. Although skeptical, as I had tried every diet known to man (atkins, grapefruit diet, cabbage soup diet, starvation diets, cleanses, etc etc) I made an account but didn't track anything. That was Jan 19th 2011.

Talking one day to my bestie, the lovely Jenn admitted that she was in the same funk as I was. We decided that we both needed to do something for ourselves for once. Being she is in Edmonton, nearly 5 hours away, making her a less than ideal workout partner. She also set up a Livestrong account, and together we muddled through the beginnings that would get us going the right direction.

Backing it up a bit - I always felt like such a lost cause. I tried numerous diets, including Herbal Magic and never lost an ounce. I also worked at the Curves location in Camrose when I lived there, working at the fitness centre for nearly 8 months and unfortunately the scale went down 1 whole pound, no matter how hard I tried. I took a nutritional course, and was able to look at what I was eatting and it still didn't seem to matter. I ate a high protein, low carb lifestyle and still nothing. It was depressing to do all I could think of without the scale needle even budging.

March 1st 2011 I plugged all my information into the Livestrong calculator and started reading food labels. I took into consideration all sodium, carb and protein counts, and watching closely as my daily caloric intake added up to it's "maximum" level. I had set Livestrong to "lose 2 lbs a week". Stepping on the scale only two weeks later, on the 14th, I found I had already lost 20lbs. Now, to be fair, we all know how water retention works, my body was a specialist at it. So two weeks of watching what I ate, watching my salt intake, and ensuring that I drink my 64oz a day, I chalked the weightloss up to water -retention-loss. I decided that if I wanted to keep losing like I had I needed to pick it up a little and do something a little extra. Lucky dog got to go on some pretty intense walks, poor thing wasn't entirely sure it was a good idea.

Starting MY Journey

As a full time working woman it can sometimes be hard to make sure that you are remembering to take care of yourself. Add "mother" to your title and it can be even easier to put yourself on the back burner. If you are an emotional eater, look out! Add in extreme O.C.D., a teenager, outstanding debt and you have a recipe for dieting disaster.

Most woman can relate to some of the quirks that I have already mentioned, and at least one person reading this can relate to them all. I have never realised how average I really was until recently. With a flaire for the dramatic I always thought "there's no way someone else out there is raising a stepdaughter only 14 years younger than them" or "I can't believe anyone else is this miserable with their body & their financial situation at the same time". That whole absolutely alone feeling.

With the birth of my youngest daughter in July 2010 I had a rude awakening. I'm not any more special than anyone else, I'm normal. Other women out there juggle full time jobs, 2+ children, the finances, a household (and all the chores involved with that), a mental illness, etc. As much as it quickly shut me up and I quit complaining about my world, it was also oddly comforting. There ARE other people out there who have been here/are here now and they understand what I am feeling. Thank goodness.

In February I was feeling that I was pulled so thin, I started wondering if it was the late onset of P.P.D (aka Baby Blues). I went to the doctor (lovely woman) to be told it wasn't P.P.D. but rather a very poor managed O.C.D and I had to basically rethink my daily routine. I went home, and with the help of my loving husband and oldest daughter we put together a list of my "ticks". It was extensive and rediculous. Honestly though, most of them were absolutely unreasonable. From the way the kids' IKEA bowls were stacked, to how the floor was swept, to the fact that if the laundry wasn't folded how I liked, I wouldn't only refold but rewash the whole batch. What a waste of energy. You would think a high strung woman with three kids and the tendancy to be crazy would be thin as a rail, but that would be wrong. At least in my case.















The heaviest I weighed in at was 265lbs, 7 years ago. Although the birth of my daughter Amelia, a bad relationship breakup and the beginning of a happy relationship lead to me dropping 35 lbs. I stuck around 230lbs for a few years, and after the birth of the youngest I managed a little more weight loss (gee thanks morning sickness and lack of appetite). I stuck at 220lbs for awhile, until 6 months ago. That's when I struck a new low, a huge funk, and without doing something extreme I knew that I was just going to keep sinking. That was a scary thought.