The Journey

Isn't Kelly Clarkson beautiful? She and other celebs who are of NORMAL weight are often criticized harshly for being "fat".



Take, for example, Jessica Simpson here. Beautiful, I don't care what anybody says. I would have never chosen to wear that outfit but still, she's certainly not fat.

With beautiful women such as Kelly and Jessica being dragged through the mud for putting on a few pounds and wearing "real person" sizes, it's easy to see why I've been shy about posting full body photos of myself on here.

It's a scary thought of being looked at and judged simply because I'm overweight. I know not everybody who views my blog will judge me but in my mind I am constantly being put through the rigors of every body's own visual examination....and failing.

I know I've shown this before but here is a picture of me (bottom right) my senior year of high school, a healthy size 8. don't let the picture fool you though...I had body image problems then too. Even though I was a very healthy size eight I still weighed in at 145 lbs. I was always stuck on that number and the BMI (which I think is bogus)...I didn't take into consideration that I had a six pack or some pretty decent guns (arms).

My battle with weight didn't start until I hit 20. That was when David and I got engaged...I blame my weight gain on him. NOOO! Not really. The picture above was taken two months after D and I started dating, I was 18. With us is first dog, Booger. David named him. I refuse to take the blame for that poor dog's name. ....sounds like a country song.... Anyway....


After I turned 20, for some odd reason, my body decided it hated me and began to rebel. Suddenly, my diet of pizza, burgers and Mexican food went straight to my mid-section and my weekend rock climbing expeditions were doing nothing to slow it down. Within a few months (like 14) I went from a size 8 to a size 20.


By the time I realized just how much weight I had gained we had so much going on in our lives (adoption, wild roommate...) I had no time to mess with trying to get healthy. I just kept buying clothes whenever mine started feeling a little too tight.


Once the adoption and everything else died down, I started paying more attention to the size of my clothing, the way I was eating and the stares I was getting. I did nothing about it though. I'd try eating right for a day then somebody would bless me with some sort of tasty goodness and suddenly I was back at square one.


Fast forward to February and the mystery illness. That was my wake up call. Immediately I started eating better and working out but as of the end of May I only lost six pounds, as I've told you before.


So, I started researching different diets that PCOS women have had some good results with and found out that the South Beach Diet is almost ideal for PCOS. After reading the book I decided to go ahead and jump into the diet with both feet.

I'm currently in the middle of day two and, I have to admit, it hasn't been easy. I broke down and had some fried noodles and two fortune cookies last night. Otherwise, I stuck with the diet perfectly. So, I guess I could just say that today is Day 1 and forget all about yesterday..but I won't. Day 2 is going well so far!

I also wanted to find a more intense workout to do at home. I've been using The Wave but quickly found out that #1) I don't have enough room in my apartment for it and #2) with Ethan around, it's a safety hazard. The work out with The Wave is great...it's certainly challenging and it's a lot of fun but it's just not practical for my lifestyle.

After reading the blogs of countless women doing the 30 Day Shred, I decided it was worth a shot.

Last night was my first experience with the work out and boy am I sore! I'm going to stick with it though cause this is one AWESOME workout. So, today is day 2 of my Shred 30 day countdown. I'll have a thing on the sidebar with updates so you all can keep up with my progress.