I figured it was time that I, at least, clue you all in to what I have been up to lately.  Yes, I have lost over 700 pounds….over the course of my life.  If any of you have struggled with weight loss, this story will probably sound very familiar and you will be able to relate to much of it.

Well, I started training for a 5K three weeks ago and started a 1 week clean eating challenge this past Monday. Gosh, I have learned so much! I want to start by giving a very brief overview of my personal struggle with weight loss and why I chose the clean eating challenge. Well, here it goes (this is the shortened version LOL)

I can remember dieting as far back as 3rd grade.

For all of you young moms out there, that was in the 1980’s for me. I also remember weighing well over 100 pounds when I was in the third grade; so to say I have a history of obesity is an understatement. My first memory of a structured eating plan/diet was when I attended Weight Watcher’s meetings with my aunt during my the 4th grade year (keep in mind, I would have been 9 years old going on 10). What I remember most about those meetings was that I lost 30 pounds and that was a huge deal to my mom and aunt.  As a reward for losing the weight, my mom bought me a new pair of white Reebok’s and a pair of women’s size 12 jeans with a zipper on the ankle. I LOVED the shoes, but still couldn’t quite fit into the jeans. WOW! I was in 4th grade, had lost 30 pounds, and STILL couldn’t fit into a women’s size 12 jeans….”HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM”  LOL

Let’s fast-forward 30 years to where I am now.

I am a 39 year old wife and mother of 3 who continues to struggle with her weight. I have tried Weight Watchers (of course), Herbalife, Slim Fast (I actually lost 90 pounds on Slim Fast), Atkins Diet, The Heart Hospital Diet, The Grapefruit Diet, Vegetarian Diet, The Cabbage Soup Diet, IT Works, Nutrisystem, Advocare, Plexus, The Green Tea Diet, and there are many more that I don’t have room to name. I even had surgery (sleeve gastrectomy) 4 years ago to shrink the size of my stomach and that worked…for a while. I lost 110 pounds with the surgery, but recently started gaining the weight back. Between a very sedentary job that keeps me at the computer for hours on end and my old snacking habits; I gained back 40 of the 110 pounds I initially lost…YUCK!

Why the clean eating challenge?

There are so many reasons why I chose clean eating, but I’m going to try and narrow it down to 4:

1. I am bringing my daughter along for the ride ~ Although my 15 year old daughter is not as overweight as I was at her age, she is still overweight and I want her to learn about healthy eating as opposed to “losing weight”. I want to teach her something that will stick with her for the rest of her life.

2. I didn’t want another “gimmick” ~ I know most of the products I have used in the past are quality products, but lets face it, they make money off of convincing you to use their products and I did not want that. I want this to be genuine.

3. I truly want to be healthy ~ I’m going to be 40 this year and am aware, now more than ever, of the long-term consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits.

4. I met an amazingly inspirational woman ~ Geaux Fit Nation kept popping up in my news feed.   I’m not real sure when I “liked” the page, but it just kept coming through with inspirational “life change” quotes and pictures of people, real people, losing weight.  So I did some research and found out that my husband knew the administrator of the page and I started chatting with her.  She invited me to her fitness group and then the clean eating challenge.

What I have learned in this week:

I have learned so many things this week; some from the challenge itself, but so much more from personal reflection.  The biggest lesson  I have learned through this is  that; though I have failed many times, I can still get back up and give it another shot; with that, I also know that if I fail this time, I can get back up and try again.  The biggest lesson I have learned about my my diet is that sodium intake is almost as important to weight loss as calorie intake!  I have never pee’d as much on a diet as I have in the last week with clean eating LOL  If you want to learn more about clean eating and the clean eating challenge, feel free to follow along at Geaux Fit Nation!

Be sure to check back often as I take you all along with me on this journey 😀