Foam roller

Another Christmas has come and gone. Rylee's first Christmas too! We had a good day with family and enjoyed a good Christmas dinner...maybe enjoyed it a bit too much ;). Today is just a lazy day here for us, lots of pajamas, blankets, books, fire place, and relaxing! We did go out this morning to use a gift card we had gotten on a new blue ray player. We just needed a basic model so we didn't have to keep switching ours back and forth from the TV's. First world problems I know!

So it is almost 2014 - and although I am not really one for New Years resolutions I am actually going to make one this year (shhhh it was something I was going to do anyways, but might as well time it with new years to give myself a start date). But you will have to read later on this week to find out what my new years resolution actually is.

I have some lofty health and fitness goals and will be attacking them full force, no excuses. I have done it before and I KNOW I can get back there again. I am very close to my pre-pregnancy weight and then I will be losing what I had gained before getting pregnant. 

I have specific weight loss goals that I want to accomplish but I can't figure out a fitness goal. I think it would be helpful to work on them together since they go hand in hand but for the life of me I can't come up with something. I see my personal trainer three times a week but I know that I want something more -- I just don't know what.

We also have some financial goals we want to meet. We have made a debt repayment plan to be 100% consumer debt free by Dec 31, 2014. After that we will have a bit of business debt still to pay off but it will feel so good to get our consumer debt gone!

Today I made the next two weeks of meal plans and tonight I will go get the groceries after dinner. I am looking forward to stepping up the workouts, focus more on clean eating as well as point friendly foods and just continue on my weight loss journey. I do know that this is a process that I will take step by step - one day at a time! I also know that it is a journey that I will be on forever, and I am totally okay with that. On a side note: I am allergic to bananas and I am really sad that I have had to give them up. I really miss adding them to things like cereal, oatmeal, yogurt ect.

One of the gifts that I got is a foam roller, which will really come in handy over the next year as I get deeper into my workouts. What the heck is a foam roller you ask?! Well it is exactly how it sounds, a large roll of dense foam. It is for stretching out and massaging your muscles. It really hurts at first, especially if you are really sore but it feels SO good afterwards. One day my trainer made me do this crazy calf exercise and legit I had charlie horses in my calves for two days. It was beyond painful = not cool. We did some sessions on the foam roller and although it was painful at the time, I could literally feel the muscles relaxing. The pain relief was instant - I knew I had to get one for home! Since then I have used it on my legs a number of times and it feels so great. I am super happy my awesome hubby got me one for Christmas.

Rylee will be 10 months old on Saturday which means I only have two months left of my mat leave as I mentioned the other day. I totally plan on making the most of it!

My weight loss journey...

I thought I should write a post showing my journey for those of you who don't know me.

My name is Kelly and I am 23 years old. I started my weight loss journey when I was 19. I have been heavy all of my life and have tried many many ways to lose weight.

I got a gym membership in November of 2007 and was working out very slowly (as I couldn't move very much). I was trying to eat right but didn't understand why I wasn't loosing weight.

One night at the gym as I was about to leave I saw a weight watchers meeting and decided to get some more information. My aunt had great success on weight watchers so I wanted to find out what it was all about.

I ended up joining that night at a starting weight of 274.4 (the heaviest I had ever been - and ever will be). I went home that night and read through all of the material and got started right away. I decided that I was going to give this my best shot for a month and see where it got me (assuming I would fail). So I followed the plan, and low and behold my first week I lost 4.4 pounds! I was very pleased with this and kept working hard and the weight kept coming off. When you are larger the weight comes off easier at the beginning, but you don't really notice this.

When I got to about 40 pounds lost I was looking in the mirror and still did not see a difference, so I took a picture of myself and compared it to my starting picture and then I saw the difference.

Starting weight:

20 pounds gone:

40 pounds gone:

80 pounds gone:

115 pounds gone:

So many thoughts and memories are going through my head right now. It felt so great to hear from everyone how great I looked! The whole process took me just over two years from start to "finish". I say finish like that because it is never really over.

I do know that there are so many things that I enjoy doing now that I never could have dreamed of doing before - but I'll save that for another entry.

The whole time I was losing weight everyone asked me "what is your secret". My favourite thing to do was look around to make sure no one was listening, lean in towards them, and whisper "diet and exercise". Everyone thinks that there is some magic formula to losing weight and their kind of is, but it's not a secret. Calories in vs. calories out. However, that being said losing weight is NOT easy. If it was then no one would have a weight problem. It takes A LOT of hard work and dedication to get to your goal, but hey, nothing ever worth doing was easy right?

And as hard as losing the weight was it was the best possible thing I could do for myself. I know that I am not at my goal weight now but I am still far healthier than I was and can do far more things then I could ever dream of!

I am VERY open about my weight loss and have nothing to hide. The pictures of me before are reminders of what I was and what I will never be again. The pictures of me after are there for me to be proud and remind me of what I can accomplish if I put my mind to it (which, btw, is anything!)

Another thing that makes me proud is all of the people that I have inspired to lose weight. One of the greatest feelings is hearing how something I have said or done has helped someone else.

I will write a post sometime soon of what my "tips" are, so keep an eye out for it!

Until next time...