Shed 5 Fast Contest

I always had excellent blood pressure and cholesterol, I exercised (although not as often as I probably should have), and I even had a little bit of muscle definition—definitely no six-pack abs or tremendously sculpted arms, but the beginnings of what could have been a good thing.

Then I started working at an architecture firm and basically sat at a desk up to 50+ hours per week. I would get home late almost every night and all I wanted to do was take some time to unwind, clear my mind, and go to bed. Unfortunately, exercise was the last thing I ever wanted to do, even though it probably would have helped me out tremendously! So, during the 3 years I worked there, exercise became almost non-existent for me, and I gained about 20 pounds over that time period.

When I left that job in favor of an offer at a construction management company, I made a conscious effort to treat my body better. I started exercising again, and made better food and portion choices. I started losing weight slowly but surely, and was starting to feel a lot better about myself, too.

When my husband and I found out we were pregnant, we were elated. I continued to eat well and exercise, but I seemed to be gaining weight pretty quickly. Nevertheless, it wasn’t something anyone seemed overly concerned about. Sadly, a couple of months later, I had a miscarriage. I was so heartbroken. Weeks passed, and after all my hormone levels had come back to normal, I was shocked to see that I was still over 10 pounds heavier than my pre-pregnancy weight.

At this point, my overall health (excluding the glaring fact that I was overweight) was still excellent, I just needed to get my weight under control. I started counting calories and adding an additional day or two of exercise each week. My long term goal was to get my weight down to 140, a healthy weight for my age and height. I slowly started to see the weight come off again, and was excited to see the progress. But before I could even lose all of the baby weight, I found out I was pregnant again!

My weight remained stable for about 6 weeks, then started going up quickly again, despite my best efforts to keep it under control this time around. When my son was born (healthy and perfect!) my overall weight gain was over 40 pounds.

And then things got crazy! By the time my son was 20 months old the following things happened: I was laid off and started a new job; the architecture firm my husband worked at went out of business; he was offered a job in Texas; he moved to Texas; I stayed behind with our son to sell our house (in Ohio); then I took our son and moved in with my parents in Indiana until we could buy a new home; we bought a house in Texas and moved together; I was still 15 pounds away from pre-pregnancy weight from my son; and I found out I was pregnant again!

Our beautiful daughter was born in October 2010. I admit that I didn’t exercise regularly during this pregnancy, especially over the first few months. I gained almost 50 pounds during that pregnancy. I began exercising regularly again right before Christmas, and somehow, even with a newborn and an energetic toddler who runs around me all day, it seemed so much easier to include exercise into my daily routine. Since Thanksgiving, I have lost 20 pounds, and over 10 of those have come just from this 4 week challenge! I followed Lindsay’s 4-week workout schedule almost to a tee. Sometimes I swapped the days off depending on what I had going on. I’ve got to say that I feel sooo much better already. My road to better fitness and a healthy weight is pretty long, but the results I have seen over the past 4 weeks—like seeing how much better my pants fit, for example—are tremendous motivators. I can’t wait to show you more updates over the next year!