My Fitness Story - Laura S

Hello and welcome back to My Fitness Story... , my weekly guest post slot where people share their stories about fitness, diet, weight gain, and weight loss. This week's story is about the last of those - but it's not just about one person's battle with weight loss, it's about two people. Laura, who blogs at cakeandteablog, has agreed to tell the story of how both her and her husband lost weight (over 15 stone between them), their slide back down the slippery slope when a baby came into their lives (when doesn't it?) and how they have overcome it by fitting a healthy lifestyle around a baby. It's a really inspiring story, so please do settle down to have a good read as Laura takes up the tale.

David and I met in 2001, when I was 18 and he was 21. We were both morbidly obese, and had been heavy right through our childhoods. Through the next few years, we talked a lot about losing weight. We started diets for a couple of weeks at a time before getting bored and even had a couple of lapsed gym memberships. But nothing ever really stuck- life got in the way, motivation faltered, and somehow we just couldn’t get the momentum going to make any real lasting changes.

We got engaged in 2005, and set a date for our wedding in 2008. Finally, in August 2007, something clicked. With just under a year to go until our wedding, we both joined a gym. Coincidentally, our jobs were both changing around the same time. David was a salesman, on the road every day and living on junk food from service stations, but he was becoming more office based. I was leaving my prestigious, high pressure graduate training scheme which had me staying in random hotels for weeks on end, to work locally in a job with much more sensible hours. Suddenly, we had the time and the motivation to really do something.

This is us the month before we started out:

Looking back, I think it’s fair to say that we were both blinkered to how big we actually were. I was a dress size 26, David was struggling with size XXXL. We had fooled ourselves for a long time that everything was fine. It wasn’t.

We started slowly at the gym, beginning with some gentle cardio sessions, and upping the intensity gradually. David found the weight fell off him to start with, I found it came off slowly and steadily, which was frustrating because it felt like I was lagging behind! But the more we did it, the more it became part of our routine. We didn’t do anything special with our diet to begin with, we just started making healthier choices, and these eventually became normal for us.

By the time our wedding came around, I had lost 4 stone and David had lost 6. We looked and felt like different people. And when we got back home, we kept going. We started to do WeightWatchers online, which gave our weight loss a boost, and we looked for new fitness challenges to keep us interested, and started to run together.

To start with, that little voice in my head that said I would never run. It told me that people as big as me didn’t run. Eventually, I told the voice to shove it. So, here we are the start line of the Silverstone half marathon in March 2009. 18 months after starting to lose weight, I am about 7 stone lighter than the first picture, and David is almost 8 stone lighter.

And this is us in May 2009. Just before I got pregnant, and it all went a bit wrong! This is the lowest weight that either of us have ever achieved (so far!) in our adult lives.

When I got pregnant, very little changed at first. We didn’t change our diets too much, and I kept an eye on my heart rate when I worked out. Then I started making excuses... oh, I’ll just have this one takeaway, this one packet of Maltesers, this bucket of crisps, because I’m pregnant. That had an effect on David, who would help me with said takeaway/Maltesers/crisps. Then, as I eased off the exercise, so did he, because we just weren’t pushing each other anymore. Then it got even worse- I spent the last 2 months of my pregnancy going in and out of hospital with gallstones. I couldn’t really eat anything during that period, but David was stress eating- going back to an empty house with a convenient kebab, and worrying.

Just after I gave birth, I weighed 3 ½ stone more than at my lowest weight, and David had put on about the same. But of course, the last thing you can cope with through the sleeplessness and mayhem is of the newborn period is thinking about diet and exercise- thinking about basic personal hygiene was enough of a challenge! Plus, I had to wait three months to have my gall bladder removed, then it took weeks to recover from surgery enough to exercise.

We each had a few goes at losing weight at different times, but parenthood brought a new set of challenges. Every time we got some momentum up, something would happen, usually teething or a bug, that would disrupt sleep to the point that healthy living went out of the window. And where we’d always taken so much strength from exercising together, we now had to do it separately, so that there was always someone at home looking after the little one. With so much more to juggle, it was just harder.

Finally, we made New Year’s resolutions to start again in 2011. This time, it’s working. I have lost 1st 8lb since 1st January, and have 12lb to go to get to my pre baby weight, then another 2 stone to reach my ideal weight. David has lost 1st 11lb so far, with a stone and a half to go to his target weight. It’s slow, and it’s hard, but we are determined to get to the goals that we didn’t quite reach the first time around!

We make time for exercise - and sometimes that involves planning our evenings with military precision so that we both get to do what we need to. It’s tiring, but we are both happier, more confident, and healthier for it. We have learnt to stop making excuses and make time for ourselves, even when life is hectic. We have learned that losing weight is a long and frustrating process, but success will always come, as long as you never give up. And we have learned that getting fit alone is a hard and lonely battle - we need each other. Even if we can’t exercise together much anymore, the support is still there, and we keep each other going.

We have our son to set an example for now  - and if he has good role models, enjoys a healthy, active lifestyle, and never has to battle with weight like mum and dad, then it’s all been worth it.

Thanks to Laura for telling their fitness story today. Both David and her should be really proud of their achievements, even with their slip ups along the way. They have learned that slip ups happen, but the key is not to let it destroy your progress but to get back into it as soon as possible. As ever, and this is a common theme with the successful dieters who've written for me, they have made their regimes work for them, and found a way to build healthy eating and exercise into the lifestyle they have. I wish Laura - and David - the very best of luck in achieving their ideal weights. I'm sure that will happen very soon. 

As usual, please do comment to show your support or share similar experiences in the comments below. 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.

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

My Fitness Story... - Lauren

It's Thursday again so it's time for another guest post from someone taking part in the My Fitness Story... series. Today's guest poster is Lauren, who blogs at You Big Eejit. Lauren suffers from a condition that affects many women, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). This has recently affected her health and fitness. She decided to share her story to raise awareness of the condition, which may affect as many as 10% of women of reproductive age. Time for Lauren to take up the tale...

I have always been fortunate with my weight, hovering somewhere between 10 and 10 and a half stone, size 10-12, 14 on a bad day. I have never been a fan of dieting, and was always quite laid back about my weight. While I could never just eat what I wanted, I was fortunate in being able to regulate it quite well.

I wanted to share my fitness story because I have just come out of a difficult weight and health experience where all of that changed. Everything I knew about my body was flipped upside down, and while everyone is different, I wanted to encourage any of you who are, or suspect you may be, going through the same thing.

In October 2009, I decided that after 8 years of being on the Pill for acne, at the age of 29 I should be over it by now and came off it. It also coincided with a decline in my running regime, so I assumed that the weight that had begun to creep on was down to that. By April, my spots were back, worse than before, and my weight wasn’t shifting, if anything it was going up even more, but I still just put it down to eating too much and exercising too little. It was at this time that my periods – which had been normal since coming off the Pill – stopped entirely. Again, I made excuses and put it down to travelling, work stress, and the excitement of a new relationship but after 3 months, I decided to see my GP. He was brilliant – he took blood tests, arranged scans… in short he took me seriously, which is what I so desperately needed.

By this stage, I had put on a stone and a half in the space of 6 months and mentally was at rock bottom. I had just got engaged and should have been at my happiest – instead I was so low and unhappy. I joined a Rosemary Conley class and began a strict exercise and weight loss regime, but still the weight stayed on. My tummy was big and swollen and I could no longer fit in my clothes. I think what troubled me most was the lack of control I seemed to have over my body. If I was just putting on weight because I was eating too much, then there was something I could do about it. But I felt like my body had a mind of its own, putting on weight no matter what I did, and that scared me.

I went back to my GP, who told me that scans and blood tests showed nothing sinister, but booked a gynaecologist appointment for my own peace of mind. Also, because my acne was bad again, he put me back on the Pill. He also said this may kick start my cycle again. The subsequent change in my body, and my mentality, from that moment was unbelievable. I must emphasise that the Pill did not make me lose weight, but because my hormones were back to normal and I was having regular “periods”, the exercise and dieting I was doing was finally making a difference. The weight began to fall off – slowly but surely, and my confidence began to soar. The swelling in my hips and stomach went down, and my clothes began to fit again. 

Although my periods came back and things were back to “normal”, I still went to my gynaecologist appointment, and it was there that I was finally diagnosed with having Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or PCOS. I must stress here that I was told I have an atypical version of it. I do not have excess hair, and my scans did not show cysts on my ovaries. However, my LH and FSH hormone levels were consistent with women who have PCOS and the gynae suggested that being on the Pill for so many years had probably masked it. It was such a relief to be given this diagnosis, albeit an unconfirmed one. It just all made sense, especially since I had seen such a difference in my weight and body shape since I started the Pill again.

I remain on the Pill, and I am still continuing with my diet and weight loss programme. To date, I have lost 1 stone 2lb, with only 4lb left to lose before I am back to where I was. There is no further treatment for PCOS, only that I am now more aware of my body than before. I realise that this is something I will have to battle with, and it is difficult. I’m afraid I can’t sit here and say that everything is ok now because even with a positive ending to the experience, it has still left me with worries, paranoia and fears. I worry that because I associate being on the Pill with being able to regulate my weight, I am scared to come off it. With the joys of losing a huge amount of weight comes the paranoia that I’ll put it all back on. Any time my stomach feels bloated, I panic that the PCOS is flaring up. I do not like the idea of being out of control of my body again. 

The support I am receiving is helping me battle these feelings. My fiancé has been an incredible strength to me, loving me on my fat and skinny days; encouraging me, sometimes infuriating me, with his desire for me to stick to my regime and feel good about myself. In addition to this, my Rosemary Conley instructor, who is now running her own weight loss and exercise classes called “Healthy Visions”, has encouraged me on every step of my journey. Whether the scales go up or down, she is full of praise and support for my efforts, and leads us through challenging and fun aerobics sessions every week.

It has been a long, difficult journey for me, but I would encourage anyone for whom my story has rung a bell to take action now. Listen to your body and see your GP. There are ways to deal with PCOS and you can live a normal, happy, healthy and fit life!

I'm really grateful to Lauren for telling her story. I'm pleased that she has managed to overcome the problems that she has had and I wish her the very best in losing those last few pounds. PCOS is often difficult to diagnose and women may not even know they have it. If you do recognise any of the symptoms, a visit to your GP cannot hurt. If you want more information about PCOS, have a look at the Verity website.

If you suffer from PCOS, please share your experience in the comments below. Alternatively, if you have a fitness story to tell, then get in touch with me on Twitter or via the email address on the About me page. I will link back to any blog you write if you wish, or you can remain either partly or fully anonymous.

There'll be another fitness story here next week. Please don't forget that you can find all the posts from the My Fitness Story... series easily by visiting this page. 

My Fitness Story... Steve

So this is the first post in the My Fitness Story... series. If you want to know what it is all about, this post from yesterday explains my thinking behind what I hope will be a series of posts. 

As I said yesterday, I don't want this just to be straightforward success stories and I want people to share many different experiences about fitness. Today's post is a perfect example of that, because the main aim of Steve, today's guest poster, was weight gain, not weight loss. People who want to gain weight healthily are often forgotten by the fitness magazines, because of the focus on obesity in the media. I've been on diet and fitness discussion boards and seen some people who have asked for advice on healthy weight gain be treated quite poorly by others, who think they should be grateful for being thin, but of course, it's possible to be thin and still need to shape up or have some better muscle definition. 

Over to Steve now to tell his story.

Before

My story starts way back as far as I can remember as I’d always been really skinny and one of those annoying people that can eat what they want without putting any weight on. Well, that’s what I was to other people but to me, it was anything but a good thing to be growing up and staying so thin.

All the things that many people take for granted, I couldn’t or wouldn’t do because of the body image I had of myself. I never went swimming, I never wore shorts and I certainly never changed in front of anyone. I’d been 6’ and 10st for as long as I could remember and around a year ago, I decided to really try and do something about it for the first time.

My plan was to bring out the weights I’d owned (and never used) and get some advice on how to get the best out of training at home. My job, coupled with my partner's evening job and having a 4yr old daughter, meant going to the gym on an evening was not going to be possible. I got some great advice from the internet and a plan was devised for me to work to, three times a week. This plan was something I felt at ease doing and managed to stick to it for 16wks before disaster struck and during lifting a barbell bent over row, my back twinged pretty badly and I took that as a warning to be very careful in how I progressed.

This actually led to a bit of a gap in my training and I would miss one night here, one night there until I found myself not doing any training at all, which felt like a such a let down after the work I’d put in to get to that point. Whenever I did try to put a session in, I’d find that I could now only manage 15 or so press ups whereas I could easily double that when I was training properly. That is very demotivating.

And so from that point, more of a gap was to build before around five months ago, I decided to give it another attempt. I’d removed all of the exercises which were most dangerous to my back and had caused twinges before, and I set off again on my quest to build some muscle. Aswell as the exercise, I worked hard on the calorie and protein intake and took a smoothie recipe from an expert which boosted my daily calorie intake by 1500Kcals in two servings, I’d have one for breakfast and one after training or just later on in the evening if not training. This smoothie was pretty hard going but it did the job I was looking for, I used it every day for six weeks and managed to move up to 11st5lbs which was an all time high for me. Unfortunately, 10wks into the training and all going perfectly well, I had to spend a week in London on a training course and this was all the spanner it took to jam up the workings once again. I found that I just couldn’t get back into it and generally managed to find an excuse not to do a session.

After

As much as this was a disappointment, it taught me a very valuable lesson about my own motivational skills and my chances of succeeding down the line. I find that as long as I stick to something, I can happily pursue that and keep it going faultlessly. Once I allow something to get in the way of that, everything comes to a grinding halt and the motivation to continue just stops.

In the period between then and now, I had become really quite inactive. An average day for me would consist of driving to work, sitting at my desk all day, driving home and then sitting around on the evening and that’s not going to do anything for my overall fitness levels, so again things just had to change. I’ve even put on a few pounds which has all seemingly gone direct to my stomach, thanks for that!

Lifting weights is just not for me, it’s way too big a commitment in so many ways and I’m not really up for the disappointment of failing again which I actually see as inevitable, so the tact had to change.

The plan has now partially reversed, in that the plan is no longer to pile weight on, it’s to try and remove the little extra I’ve accumulated and try to develop a six pack during 2011. I did actually manage to go swimming a couple of times last year during the weight training period and although I felt very uncomfortable in shorts, it felt really nice because it was a major achievement to me. I know that if I looked more sculpted and toned, even without being bulky, I’d have the confidence to go and do that again.

My current plan is running. I dipped into this throughout last year but never consistently enough to call myself a runner. I now do this three times a week and I use an application on the iPhone called Runkeeper Pro to track my routes and times and this helps keep my interest. I also do abs exercises such as sit ups, crunches and leg raises and I do chin ups with a bar that I have just to try and tone up.

So, would I class my fitness attempts as success or failure? Well, the first attempt I’d have to resign off as a failure. I allowed it to slip and have nobody to blame but myself really. The second time was more of a success. I allowed it to slip once again but the gains were worth the effort, the weight gain and toning that came from it. This time with the running and exercising, it’s much more of a success. I’m sticking with it, enjoying it and it can’t fail but to benefit my life in many ways.

My tip to anyone would be to not let the failures control you, find your exercise and go with it. If weights don’t work for you, try something else. If running doesn’t work for you, try something else. Will I get my six pack? Ask me again at the end of the year!

Thanks, Steve, for sharing your story and progress pictures with us. I think what it shows is that enjoyment is a key factor in succeeding long term with any fitness regime, started for whatever reason, as it helps to keep you motivated. What might be right for me is not for you and vice versa - and there is nothing wrong with that. No-one can tell you what works for you - except you. Good luck with the six pack.

If you'd like to tell your fitness story, please get in touch with me, either on Twitter or via the email address on the About Me page.