My mom warned me. She said it many times. “You better enjoy eating like that now, because when you’re older, all that junk is just going to stick to your hips!”

Don’t you hate it when your mother is right?

In high school, I was already 5’9″ and weighed all of 120 pounds soaking wet. I could eat an entire pizza by myself and not gain an ounce. Looking back now, I realize I was actually under weight then. I never thought I was fat by any means. Quite frankly, I didn’t care. I just ate what I wanted, when I wanted. I was active – a tennis player – and my metabolism burned through anything I threw at it.

Many a year and two kids later, I found myself standing in front of a mirror, naked, and quietly cursing my mom in my head. My eating habits had caught up to me. I had to admit it. And I had to find a way to fight back.

At that time, both of my parents had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I had watched them struggle with their weight all my life. Now they were sick! And here I was gaining pound after pound, day after day. I was scared! I was borderline diabetic while carrying our second child, and I was afraid that my body would never recover because I had never lost that baby weight.

My battle began with fad diets – the grapefruit diet, SlimFast, Atkins, etc. I’d lose a little, then gain it right back. This led to years of frustration. I was becoming my mom, all over again! When my mom had gastric bypass surgery as a last ditch effort to control her weight, I swore that would never be me. Don’t get me wrong here! I LOVE my mom, and dad, immensely! But in all honesty, they were not the world’s greatest example for health and fitness. I needed to find something real, something that truly helped me lose weight and keep it off for good, something my parents had never taught me.

I am a nerd. Always have been, always will be. So when I got serious about changing my ways, I knew step one was learning about what to do, both for exercise and nutrition. I love learning, so the beginning of my journey was actually fun for me. About the time I began trying to learn on my own, a friend invited me to join her in a local weight-loss competition where they actually teach you about health, exercise and nutrition. Education, motivation, and competition? Perfect! The best part of beginning this step in my journey was arriving at the first meeting in January of 2012 and finding my mom there! We had both joined with friends but never told each other about it. The competition was on (even though I felt she had an unfair advantage with the surgically smaller stomach!).

During that round of the weight-loss competition, I lost 27 pounds in 12 weeks! More importantly, I learned some big keys for changing the way I eat and move. I even began running – something I had never voluntarily done before. Oh, and I lost more than mom did!

In the months after the competition, I continued to apply everything I had learned. I lost more weight, kept running, tried new exercises, and even tried new foods. I learned to like vegetables that I had sworn I’d never eat! I got down to about 3.5 pounds from my ultimate goal weight – which is 150 because it’s the middle of the healthy range for my height – when I had a set back.

I got sick in the fall of 2012, and I fell off the wagon. I did catch myself before my weight got out of control. I managed to maintain a weight in the upper limits of healthy for my height, until I had my second big set back. While on a hiking trip with my husband, I injured my left knee. The hike included over 1,000 feet of elevation change, and I had to hike out on that hurt knee. I was crying by the time I got to the top!

I let that knee injury be my excuse to just give up for a while. I erased nearly all of the 45+ pound loss I had. It wasn’t until the next round of the weight-loss competition in January of 2013 that I decided it was time to get back on track. I managed to get my weight back into the mid 170s, but then I got stuck.

That’s when Beachbody came into my life, and everything changed. Read on for the latest chapter in my journey!

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