Thirty Eight Down - One Hundred To Go

Welcome to my blog!  This is my journey from fatty to healthy.  I'm not a fitness expert, a nutritionist or a weight loss guru.  I'm a pastry cook with a serious genetic leaning towards being overweight.  Not a good combo.  I've been significantly overweight for more than a decade.  Probably more than half my life.  That sucks.
Last year I was in the hospital for fifteen days total.  I had appendicitis, an abscess afterwards and then pneumonia.  When I first went in for appendicitis I weighed approximately 280 pounds.   Please, for the love of God, don't tell anyone!  Complications following surgery put me on SERIOUS antibiotics and pretty much destroyed my immune system.  I ended up having a cold for 2 months straight which turned into pneumonia and landed me in the hospital for a third time.  This picture was taken about a week before I got pneumonia.  That's me in the HUGE blue shirt. 

I was released just before New Years Eve and immediately declared 2012 the year of Raewyn.   As soon as I started feeling better I put myself on a strict diet and started exercising.  I joined my extended family's weight loss competition and immediately started shedding pounds.  In a few weeks I started feeling better.  My clothes got looser and I had more energy.  I started Zumba at my local gym, took up roller skating and instead of sitting around while watching TV I started doing squats, lunges, planks and leg lifts.  It makes me feel a lot less fat while watching Dancing with the Stars.

Between January 1st and March 28th I went from 268 pounds to 230.  At my height I still have about a hundred pounds to go but I have a great start and I've acquired a lot of knowledge about getting healthy.  I now realize that everything I put (or don't put) in my body makes me who I am.  Self control is not something you are born with.  It's something you learn, just like nutrition and exercise habits.  Everyone is different, but this is what works for me:

• I eat 1200-1400 calories per day.  I count calories on my iPhone using the My Fitness Pal App.
• I exercise every day even if it's only going for a walk.
• I never eat the calories that I burn while working out.
• At least twice a week I try to push myself to do something harder like zumba or skating (Not running.  I hate running.  My husband can do as much wacky barefoot running as he wants.  I'm out.)
• I use a support system.  This is HUGE!  For me this includes my mother, father and extended family.  My cousin's husband and I were neck and neck the whole weight loss competition and without him I probably wouldn't have lost half the weight I did.  We weigh in every week and I know that I'll feel like crap if I haven't kept up. 
• I remind myself daily that if I do slip up on anything I can fix it tomorrow.  Eating a couple chips in a moment of weakness does not blow my diet.  It does not blow my week.  It just means I need to do better tomorrow.  

Below are a few of my before and current pictures.  I don't want to believe in after pictures.  I'm not on a diet for a couple months.  I'm eating and working for towards a healthier body.  That won't end even when I get down to the weight I want.  So here you go:  Fat Raewyn and Slightly Improved Raewyn. Obviously that's my dog.  I'm finally starting to see results in my face (and, oddly enough, especially in my calves.)  I need to track down a recent picture of me standing regularly.  Forgive me.

               






Me last fall before my appendicitis approximately at my heaviest weight.

                  

  Me earlier this week about 50 pounds lighter.

So there you are!  My cheekbones are coming back, my dog loves me more and I feel great.  We are continuing our weight loss competition on weightlosswars.com.  If you want to join us please email me.  A strong support system is the best motivation I have found.  I hereby promise to post on this blog at least a couple of times every week and let you know about everything that helps me so I can, in turn, help you.

Stay Strong!

Raewyn