Getting Started

Two years ago I had my first child. When I realized I was pregnant, I was at my heaviest weight I'd ever been, 190 pounds. At 5'3", that's quite a lot of extra weight I was carrying around. During my pregnancy, I gained forty four pounds, but quickly lost it and more after she came around-she was almost ten pounds herself and she ate like a champ! 

May 2010

November 2010

I learned a lot about healthier eating habits while I was pregnant, but didn't put the information to everyday use. After J came, I realized I was more on the crunchy side of parenting-we cloth diaper, baby wear, co-slept for a bit, I made my own baby food, breastfed, etc. I wanted only the best for my daughter, yet I didn't use the same care with myself. 

I had started a workout plan, 30 Day Shred with Jillian Michaels, but only lasted thirteen days as my knees were killing me. I thought I needed new shoes, but that wasn't a priority for me, so I didn't ever pick it up again. 

When my daughter was fifteen months old, we moved an hour away-not far in reality, but away from all my friends and places I knew. I've moved a lot in my life, and I always hate it because I leave my friends, but then meet new people who I get attached to and eventually have to move away from. It's depressing. 

As a new mom, I stayed home from work and so couldn't meet people that way. I joined a few mom's groups, but as other parents will understand, it's hard to find people you really mesh with and agree with their parenting ways. I also owned an online retail business so I was now online many hours of the day sitting at the computer and not exercising, therefore gaining fifteen to twenty pounds in a year. 

Last March, I felt a lump in my neck and made an appointment with my endocrinologist. After a couple of appointments and a biopsy, I was told I had cancer. Fortunately, after an MRI and surgery, the lump was just a cyst and benign. After my surgery, I decided that owning an online business was not at the top of my priority list-spending time with my family and creating memories with my daughter is. 

July 2012-a couple weeks before we started Insanity

In June, I bought a couple of boot camp passes from Groupon and planned to use them after we got home from a family vacation to Texas. However, once we got home, my husband decided he was ready to get healthy and bought the Insanity workout program. I thought he was crazy. After all my years of begging him to workout with me, he wants to go from zero to Insanity?? As a person that needs motivation to get going and stay on track, I was so happy he wanted to exercise and get into shape that I would have done anything!

We started Insanity July 17th and I cried. I cried when we took the before pictures and I cried at the end of the workout. I cried because I was so out of shape and sad that I had let myself get to that point and I cried because I was ecstatic that I was finally doing something about it. I cried when we started round 2 of Insanity and I cried when we finished our first round. 

There was not one day after I started that I wanted to quit. It was hard for me to find motivation sometimes, but I would just think of my results and imagine how I wanted to be or look at some of the success stories from people who had done it before me. Some days were harder to get through than others and there wasn't one day where I felt like I wasn't dying more than the last. 

I never knew I could sweat so much and in places I never would have imagined. I never thought I'd be able to do SIXTEEN push-ups in a row-thanks to level 3 drills I found out I could-and probably more though I haven't attempted it. I get enough upper body workout with Shaun T and his craziness. 

I'm on Round 2, week 2 of Insanity, and although I push myself everyday, it is getting a bit easier. I don't have to push pause after each circuit and I know I'm stronger and faster than I was two months ago. 

I've lost about fifteen pounds in 2 1/2 months and my shorts that I couldn't squeeze into before are way too big for me now. It's great to see the transformation, but thinking of where I will be at the end of each round is what keeps me going. Looking back at pictures and knowing I'll never be that big again pushes me to dig deeper. Setting a good example for my daughter and preparing her for a happy and healthy childhood is more than enough to make me push play everyday. 

Finally, I decided to start helping others and keep the motivation going by starting Made to Motivate-a blog dedicated to encouraging people to take that first step and each step afterwards to get on track and follow their dreams to becoming the happy and healthy person they've always wanted to be. 

Please follow along with me as I share my journey with you on my transformation from unhappy to ecstatic! :)