My Fitness Story... - Tracy

I'm very grateful today to my guest poster because she wrote this for me whilst away from home. I had no post lined up until I put out a request on Twitter on Monday for some new contributions - or the series would have had to take an enforced holiday. I know Tracy has been thinking of submitting her story for a while to me, and I'm glad she took the time to write all down for me. Tracy struggled with her weight after having children, suffering the cumulative effect of weight gain that successive pregnancies can bring, until she resolved to lose the weight for good last year. In total, she lost 5 stone in 8 months, which is pretty incredible - especially as she did it all by myself and all for herself, which is great. This story cannot fail to inspire you if you're struggling in any way with a diet or fitness programme. Over now to Tracy to take up her tale. 

My “struggle” with my weight goes back to my early twenties. I had been a size 8 – 10 and put on weight after university having money, driving a car and eating out. I increased to a size 14. When I look back, this seems like nothing, but I felt bad about myself. My self-esteem has always been related to my size, and I didn’t feel good. So I read a book, “Stop the Insanity” by Susan Powter and I followed it. It was a way of thinking about food and exercise. It motivated me and I stuck to it. It was mainly about watching the percentage fat content of food and increasing your exercise. I became obsessed, both with food and exercise, until I lost lots of weight and got down to a size 8. I felt great about myself, but I couldn’t maintain it. I was exercising before work, running for 40 minutes, then swimming 30 lengths, and doing classes after work. In all honesty, I got too thin and I don’t think I am meant to be that size. My weight started to increase again, but stabilised at a size 10 – 12. I still felt good about myself at this weight.

Me in 2007

I was this size when I met my husband, 11 years ago. I was just under 10 stone when we got together. We met and married in the space of 10 months, but in that time I went from a size 10 – 12 to a size 16. My wedding dress was a size 16. A couple of months after the wedding, I became pregnant. I saw this as an excuse to eat, and put on 4 stone during the pregnancy. I had a difficult and traumatic delivery with my son and it took me a long time to recover, physically and emotionally. It wasn’t until he was 3 years old that I felt able to do anything about the weight. But, in 2004, I got a new job and decided I wanted to make a new start so I began the Atkins diet. Once again, I was obsessed. I followed the diet to the exact letter. It worked. I lost weight, and fast. Within 3 months I had lost over 4 stone and I felt good again. The feeling I got when everyone asked how I had done it, commented on how good I looked and complimented me on my achievement was wonderful. But it didn’t last for long.

Christmas Day 2009

I maintained for 4 months but became pregnant with my second child. I immediately started eating whatever I wanted again, and of course the weight started to pile back on. I put 3 stone back on during the pregnancy, and 8 months after the birth of my second child, I was pregnant again! This time, there was no time for weight loss and I just carried on eating, putting on another 2 stone. I was now a size 22 and 15 1/2 stone. I did not know what to do. I lacked motivation to do anything about my weight and suffered from post natal depression. It wasn’t until I resolved some of the issues relating to the birth of my children through counselling that I felt I was in a place where I could do something to tackle the weight again.

Christmas 2010

I was at work New Year’s Eve 2009, wearing my size 22 uniform and could not do up the trousers. I made a New Year’s resolution. In 2010, I was going to lose the weight. I was determined. I had been given a Wii Fit for Christmas and I intended on using this to keep me on track and hopefully be a fun way of exercising. On New Year’s Day, I stepped onto the Wii Fit for the first time. My BMI was right at the top of obese. I was mortified. I weighed 15 stone 8 lb. However, instead of feeling depressed, this motivated me, I had to do something! I started doing Wii Fit every day. For the first time, I was able to exercise with the children around because they enjoyed watching me do it, which resolved a major issue for me. I had found it very difficult to exercise. I couldn’t fit it in during the day, and was too exhausted by night. The Wii Fit resolved this. I know it is very low impact, but I was so unfit and lethargic, it got me moving more than I had done in years. I started to follow my own diet plan. Not as radical as I had been before, but combining things I had learnt in the past. I had porridge and juice for breakfast, chicken and salad for lunch, fish and vegetables for dinner. It was low carb again, but not in the extreme way that I had been with Atkins. I had “bad” days, particularly around my period, when I would lapse and have chocolate and wine! But this time, instead of thinking that I’d failed and blow the diet, I would get back on the Wii Fit the following morning and carry on. Pretty quickly, I saw results. The weight started coming off and my BMI started coming down. I carried on wearing baggy clothes and didn’t talk about what I was doing to anyone because I was doing this for myself. By August, I had lost 5 stone and my BMI was 24.6. I was thrilled. I started dressing completely differently and my work uniform was no longer the size 22 that wouldn’t fasten, but a size 12 that was a bit baggy. I felt so much better about myself.

After my 10K

I set myself a new target and entered a 10K race. This was my next challenge. I had lost the weight - now I wanted to improve my fitness. I had never done any running before, but I entered the Tatton Park 10k in September 2010 to raise funds for the Bobby Moore Fund for bowel cancer research. I enjoyed training - it gave me a real sense of motivation, having something to aim for. As a complete beginner with asthma, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I tried to follow a training schedule and enjoyed going out from my front door for an hour, exploring the local area doing run/walks. I did the route in 1 hr 16 minutes but the time wasn’t important, it was just doing it. My children looked so proud, and I felt a real sense of achievement. I couldn’t have imagined, only 9 months before, that I would’ve been able to run for a bus, let alone a 10K.

9 months later and so far, I have managed to maintain. I fluctuate a bit, and I have to watch what I eat, but I still feel good about myself. I am a size 12 – 14, and I am OK with that. I know, if I pushed myself, I could get down to being a 10 – 12 again but in my heart of hearts I don’t think this is where my natural weight should be. I am stable where I am, I don’t want to get big again, and I am happy to maintain where I am now. As I sit here, I am on holiday, and I have a glass of wine. I am planning on getting back to “sensible” eating again next week, after my holiday. Until then, I will not be worrying about it. The next challenge? Who knows. Maybe a marathon for my 40^th birthday next year?!

What a great story. I'm sure lots of mums (including myself) went through similar experiences after they had children. I think Tracy's success can be summed up in this sentence: "instead of thinking that I’d failed and blow the diet, I would get back on the Wii Fit the following morning and carry on". We all have bad days - it's just how you react to them that decides if you succeed in the long run. I think it's an important lesson for us all - failure on a diet/healthy eating plan is not about one day. 

Feel free to share experiences, as always, in the comments below. My guest posters really do appreciate the messages of support they get from readers.

If you would like to share your fitness story, then please contact me on Twitter or email me on the address on the About Me page. Posts can be partly or fully anonymous, or if you are happy to be named, I will link back to your blog. All contributions are really appreciated so do get in touch, even if you feel yours is not a worthwhile story. If it's a personal experience, it is. And I mean that even if you have failed at something, because it is still YOUR fitness story and you learned from it. If you want to read previous posts in this series, click on the My Fitness Story... tab above and they are all linked on that page.

Thanks for supporting My Fitness Story... and do come back for another guest post next week.

My Fitness Story... - Margie

Hello, it's Thursday so that means My Fitness Story is back! This week, I'm delighted to welcome a contribution from Margie. She is the owner of a fabulous website called Greeting Cards on Time. Margie decided to embark on a fitness programme in order to keep up with her family. Her story is a familiar one told by many mothers. I think, like Margie, that it's a myth that becoming a mother keeps you busy and fit! Over now to Margie to tell her story which she has entitled: 

Keeping up with the Kids (or not…)

Fitness is a relative word – I would say I have never been that fit. Compulsory games lessons at school were a nightmare.  I was goalie in lacrosse; in netball, we used to pretend a contact lens had fallen out to suspend play; for tennis lessons, the teacher left me and a small select handful of others hitting a ball against a wire net.  Ghastly and not a way to instil any love of fitness in me.  However, there was a suppressed fitty spark in me wanting to get out…..

Post school and before children, I did get into aerobics for a while – good fun halcyon days when I wore size 10 (which is now probably size 0).  But aerobics and size 10 went with the arrival of husband, dog and children in that order. 

Children, oh how I love them, but they did little for my fitness levels – once they were mobile, walks were impossibly slow.  Then, for several years, we walked the same pace.  However, I realised last year there was a problem when I had to tell not one but two of the girls to slow down so I could keep up.  There wasn’t a train to catch, nor a bus (only one a week round here), but they were off, across that field like the dogs getting back for feed-time.  With me puffing along behind.  I really had to do something.

Time to take action – but what? I am FULL of excuses - Hate running (it makes my knees hurt); hate tennis (my racquet is designed not to hit the ball, anyway it’s out of the ark); not sure of horse riding (where are the brakes?); love skiing (didn’t go this year).  Then KERCHING! The sun came out when a new gym opened without membership fees .  It gave the first session free, then pay as you go, soooo if it was not my thing, I could go and get fit someplace else – a chance to take that longed for action with no financial risk.

I began to go once a week.  I thought Pilates might be a gentle start – huh, well I found muscles where I didn’t know I had any from Pil-a-tes.  Gentle movements? – phah – small, yes; gentle, no.  But it really made me feel good, so I timetabled it into my week.

Then along came 2011.  New Year = resolutions.  Mine this year was to go exercising at least twice per week.  So far so good….. And I’m absolutely loving it.  Yep, it’s hard sometimes to muster the energy to go, but I have done it all year so far and, to me, it’s much easier to keep that record than to break it and then attempt to return to the original resolution.

My middle daughter (20 – just ran a marathon, saints preserve me!) came to a session with me last week. Beforehand, she was smirking about going to Pilates with a whole bunch of middle aged ladies.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not really competitive, just very competitive.  And I do not want to get left behind by my gorgeous girls on things I think I should be able to do.  OK I was a bit economical with the truth, but we went to ‘Bootcamp Circuits’ – the only other participant was a 22 year old.  Ahah, Jo was puffing like a billy goat!  And a newfound respect for the aged parent, I feel!

The result of this fitness?  I definitely feel better for it, though my weight has stayed largely the same.  My muscles are much stronger, meaning fewer aches and pains, and I sit better.  I can slip back into a rather special pair of trousers.  I have more energy and focus (that’s also partly because I am now doing a job I really enjoy – my greetings card business). I have abandoned my osteopath because, lovely as she is, I don’t need her, despite still sitting in front of a computer most days. So I’m saving so much money I feel a pair of shoes would be a good reward.  Yep, my trainers need replacing!!!

Thanks to Margie for telling her story so engagingly today. Again, the changes to Margie's life have not been huge and yet, for some small lifestyle changes, she feels so much better and is even finding that staying fit is saving her money!

Feel free to share experiences, as always, in the comments below. My guest posters really do appreciate the messages of support they get from readers.

If you would like to share your fitness story, then please contact me on Twitter or email me on the address on the About Me page. Posts can be partly or fully anonymous, or if you are happy to be named, I will link back to your blog. All contributions are really appreciated so do get in touch, even if you feel yours is not a worthwhile story. If it's a personal experience, it is. And I mean that even if you have failed at something, because it is still YOUR fitness story and you learned from it. If you want to read previous posts in this series, click on the My Fitness Story... tab above and they are all linked on that page.

Thanks for supporting My Fitness Story... and do come back for another guest post next week.

The Gallery - Love

My child. My boy. You landed with a bang and I wondered what had hit me. You needed constant amounts of everything for what felt like an eternity and life, as I had known it, stopped. It felt like a horrible waking dream. I felt I couldn't cope as a mother and as early as your 8th week, discussed going back to work. But I stuck it out for a few weeks longer. And suddenly, you changed. You slept, you played, you laughed and you smiled. All in healthy quantities. Within a few more weeks, I was hooked and all thoughts of returning to work vanished. You became my joy, my shining light. I would do anything for you. As you have grown, I've been so proud of the boy you have become. But just occasionally, I remember this moment at a meet in Manchester, when I held you on my knee and you fell asleep, resting your head gently on my chest. You slept on me so peacefully, like never before. Even if you did give me pins and needles that day, it was and remains a special moment in my life. A chance to be still and hold you. A chance to just be, mother and child together. Every time I look at this picture, my heart sings as it reminds me that the key component in motherhood (or fatherhood) is love. That love might not be obvious at first but it is there and it can grow inside you until it takes your breath away.

And that, for me, is Love.

View the other entries on The Gallery at Tara's Sticky Fingers blog.

This post was linked to The Boy and Me's Show Off Show Case on 16th April 2011.