Weight Loss is Hard

I bet you’re wondering where I am with my health journey and weight loss, huh? Short story is, weight loss is hard! It’s taken me a year to update you and it’s taken me a year to upload any post about anything to this blog. All I can say is…life. This last year, heck, the last two years, has been a heck of a journey for anyone, am I right. I’ve seen some just getting by day to day, I’ve seen some that are exhausted like I seem to be and there are others that are always happy and didn’t seem to miss a beat and took on the challenge of getting healthy and are succeeding. I commend them, I don’t always like them (I mean really, I love them am happy for them and proud of them) but sometimes I just roll my eyes to myself and think “show off”. (ha-ha) Seriously, I mean that in the funniest way!

I Haven’t Made it to Goal Weight Yet

My journey ended up taking a turn that I wasn’t expecting. I thought by now I’d be so close to my goal weight I could taste victory, with high energy, less irritable, and all that. I bet my kids were hoping for the less irritable, ha-ha! If you remember my last post about my health and weight loss, I had gained the most weight I had ever gained in my life. Yay me, where’s my trophy? So much extra weight and bloat that even my shoes don’t fit right. I wish I could say that things were going well and that I’ve lost a ton of weight, but I can’t. It’s been a struggle for sure and frankly, most of the time, I haven’t been serious, and my mind has been in a place of instant satisfaction which I have found through food. I’m not the success story I wanted to be in a year’s time, but it is a progress story and progress is always good.

My Body Hates Me

The biggest challenge I’ve had is being tired, exhausted even, unmotivated, no desire to move forward. A mind set change happened, unfortunately it was one of “I don’t give a (fill in the blank)”. If you remember, I mentioned a program that I was on to help me stay on track and lose weight. I did lose some weight, however I had zero energy and when you are burning fat there is typically a boost in energy. I was like a limp, chewy piece of bacon, no fun. I kept feeling more lethargic, irritable, moody and just not feeling right. Then I started having digestive issues that were not normal. Apparently, my body had had quite enough and said that’s it woman, you keep feeding me stuff I don’t like and I will eject it. That is exactly what happened. We were on vacation at the beach. I was not having a great time or getting a tan. I did make a new friend though, my new best friend the trash can. I consider this a toxic friend because this was absolutely no fun. I decided to stop the program I was on and managed to lose another 15 pounds by simply continuing to make better choices. I still didn’t have a whole lot of energy. Every other month I would be sick again, hugging the trash can then it would take a few days to feel somewhat normal again. I started to feel defeated. What a crazy cycle I was in and wasn’t sure how to jump off that track.

Dairy Intolerance

Let me give you a quick back story. After I had my 3^rd child, I started to notice a difference in how I felt when I would eat anything dairy related, especially protein powders with whey and casein in them. I figured it was some intolerance because I did some research and eliminated a few things from my diet. Again, just thinking it was a mild intolerance with little reactions and at the time I managed to get so close to my goal weight before I got pregnant with baby #4. (oops, we did it again) I was eating dairy with what didn’t seem like any reactions at all, so it was one of those things you put out of your mind because it wasn’t causing any issues front and center. Well, years later enters baby #6 (crap, we really did it again…and again…LOL) and a global pandemic with normal life stopping and so many uncertainties. What did I look to for comfort? Food!

I Gave Up because Weight Loss is Hard!

After stopping the program and still not feeling better I gave up. Then I noticed a trend of when I’d get sick and have a date night with the trash can it was after I had eaten a lot of, guess what, DAIRY for consecutive days. I mean, CHEESE IS SOOOO GOOD…mmm…mmm! Like massive amounts of it. Last week I decided I “deserved” all these cheese and dairy filled treats and foods. I felt I deserved all the “good” food because it tastes good and nothing bad has been happening. Something very, very bad happened that night. I lived through it (barely) and decided to do research again to truly understand the difference between a food intolerance and a food allergy. I have not confirmed with a doctor, but all the signs point to allergy. It explains the sporadic hives, the itchy skin, the extra headaches after eating and then of course the, more times than I’d like to count, date nights with the trash can and toilet.

I’ve decided it’s in my best interest to break up with my trash can. I mean, we can still be friends, because he does have a purpose, but I shan’t get that intimate with him again. LOL

I lost 40 pounds total, then gained some back at Christmas. Yep, just call me jolly cause I packed on the holly. I don’t have exact numbers but I do know that my net loss is currently 24 pounds. I’ll take it! I’ve converted that back to a win, y’all. It’s not the progress I wanted but it is still progress.

Just Do It

An elimination diet will be my new best friend to see if I can rid my body of these invaders that are making me sick and tired….and fat. It can’t just be the Oreos…can it? Ha-ha Gonna give the ole digestive and immune system a rest from doing more than it should. Mindset is also key. Changing mindset is extremely hard sometimes. I’m looking in the face of…no choice but to change mindset or always feel sick. Just Do it is the new motto I’m I’m trying to carry. BTW, have you ever heard of Art Williams and his Just Do It speech from the 80 (he’s given this speech a few time through the years, but I like this version the best. Watch it here.) Very inspirational!

Talk to Me

Losing weight and getting healthy can be so hard. If you’ve been on, or are on, a similar journey, gosh, this is proof that you are not alone in this battle! Hold up your Vitamin Water Zero next to mine and clink, cause this is cheers to moving forward one little baby step at a time.

Do you have a challenge or success you want to share? I’d love for you to comment on this post so say hello and let me know how things are going for you.