Outside Inspiration!

I think Amy is an inspiration to a lot of moms. I'm so glad she agreed to share her story here...

Hi there! I'm Amy J from 125 Before 25 and Win, Lose, or Blog and I'm so excited Amy asked me to guest post here today. I've known Amy and her cute family for a couple years and I admire Amy's determination to get her body back after each kid. I, on the other hand, have always struggled with my weight. In college, I steadily gained weight until I got married...since then it's been up and down a little over the last 5 years. At the end of 2010, I hit my max weight and size...both numbers I swore I'd never see myself at. At 5'3" I was a size 18 and 183 lbs.   

Buying a size 18 was seriously depressing for me, I told myself I'd never have to do that, but I did. It took me until April of this year to do something about it. I heard that Win, Lose, or Blog was accepting Season 4 applications and I sent one in.

Here are the really scary, I just woke up, take a picture of how fat I am pictures I sent in:

I was lucky enough to get selected as a Season 4 contestant. It was just what I needed to do to kick my butt into gear! For me, it wasn't just a contest, it was the start of a lifestyle change. I started counting calories and tracking fitness on livestrong.com. I stopped eating out for the *most* part, I gave up all soda and I started the torturous task of not only losing weight, but getting my butt into shape.

I started running several times a week and did some kind of aerobic/toning exercise for an hour a day 5-6 days a week. The first time I ran it was death. I did about 30 seconds and thought I'd fall over, but I pushed through it until I ran my first 5K in July.

Over the last 6 months, I have lost 45 lbs. I had wanted to reach my goal weight of 125 lbs by my 25th birthday in September, but I came up 13 lbs shorts, which I'm ok with, because that just means the journey isn't over quite yet.

Here's me on my 25th Birthday:

I've gone from a size 18/XXL to a size 10/M.

Over the last 6 months, I've hit my slumps here and there and that's when I knew I needed to re-access some things. Either my diet or exercise was off. Sometimes it was as simple as not changing how many calories I was eating, but what I was eating. Not all calories are created equal. For me, I have to very careful with how many carbs and how much sodium I eat. I looove carbs and every now and then, it's easy to find myself filling my daily diet with more calories from carbs than lean meats and veggies. Other times, I knew it meant it was time to switch up my workout routine. Amy gives some great advice on this in her post here.

When losing weight, I think it's very important to set mini goals along the way, as well as a long term goal, but it's also important not to get discouraged if you don't reach every one of them. Something I've had to remind myself throughout this weight loss journey is that..

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You can too!

I'm continually blogging my journey. Feel free to drop in and give me a little nudge to keep working towards my goal! Also, I'm now a team member for Win, Lose or Blog and you can find me there weekly as well as see current contestant battling through their weight loss journey. Check them out and cheer them on if you get the chance. Thanks for having me here today, Amy!

Thank you Amy! CONTEST: Leave a comment for Amy and receive 2 points!