When I was in my teens and early twenties I could eat 5 Big Macs a day and not gain a single ounce, I didn’t even need to workout. Yah, I would have hated me too. But it was awesome and I never had to worry about my weight at all, I was one of the lucky ones. I was in the military and as I got older and my metabolism slowed I just had to work out a bit to keep those Big Macs off, but still no issue. I was thin, looked great and I thought I looked fat, oh the silly thoughts of our youth. I remember when I got pregnant with my first (before I knew) I was at my heaviest at 130lbs (I’m 5’4) and I was in a crazy fit dieting and working out.
My pregnancy started out fine, I was gaining weight slowly, but my life was anything but real joyous at the time. I was ridiculously stressed at work and I ended up getting Gestational Diabetes which I was unaware about until I was 40 weeks pregnant. I remember thinking something was wrong with my weight gain as it was climbing out of control and I inquired with my doctor several times about my blood sugar levels and was told I was fine. That I was just eating too much. However, there was some truth to that. I worked 12-16 hour days up until a week before I delivered. I was in the Army at the time and I was the only one left in my legal office as the Rear D and was handling not only all of my Brigade’s legal affairs, but working on a murder trial as well, with no help. So I worked a ton, I ate not as healthy as I could because I was in the office from early morning until the sun went down all week long and I was very stressed.
Not to mention I was also almost two weeks late and I was just huge. I gained over 75lbs. I went from my heaviest at 130 to over 200 lbs. I stopped weighing myself at 205, and that was about 2 weeks before I delivered. I ended up having a nice healthy 10.2 lb baby.
Since then my weight was hard to get off. That super fast metabolism I had? Yah she packed up her bags and left me. We have had an estranged relationship since.
After several months of hiding from pictures and disliking how I looked, I started going to the gym every day and went back down to 132 before I became pregnant with my second baby.
With her, life was different and I gained the normal 30lbs. I delivered at 161 and two weeks later I was 143. I started noticing that as the weeks went by I was only going up in weight, and that I weighed more than when I was only two weeks postpartum. Something needed to be done.
So I became active, watched what I ate and started with Jillian Michael’s 30 day shred. After two weeks of following the recommended schedule I started doing two of her workouts back to back. By three weeks I was adding in Leslie Sansone’s walk exercises and I started losing the weight and feeling amazing. I then started using Turbo Fire and Insanity by Beach Body and I got in the best shape of my life. I made a lifestyle change, I didn’t treat it like another “diet.”
I remember stepping on the scale and it read 119lbs, and this was full on muscle. I was LOVING how I looked and more importantly felt. I had so much energy. But then life happened again and I slowly went back to old habits. Going through a divorce, raising two girls and going to school full time got my mind unfocused and since I had reached 119, I decided to relax a bit…..or a lot.
Well, here I am a year later and I am back up to 132. Not heavy by any means, but out of shape, not toned, unhealthy and honestly, I am tired of buying bigger clothes again!
So what all this back story is leading me to tell you is that I am starting Turbo Fire again today. I am giving it my FULL commitment. Even though I did this before, I kind of did it my own way, mixed in Insanity and didn’t follow the program like it stated. Did I still get in shape? Oh yes, but I want to see what happens when I really do this.
I am not a beach body coach, I do not get paid to endorse them, I am a real person and it works. I know a lot of my followers signed on because I am heavily photography based, but I am going to keep up with my progress on here too. I feel that this will help me remain accountable. And that if anyone has been interested in these programs and a review from an average person instead of the hoards of websites and reviews written by people who get paid to sell these programs, then I hope you find something here. (However, with that said, generally those people are pretty spot on with their stories and they became coaches to help others as well, I just suck at sales so….I don’t want to take that on. My plate is full as it is.)
So today was day one of my 90 day program. I realized today how out of shape I am -I about died- but I am glad I made it all the way through. I know that within even 1 week my endurance will be up and I will be able to go harder. I will take my photos tomorrow and I took my measurements today. Cringe. But Day 1 is DONE. So I am one day closer to my goal and I am pretty excited about tomorrow.
If anyone has any questions, I’d be happy to answer them!
I won’t scare anyone by posting before pictures, but I will put this up. See that in the middle? I am hoping to never see that again!
1st Pic is before kids.
2nd Pic is 3 months after baby 1
3rd Pic is this 4th of July 4 yrs after baby 1 and 2 yrs after baby 2 and before Turbo Fire!
Turbo Fire Day 1-Fire 30 and Stretch 10
Tomorrow HIIT-15 is on the list. I will probably do something else as well. Stay tuned!
Life of Melissa Ann Marie 