I start every New Year like most with a goal to lose weight. I start with a crash diet, promise myself to work out or start walking and it usually lasts until February when I get tired of not getting to eat the foods I like. I go right back to eating everything that is bad for me. But this year was different; I have five children which are growing up as we speak. My kids range from 21 years of age to 12. Yes, that is right I have a junior in college but this year it hit me that my kids are growing up and I am growing older. I decided that I want to be around for my grandchildren that will come in many years.
I decided that needed to start losing weight but I didn’t know where to begin. I kept seeing a posting from a friend about a challenge for skinny moms and I thought this would be right for me. My friend introduced me to Jennifer, we met one Sunday morning and we talked about her adventure of losing weight and exercise. She introduced me to SMC (Skinny Mom Challenge), she told me I could do it if she could. Jennifer expressed that you have to keep focused and anything was possible and I don’t know how or why but something clicked and I decided that I could do this.
January, 2010, I joined my first SMC and had the biggest support team then I thought possible. Through this challenge we were guided down the right path such as how to keep motivated, what vitamins our bodies needed, also what we needed to do for exercise. The SMC would send encouraging emails and I remember one being sent when we had a new snow. Jennifer told us to not get down because it snowed but to see the good things about a fresh snow. She reminded us to keep our heads up and that her weight loss didn’t happen overnight and I think that really hit home because I knew then to take it slow and steady to make this a life endeavor. SMC also motivated me by having us weigh in weekly keeping us accountable for our decisions. My weight was coming off but the inches weren’t so my next challenge was starting to walk or to do aerobics. My walking started with 30 minutes four times a week and has grown to now walking over 3 miles with the encouragement of my husband. I have feet problems and I honestly didn’t think I could walk more than a mile a day. I was determined that feet problems were not going to stop me. The next battle was what to do if the weather did not allow me to walk so I started doing aerobics. I wasn’t going to pay out a lot of money on videos when so much is offered on cable or satellite. I did some channel surfing and found some shows for me to perform.
Around June of this year, I decided to take the things that Weight Watchers and SMC had taught me and I started counting calories and continuing the walking. This has spread over to my family since I had to start cooking differently. I learned quickly that processed foods and pizza was loaded with calories. My husband also wanted and needed to lose weight so he started eating whatever I ate and he too has lost a total of 35 pounds. My children are also learning and keeping me on track. My daughter reminds me to add my calories into the computer. She helps me choose what to eat, for example, from the gas station when I need a low calorie chocolate fix. This has been a battle every day and will continue to be but I have found an inner willpower and dedication that I thought I wouldn’t find again. I am proud to say that I have lost a total of 43 pounds. I am not done yet and I would still like to lose about 10 to 20 more pounds. My biggest challenge is how to keep cooking healthy and be on a budget.
Rhonda
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