My Struggle From Fat to Phat!

This is me in June 2008. I was at my heaviest...approximately 160lbs. Needless to say I just about fell over and passed out the day I went in for my physical and the doctor said I weighed in at 158lbs. I had a bit of a melt down 2 months after this. Okay...it wasn't a bit of a melt down...it was a full on PANIC ATTACK!!! I started crying and hyperventilating. I was getting that heat wave through my body that was making me freak out and not able to breathe. My (ex)husband's truck had manual windows and my seat belt kept locking on me so I couldn't get the window down for air to help me breathe. It took almost ten minutes to get myself calmed down enough to breathe and talk through my tears.


I was very unhappy with what I had allowed myself to become. I had always been tiny! I weighed all of 106lbs when I graduated from high school. Between graduating high school and three months later when I was in boot camp I gained six pounds and finally weighed enough to donate blood (still couldn't because I do not have enough iron in my blood). My weight fluctuated between 105lbs and 115lbs from 2002 to 2006. Starting the summer of 2006, I was put in a desk and I slowly noticed the weight coming on. I was still getting up and walking around and getting outside to sweat but it wasn't until late Spring/early Summer 2007 I weighed in at 140lbs. I wanted to get down to 130lbs before I got married in September 2007.

This is me on my wedding day in September 2007. I was just over 140lbs. I was not happy with how I looked. This wasn't the beautiful dress that I wanted. It was a very pretty dress but I had not achieved the goals that I had set for myself. I decided that I was going to buckle down and start counting my calories and really working out and was determined to get my weight and life back under control.

I started calorie counting and tried searching the Internet for information but kept falling short. It did not take long for me stop calorie counting. I continued to go to the gym but I did not adjust my "diet". I just ate...I ate when I was hungry, when I was bored, when I was tired, when I was sad, when I was upset...you name the emotion and I was eating...

When we were getting ready to transfer out to Oregon, we agreed to try and start a family. I did not want to start a family until I gained control of my weight. After my panic attack in August 2008, I got a gym membership and discovered SparkPeople.com! I started tracking my water intake, my FOOD intake, my exercise and my weight! I started alternating between cardio and cardio/strength training. I was hitting the gym 5 - 6 days a week. I was walking on the treadmill for an hour on just cardio days at an incline and at least 45 minutes at an incline on days that I also did strength training. After about eight months, my goal was to be comfortable in a bikini because we were finally taking our honeymoon and visiting our old roommates in HAWAII! I felt comfortable and was happy with how I looked but wanted to look better!

This is May 2009. I was about 135lbs and had been able to maintain that weight for a couple of months! I felt better about showing off my stomach and wearing shorts...something I had not done since before Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. I was stuck in jeans...and if you have ever lived in the south, you know how hot and humid and nasty it can get in the summer time...and I always wore jeans.

That smile right there...it is a genuine smile! That is at the top of Diamond Head overlooking Waikiki/Honolulu. I was having a blast getting to do all the things that I did not get a chance to do when I was in Hawaii while I was in the Coast Guard in 2003. Anytime anyone did anything fun, I had duty and was confined to the boat.





This was taken at the Coast Guard Christmas Party in December 2009. I was between 125lbs and 130lbs. My weight was staying pretty steady but I wasn't going to the gym on a regular basis anymore. I was just calorie counting and working on my feet all day and that is how I managed to maintain my weight.

In January 2010, my parents separated and I gained weight. I went back up and was stuck at 144lbs. I could not seem to lose the weight. In March 2010 I took my first Zumba class and was hooked. At the time it was just starting to blow up! We had one class on Monday night, one class Tuesday morning and Tuesday night, one class Thursday morning and Thursday night and one class Saturday morning. Six classes and I was hitting every one of them! I became a licensed Zumba Fitness instructor in July 2010 and started teaching (*Note: By the time I left the gym I was teaching at in August 2011 there were about 10 or more Zumba classes being offered every week). I also found out in March that year that my (ex)husband could not have children and it broke my heart! I wanted nothing more than to start and have a family with that man.

Even though I was teaching, I wasn't losing weight. I was counting calories and strength training but just couldn't shake the weight. It wasn't until January 2011 that my marriage started falling apart. I lost a loved one. I was still recovering from the shock of not being able to have children even though I had been looking into artificial insemination that he just kept coming up with reasons not to go through with it at the time. With all the stress of my marriage falling to pieces and knowing that I was about to lose my home, my dogs, my financial security, I found myself losing weight but it was because I wasn't eating.

When my divorce was final, I moved back home in August 2011. I got a great job in September 2011 working outside. Constantly moving and physically demanding, I found that I was losing weight. I wasn't going to the gym but working was a workout! The pounds started to fall off and I have finally met my goal weight of 120lbs and I couldn't be happier! Here is me yesterday!


UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!

Oh It Hurts So Good!

As long as I can manage to get up in the morning on Mondays I hit the gym for a class called Group Power.  For those of you who do not know what it is (and I did not almost a year ago), it is a strength training class using weights.  The instructor targets a different muscle group throughout an entire song and it is so much fun!  I must say that I did not like it the first time I tried it.  I tried it on a Monday night and followed it up with Zumba after.  I could not walk right for a week.  I swore up and down that I would never take that class again.  That was in March!  I just recently started taking the class again within the last month or so.  I just vowed to never do it before Zumba ever again!

I missed out last week because I was not feeling too well.  The morning instructor started a new routine last week and I am still feeling the change!  One of the new ones involved doing squats, lunges, squats, lunges, and squats.  We end the set by holding a weight to our chest and continue with a number of squats and leg raises.  I felt perfect all day Monday and woke up yesterday morning and I cannot even begin to explain how much my butt hurt.  It was even difficult to teach Zumba Gold last night but I managed to complete it and build a pretty good sweat considering it was the first time I taught it as a 35 minute class.

I started getting a little nervous today because it was the first time I was teaching my Zumba class at its new time and no one was there.  People finally started to trickle in.  I ended up with five amazing people!  It is much better than the one or two I normally get!  Plus two of them were newbies to Zumba!  It was great!  It was quick though!  30 minutes went by fast!  I told them that if they needed water to grab it and jump back in because with such little time I could not stop the music for water breaks.  My legs felt like jello by the time we were done.

I got my stuff ready for Group Power and the instructor that normally teaches in the morning was called in to cover for the evening instructor so I got to do her squats/lunges/squats/lunges/squats...again!  I thought my legs were going to fall off.  They were not happy with me at all!  After class I needed to get in another half hour or so of cardio in (because my 30 minute class just was not enough...and I did not have the energy to stay for the later Zumba class) so I hopped on one of the elliptical machines for 45 minutes.  Towards the end it just kind of popped into my head that I had not eaten anything all day and only consumed some water and a little bit of coffee.  Man.  I am exhausted!  I am going to finish watching Star Trek and then it is off to bed!

Until next time!

Another Day, Not Another Dollar

I am a certified Zumba Fitness Instructor. I only have my certification in Basic 1. The gym that I work at has 4 (soon to be 5) Basic 1 instructors and 2 Zumba Gold instructors. Our Gold instructors have conflicting schedules so when one cannot make it to their class, the other cannot cover. That is where I come in. Even though I do not have my Gold certification, my gym asked me to cover if I can. Since I do not have the training, I just talked to the two who do and have come up with amazing workouts that everyone enjoys and is escentially Zumba Gold. I have been covering the Gold classes all month for one instructor who had to have ankle surgery.

Now normally I get slightly upset when I have to cancel a class due to no one showing up but today was different. It is because of the snow! It snowed ALL MORNING! When I woke up this morning I could not see the snow because my hubby has installed our new curtains. After he let the dogs out, he came into the bedroom and opened the blinds and told me that it had snowed just a little bit in the night. It was a very light dusting...and by light I mean there were just little spots that you could visibly see that wet, white stuff.

I got up, made some coffee and ate one of my yummy muffins for breakfast. While sitting on the couch and enjoying one of my shows on the DVR I just happened to look up and out the living room window. It looked like a snow globe outside! Big, chunky flakes were falling slowly to the ground. It was beautiful. I don't normally like it to snow around here. I like the snow and think that it is beautiful but I hate that it has to get that cold to snow.

It would shift from big flakes to some snow flurries to barely there snow flurries all morning until about 11:30am. We had a nice white blanket all over the yard and the street! I actually wanted to go outside and build a snowman but wasn't sure when my hubby had last cleared the dogs "land mines" from the yard. It wasn't until tonight that I thought I might have made one on the deck since there was enough snow to make a small one!

Look at that...I started off talking about Zumba (one of my most FAVORITE activities ever) and how no one showed up and that I think it had to do with the snow and the coming holiday but the snow side tracked me! It is not time for me to try and go to bed and get some sleep because I am just exhausted and have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Even though I have my class to teach tomorrow afternoon, I almost wish no one would come but on the other hand I want to stay afterwards for Group Power.

Alright...nighty night!