Keep Hydrated!

My husband's new food journey was so educational for me and very informative. He did so much research and started making so many positive dietary changes. I started to pay attention. The first change was to stop drinking any carbonated drinks. First of carbonation expands your stomach. It also can be counteractive to your weight-loss efforts as well as dehydrating. Carbonated drinks are also diuretics and remove water from your body so it may quench your thirst temporarily but water is the key element in staying hydrated. In order to burn calories you need to have an adequate amount of water to function efficiently. Water also helps maintain muscle tone by assisting your muscles in their ability to contract. Other very important benefits of drinking water:

• Get Healthy Skin
• Flush Toxins
• Reduce Your Risk Of Heart Attack
• Cushion And Lube Your Joints And Muscles
• Get Energized And Be Alert
• Stay Regular
• Reduce Your Risk Of Disease And Infection
• Regulate Your Body Temperature
• Burn More Fat And Build More Muscle

Okay so drink more water is what I kept hearing about and reading about. How was I supposed to know exactly how much water to drink? The best way to figure this out is if you take your weight and cut it in half and that is how many ounces of water you should drink a day. For example if you weigh 150 pounds you cut that in half and you should drink 75 ounces of water a day. I thought this was a nice easy trick.

I had tried many times before to drink more water and couldn't stand it. I felt like I was constantly running to the bathroom. I had to push through for a few days your while my body flushed itself of all of the water it has been storing for years of "survival mode". My body was getting rid of what it didn't need during this time. Eventually (a few days) I reached a "break-through point". I started to realize that water has amazing health benefits and this is a key element for beginning a much healthier life. It is something that has been a wonderful key to my health.

"Transformation is not five minutes from now; it's a present activity. In this moment you can make a different choice, and it's these small choices and successes that build up over time to help cultivate a healthy self-image and self esteem.".  ~Jillian Michaels

How I got here....

Growing up I was always told I was built like my Grandma and she was a heavy woman. This is something was the first detrimental thing that affected me more than I realized. That to me meant as a woman I was going to be heavy. I have two beautiful daughters, Kayla who is 11 and Lindsey who is 7. I had a very hard time getting rid of the baby weight I had put on after each of my pregnancies. I figured it would just come off. I kept thinking to myself I will start working out and lose it easily but that never happened. I lost my Dad to Lung Cancer 5 years ago and that is also something that was a huge factor in me gaining weight. I am the older sister and I felt so much pressure to be the strong one and be there for my younger sister and my mom. At the time I didn't really deal with what had actually happened. I dealt with this by emotional eating. My blood pressure had also gotten very high during this time as well. I went to the doctor and he told me that I needed to lose 50 pounds to begin to get control of my blood pressure. It was 180/200! I was 30 years old and was in shock that my blood pressure had gotten so high, How could that be? I really did not think I had gained that much weight and thought I honestly needed to lose 20 pounds and I would be at a healthy weight. But that scared me. I had decided to try and lose weight for my health and for my family. I tried for 2 weeks with no success and gave up. I really wasn't that serious and felt like I was going to fail so why try. It was too hard and 50 pounds seemed like so much. That was too overwhelming! My fear of not being able to succeed was stronger than my fear of my health. I was put on medication for my blood pressure and monitored for a year. Finally they got control of my blood pressure but my doctor kept encouraging me to lose weight. He gave me brochures on weight management classes and nutrition classes. My response was but I eat healthy, I eat fruits and vegetables but I was also a member of the clean your plate club. This was another challenge I had to overcome. By this time I weighed 235 pounds! I hate typing that but it is the truth and that was my starting point.

My husband and his success as well as my daughters were a huge inspiration in my pathway to a healthier life.

My goal is to ispire others to have the same success I had by sharing the steps I took to get to where I am now which is 95 lbs lighter.