Where have I been?

My shapeup journey officially started in February 2009. I was 100 pounds overweight and I was not comfortable in my own skin. I avoided mirrors and especially cameras. This was the heaviest I'd been in my whole life as I had a very active childhood and early adulthood. I had gained 100 pounds slowly in a little over 5 years. I had tried many (many!) things over the years only to stick with them for a while obsessively and actually lose weight then suddenly stop one day and gain it all back.


In February 2009 I had been married for almost 3 years. We were happy, we just moved, we just bought a house, we were paying off debt, we had good jobs, we were checking things off the list like crazy. Except for one thing that was just out of reach, getting pregnant. I never actually went down the infertility road officially but whatever we were doing was NOT working. My OB suggested losing weight to see if that would help, because sometimes "a woman only needs to lose 10 - 20 pounds to get things jump started".

Well, that was all the motivation I needed. Was it possible that I was the one preventing us from getting pregnant? Was it my selfishness and lack of self-control that made it so we were unable to conceive? It was on that day that I decided to lose the weight to either rule out obesity or not from our infertility equation.

I started tracking what I ate and realizing all of the unhealthy foods that I was consuming. We had been going out to eat A LOT and it was unreal all the calories I was consuming in 1 day. In order to break the going out to eat habit we both took a "30 Day Challenge" to NOT EAT OUT. It worked! Not only did we not eat out once but we also saved a ton of money and I lost 21 pounds in that first month. I would stay around 1,200 calories a day but on top of calories I consumed less than 20g of fat, and 200g of carbs, and I tried to consume at least 80g of protein.

Eating right was only part of the equation though. Exercising came next. We were already members of a health club and we hadn't been in months. I asked myself "what makes it so hard for me to get to the gym?" See, in the past I always set these rules... for example 1) I promise to work out at least 3 days a week or 2) I will go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, etc. This time around I set only one rule *I will work out every single day, 7 days a week*. This was so much easier for me since I had no excuses to throw off my routine. Now, realistically I worked out 6 days a week, but if I at least strived for 7 then I had no excuses. I put working out first and I always made time to go to the gym sometime during the day before making any other plans.

Working out after we both got off of work was the best option for us. We would usually go to the gym every weeknight at about 5:00 or 6:00 and we would work out for usually 1.5 hours. I would do 20 - 30 minutes of weights and strength training then 60 minutes of cardio. I mixed up my cardio too, indoor track, treadmill, elliptical, arc trainer, treadclimber, stairmaster, etc. There wasn't a cardio machine in the whole gym that I hadn't worked out on.

At this point in my journey it's been 9 months and I am VERY happy to say I have lost 80 pounds! I have also lost 5 pant sizes and 3 shirt sizes. I feel great and I can hardly remember the woman I was 9 months ago.

I have had infinite support in my lifestyle change. My friends and family have been so motivating and helpful along the way. I have inspired 3 different friends to make their own 30 day challenges and countless friends have gotten back into the gym because of me. My wonderful husband says he's been motivated by me, he's lost 25 pounds and went from 200 to 175 and at 6' tall, he's looking HOT! My beautiful sister too! She's lost over 50 pounds and she's almost at her goal! We've definitely all been each others inspiration!

I am not to the end of my shapeup journey yet, but it's been such a fun road to be on that I can't wait to get there. I have postponed it for now though because... I'm almost 14 weeks pregnant!

(-80 pounds @ Lee Canyon - 11/15/09)

Gallstones, back with a vengance...

I haven't posted much lately and I'm sorry. My gallstones have come back with a vengeance and I'm back to eating 0 fat every day. I'm a pretty creative gal but 0 fat makes for a bland diet no matter how you cut it. Fruits, veggies, fruit juices, Super Whey protein shots. I am going to incorporate more processed "fat free" foods into my diet this week and see if I can get a better menu going, like fat free cottage cheese, fat free milk, etc. So far I've been eating only naturally fat free items.

I have had 3 attacks in the past week. Having a gallstone attack is pretty hard to describe but I will try...

They almost always happen at night. I will lay down in bed to go to sleep and start tossing and turning to find a comfortable position for 15 minutes or so. I will feel a dull ache/pain in my middle to upper back and it starts getting hard to breath. Most of the time I will go downstairs at this point, so at least my husband can get some sleep. The pain in my back will get worse and worse, making it almost unbearable to breath. At some point the pain will also radiate to my right side just below my ribcage. Occasionally I will feel contractions of sorts, which is my gallbladder squeezing bile (the stones are in my gallbladder so when it squeezes to break down any fats is when I get the pain). To lay down makes it worse so I have to sit up, usually on the floor while leaning against a wall.

The pain lasts anywhere from 45 minutes to 8 hours. During this time you can always find me vomiting (I get really really nauseated). Moaning doesn't help and just worries my husband more, haha. I usually have the cold sweats and I assume that's not from the gallstone attacks itself, but from the sheer pain.

I've tried many things to help the pain go away: V-8 Vegetable juice, warm bath, warm shower, 64 ounces of water, throwing up, having a bm, laying on my side, heating pad, sitting up, basically nothing stops it. What usually ends up happening is I will eventually fall asleep around 4:00 or 5:00am sitting against a wall. I will wake up with a sore backside and a stiff neck but the pain inside me will be gone.

I am going to put a call into my surgeon today to see when we can re-schedule my surgeon to have the dumb thing removed. I can't live like this.