The year is 2012. I found myself pregnant yet again. All of that weight that I got rid of jumped me. Guerilla style. I am not really sure what happened. I’m just gonna pretend that I was attacked by all of the foods at one time and grew to my heaviest weight ever. Just imagine brownies lying in wait around every corner ready to jump directly into your mouth. I gave birth to my son. Just 11 months later began (at the time) the worst year of my life thus far. All in one year I hit my peak weight, split up with my now ex-husband, took up smoking again, and fell into a deep depression. I gave my life a hard look and realized that I had to change things again. Now, I no longer had the ability as a single parent to afford a gym membership. I had to do this at home. Here is what that looked like.
I purchased P903X and started logging my food again. This time with an app. I had the same routine every day and I stuck to it religiously no matter how I felt. Get up, make breakfast, get kids to school/daycare, work, pick up kids, help with homework, clean the house, play with the kids, make dinner, get baths/showers handled, put kids to bed, finish whatever work I brought home with me, and then finally work out. By the time I got done with all of that, I would take a little time to sit, watch television, and paint my nails. I think I got to bed most nights by about midnight. I would sleep until 5am and then start it all over again. I was tired all of the time. I would allow myself Sundays to do nothing and catch up on sleep. Just typing it made me exhausted. However, this routine kept me going. Between this routine and the most amazing friends a girl could ever ask for, life got better. I found myself singing again and feeling better than I had in years. There was no mystery in what I would do each day and the weight began to fall off. These videos followed HIIT (high intensity interval training) and were only about 40 minutes in length. I felt and looked better (in my own eyes) than I ever have in my life. My point behind all of this is that you CAN find the time. Find a schedule and a routine and stick to it. Not only did I follow HIIT but I took my children outside as often as possible. We played soccer, catch, Frisbee (and sometimes a weird combination of all three, we make our own damn rules in this house). The absolute best feeling out of all of this was being able to run with my kids! I wasn’t out of breath climbing the stairs. I didn’t need to sit down. Sometimes they needed a break well before I ever did.
We find ourselves so busy in life and give ourselves so many reasons we can’t do something. Even now I am sure there are many people reading this thinking, man, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. There is no way I can find the time. Yes you absolutely can. 30-40 minutes 6 days out of the week can be squeezed in there. You read so much about optimal times to work out. In the morning mostly, and never late at night. Listen to me right now: you find the time that works for you any way you can. You do what you have to do to get healthy. A year is nothing. To unabashedly quote Rent, there are 525,600 minutes in a year (roughly). You get to choose how you spend them. If you want to get healthy stop telling yourself all the reasons why you can’t and rearrange your life so that you can. Money was stretched so tightly for me that year that I barely had any wiggle room. Eating healthy on a tight budget can definitely be done. I kept things so very very simple. I switched out past for zucchini noodles (which was cheaper). I ate so many eggs. I lived on Tuna sandwiches or salad every single day for lunch. It can most definitely be done. You just have to be diligent, often times fed up, and ready for an actual life style change. Are you there?
100 pounds later I was so happy that I did. I wish now that I had more pictures from that time in my life so I could show you what a huge change this was for me. I’m so glad I made those decisions and not only saved my physical health, but my mental health. I showed my kids good habits and choices and made memories during this time when it was just the three of us that I will cherish forever.
Get ready. Make the change. You will be so glad you did.