From the Bottom

Hitting rock bottom in terms of your health doesn't necessarily mean you will instantly choose to change. In fact, most people tend to wallow there awhile. It would have been easy for me to say that doing anything about my weight would have been too hard. In fact, that was my mind set for almost my entire adult life! Instead, when presented with a fork in the road--the fork of self pity vs. action-- I chose to act. Do you know what? It was hard! Consequently, it has also been worth it.
Where do you begin when you have no idea what you are doing? How do you change a life of bad habits? You start with what you know. For the better part of a year prior to my weight-loss, I had been toying around with the idea of using the Couch-to-5k app to begin running. I had even told others about it and it had been downloaded on my phone for months. It wasn't until January 11, 2014 that I had officially began to use the app. What a scary, hard, painful, adventure! I ran through shin splints for months before I realized I needed proper running shoes. I drug my kids along with me every day and they became my little coaches who pushed me harder and farther than I ever imagined I could go. I successfully completed my first 5k in May 2014 and placed 3rd in my age group.
The same day I started running,  I also started tracking what I was eating. In the beginning I used the Ultimate Value Diary app. The app is similar to Weight Watchers without the monthly fee. I was assigned points based on my weight and activity level and I was able to use those points however I saw fit. That meant if I spent 14 of my 35 points for the day on pizza, I'd have to be better about watching what I ate the rest of the day. With that app, I learned about controlling my portions. This actually floored me and quite frankly, made me mad in the beginning. Who only eats 1/2 cup of cereal in the morning? Despite this, I stuck to it. I learned portion control and made decisions that would truly lead me to where I am today. The benefit of this app for someone in the beginning of their journey is that it doesn't require changing your whole world all at once. There were some things I just had to give up cold turkey for my own piece of mind (Coca-Cola and Reese's cups) but everything else was still okay. As time went on I actually wanted to make changes to the quality of food that I was eating.
I have a lot of people ask me what I eat now. I am extremely hesitant to share this with people who are just starting out. I do not want to discourage them. The way I eat now is NOT how I ate in the beginning. The first 6 months of my journey were filled with all sorts of foods that I wouldn't eat today. In that first 6 months, I lost over 50 pounds. Do not nitpick yourself, just take it one day at a time. You will make changes you never imagined. To answer the question, almost 18 months later, I am a strict vegetarian. I have also given up sweets and pizza for the last 3 months. Renee 17 months ago would look at present day Renee and laugh at her. There was no way I would ever be able to change that much! I'm a living example, that with time, determination, and support, you can do big things!
With that in mind, please allow me to step up on my soap box for a minute. It hurts my heart to see people who are earnestly trying to better themselves, get put down for a food choice they made. I think it is super important to remember that we all start at different places. In my case, I had no previous fitness knowledge, so if I chose to swap out a can of soda for a glass of lemonade, I was making headway. If I decided to only eat one slice of pizza rather than three, I was winning. Life is a series of choices, of which we are all responsible for making. I cannot sit here with good conscious and watch someone feel bad for a decision they made when it is abundantly clear they are making better choices now then they would have before. At this point in my journey, if I sat down with a can of soda, I'd completely expect someone to call me out. That said, if someone had called me out in the beginning, it could have been a fatal blow to my lifestyle change journey. You can only do better when you know better. That said, there is a fine line between educating someone and criticizing someone. Remember that.

There is so much that I want to share over the life of this blog. Many people ask me great questions that I cannot adequately explain in the small amount time we are together. So I'm reaching out to you. What questions do you have?  Ask your questions and I will do a blog post dedicated to answering those questions. Don't be afraid, I have been where you are and I want to help you through!