30 weeks of consistant diet and exercise!!!

Thoughts: I can't believe I'm at my 30th week of consistent diet and exercise! That is truly mind boggling to me! I keep pushing myself, I don't stop. Once I passed the eight week mark I knew for sure that I was capable of continuing. Losing weight has definitely been more of a mental challenge versus a physical challenge. Walking away from bad habits is tough whether it's food, smoking or alcohol. During my journey Tyrone has expressed his constant support in my dedication to losing weight. In my eyes he's done something equally amazing in giving up smoking cigarettes. I've never smoked a cigarette a day in my life so I could never comment on the addiction but I do understand the relation when it comes to overeating. We have each others back through all of the changes that we are both making. I'm on my cardio kick this morning, I'll have to write more later! I have a lot on my mind this morning :-)!!

In the beginning...starting my weight loss journey

I began to get serious about losing weight and getting in shape at the beginning of November 2009. I saw a picture of myself from my brother's 30th birthday party in August 2009 and I was mortified with what I saw! Yes this was me and I looked at myself in the mirror everyday but I didn't realize how big I had gotten! It was a major slap in the face. In the summer of 2009 I was at the heaviest weight I have ever been...a whopping 275!!!! Imagine my horror when I stepped off of the scale after seeing that number pop up! It was a sick and nauseating feeling and I remember thinking that there was no way I could redeem myself at that point. I had all but given up.

I began walking a few days a week in the summer but did little else to change my habits. I have never been a "junk food" person but I ate way too much of other things. I always ate seconds at dinner and sometimes even thirds...CRAZY!! By September I had fallen off of the wagon and stopped walking altogether.

I received a phone call in early November from a family member telling me my auntie Desiree (a very dear friend of my mother) was in the last stages of stomach cancer and that if I wanted to see her I'd better go soon. It took me a few days to make it to her house but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. My beautiful auntie at the age of 43 had withered away to skin and bones. The last time I saw her was at my brother's party and we all thought that she was getting better. Seeing her go from being perfectly healthy a year prior to fighting for her life woke me up, seeing her that way changed me. I made a promise to her and myself on that day that I would get healthy and lose the excess weight I was carrying around. On December 19, 2009 she lost her battle with stomach cancer.

I'm glad that I have this picture with her to remind me of why I keep going. In her memory I am proud to say I've been able to keep my promise to her and myself. As of today I've lost 70 pounds since August 2009.

A few of my favorite exercise DVD's

Since I don't have time to go to the gym to workout, I have collected quite a collection of DVDs that I keep in heavy rotation for my daily exercise.

This is a list of my FAVORITES:

30 Day Shred, No More Trouble Zones and Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism (Jillian Michaels)
Turbo Jam (Chalene Johnson)
Ultimate Tae Bo (Billy Blanks)
The Hollywood Trainer Series (Jeanette Jenkins)
Zumba Fitness (Beto Perez)
Walk @ Home Program (Leslie Sansone)

In the beginning I started out slowly using the Walk @ Home and Turbo Jam DVDs 3-4 times a week...doing as much as I could. A few weeks in I added strength training onto my routine in the evenings. At first I was working my upper and lower body on the same day but eventually starting alternating my sections. I pushed myself hard and the soreness I felt was unimaginable!! I look back now and can't figure out how I managed to push through it??

Taking it from the top

I'm up early this Saturday morning getting ready to complete my workout for the day. I plan to come back later and add a post that details more about my journey. The past year has been an awesome time in my life. I've taken on a completely different attitude about life and how I choose to approach things. I've learned a lot about myself...my strengths and my weaknesses. I've learned to make myself my top priority. In doing so I've managed to lose 70 pounds thus far through diet and exercise. I've coached myself through this continued transformation but I must say that I have a HUGE cheering section :-)! I am blessed and I hope through blogging about my experiences and life choices I'll be able to help someone else out along the way.