I have promised myself (again) that I’m going to really try hard this time to get myself healthier and lose weight. I don’t think I’ll keep this updated quite every single day, but I’m hoping this blog will help keep me on track and honest with myself as I desperately need to get better.
I’ve struggled with my weight for pretty much my entire life. By the time I was twelve years old, I was wearing adult size clothing while most of my peers were still shopping in juniors or “little miss” etc. I continued to overeat and just gain and gain and gain…. In high school I was already wearing large plus size clothing and by the time I got into adulthood, I was morbidly obese. I could never seem to drum up the will power to stick to any kind of diet or exercise plan. There were short spurts of going to the gym or trying to eat healthier, but nothing would stick.
In 2007 I married the love of my life and hoped that the upcoming wedding would motivate me, but it did not. I was quite heavy then and continued to gain weight throughout our married life reaching a new max every year.
Fast-forward to 2012, I was over 30 and extremely unhealthy. I had reached a new max weight over 300 lbs and I was so bad, I struggled to get to work every day due to the significant number of stairs leading out of the subway station near where I worked. At that time, I finally decided that I had to do something and really commit. I could barely function anymore and was suffering from debilitating back pain as well.
I had heard from a few different people, including my doctor, that Medifast was a very good plan. My friend’s mother was a health coach with Take Shape For Life at the time and he and I agreed to go on the diet together. We both purchased our supplies through his mom and planned to start the diet after the passover holiday. Soon after I placed the order, I ended up accepting a new job position and my husband and I were relocating to Philadelphia, right when I was going to start the diet. Looking back, I think starting over in a brand new town with a new job and new life helped give me that new energy to really stick to it. Medifast is not an easy diet to keep to, but it really works. I think because it’s so structured and restrictive, I found it easier to keep to as I literally didn’t have to think about what I was eating as most of the diet is all pre-packaged foods/mixes. It appealed to my lazy nature that every day, all I had to do was walk to my pantry and just grab my five “meals” for the work day. A year later, I had dropped 90 lbs and was doing amazing. It was the first time in my life I had ever stuck to any diet and was successful. I couldn’t believe I had come so far!
Unfortunately, due to some financial restrictions, I had to put the diet on pause and ended up gaining about 20-30 lbs back. A few months later I got pregnant and gave birth to my beautiful baby girl in 2014. I gained quite a bit during pregnancy and continued to gain again afterwards falling into old habits and losing motivation again. I had multiple false starts trying to get back on Medifast as well as other diet plans. Now, three years after giving birth, I have hit a brand new all-time max weight of a staggering 330 lbs.
Aside from other issues like low energy and shortness of breath, etc., carrying the excess weight has caused great stress to my joints leading to sever pain, particularly in my hips and lower back. It’s so bad, I can barely walk let alone run after a three year old. I’ve been hibernating a lot since it’s too painful to really go out or do much of anything outside of necessity. This is something that I literally can no longer live with. So here I am again at that crossroads, hoping I can stick to something and get better for myself and my family (not to mention I have to lose weight if I can have any glimmer of hope of growing our family further and time on that is seriously running out). My biggest issue is that I stress eat and life has not been without a whole lot of stress over the past few years. When I’m in the right mindset, I can put it aside and keep to it, so here’s hoping.
My eventual plan is to go back on the Medifast, but some finances need to be worked out first and I want to be sure I’m really ready and sticking to it before making that investment again. It’s not extremely expensive, but it does cost quite a bit and I want to be sure I’m ready. So, for now, I have some slim-fast on hand that I have from before and am hoping I can stick to that to kick-start things for a few weeks. Also, I decided to document this with daily (or as many days as I can) videos of my exercise. I started with some beginner’s yoga. I found some videos online with some short 30-minute weight-loss routines. Here’s a short clip from my first attempt (have to re-angle the camera better next time):
I can barely do any of the poses or movements properly and as you can see, I can barely get close to even thinking about touching the floor for a forward fold. As I said, I’m hoping this blog will keep me on track and keep me honest and I’ll have a good visual for myself of my progress (which, in theory, should get better).
Latest Photo
Thanks for coming along for this ride with me. Wish me luck!
You can check back here for additional posts of my journey: My Journey to a Healthier Me
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Marsha, I love your honesty and insight on how hard it is to lose weight. Even though I haven’t had the problem as long as you have had, I know what you mean about getting back into “bad habits” and not being able to get motivated again. Hopefully this blog, as well as family and friends (like me) will continue to “egg you on to keep trying.” You are now in your first week so….Go, go, go!!! Suggestion: Keep the video from today and then 1-2 months from now do the exact same yoga and when you compare it you’ll see a difference and I know that will keep you motivated. Wishing you much hatzlacha!!!!
I was very serious when I said my diet was starting last night :). Thanks Sherry!
Marsha you are very brave putting yourself out there. Good for you! I have also truggle and every day set a new goal of when to start my diet. Scott and I have “started” this week. I hope we can encourage each other. Keep up the great work!!!!!
Marsha- so happy to hear that you have started on this difficult challenge. I am also struggling to lose now after having some regain. It is a lifelong commitment to health and I hope we can help each other and be successful! Yasher Koach!!