5 Years of Fat, Flab, Food, Fitness, and Fabulousness!

This was us 5 years ago, today. September 3, 2005. We were such youngin's then! And gosh, were we FAT! You know that saying about how an old married couple starts to look alike after so many years?! Well, we started that early. See, we weren't fat when we first got together in 2003. We were both high school athletes; me in track and cross country, and Pete in football. Then we started dating. Many trips out to eat, ice cream at Dairy Queen, family functions full of food--you get the picture. We both slowly started gaining weight. Oh to have the metabolism of an 18 year old again! Then in 2004 we moved in together. We worked different shifts; me working 6-2pm and him working 9-5pm. I had to leave the house by 5am every day to get to work an hour away and I sure never cared about the nutrient of anything that I ate. It was all about cheap, convenience, and availability. If it was there, I'd eat it! And so would Pete. Suddenly, I went from 160 lbs when we first started dating, to 210 lbs! I wish I had that picture on my computer of when we were both at our heaviest. Pete was up to 240 from 175. And we had ZERO excuses. We could have bought healthy foods. We could have spent our time together doing something physical, like going for walks or runs or hitting the gym together. But we didn't. We used the excuse that we didn't have any time. HA! I'd kill to have all that time now!

I cut back on the food and started walking and I lost about 20 lbs before our wedding. I was right around 180 when I got married and I thought I was looking pretty good, considering I had hit the 200 mark! Pete left for basic training less than 3 weeks after our wedding. He came back much, much, thinner but I had not lost any more weight.

Right after Pete left from his Christmas break from AIT, I found out I was pregnant! I had just started working out regularly and I was able to run an 8 minute mile again--big accomplishment for a fat girl! I enjoyed my pregnancy from a food point of view! I didn't try to eat particularly healthy or unhealthy but I did just enjoy to eat! I got up to 227 lbs! We took this picture a couple days after I had Peter. I was DEVASTATED to see myself like this.

It doesn't quite become real til you see yourself in a picture!

A short 5 weeks after this picture was taken, Pete left for his first deployment to Iraq. He was gone for 15 months. I was an overwhelmed 22 year old with a 6 week old baby living in Texas when everyone I knew lived in Illinois! It was easy to feel depressed about my weight and that my husband was gone, but I really pulled it together and decided that I was SICK of feeling fat! I started taking Peter for daily hour-long walks in his stroller, sometimes twice-daily. I started doing Tae-Bo and following the South Beach diet. I joined Gold's Gym and really enjoyed taking group classes for the first time and just getting a little time to myself again since I really did NOT have any help with my son! I got down to 170 by the time Pete came home in January 2008.

This, of course, was short-lived! He had just spent over a year in Iraq, living on crappy Army food, and I had missed making big family meals and just cooking in general! We went out to eat, we ate, we didn't keep moving. I quickly gained 10 lbs. Then I found out I was pregnant with our daughter. I went crazy again with my eating. I worked at a place where people brought food in almost daily and I lived within a 5 mile radius of any fast food joint you could imagine. I think I stopped at Sonic at least 3x a week!



I ballooned back up to the 220's with baby #2. I didn't feel happy and pregnant, just miserable and fat! People didn't know--my own coworkers didn't know--that I was pregnant and not just gaining more weight!!

Riley came on December 29, 2008 and I knew it was the start of a new life for me! No more pregnancies, no more excuses! Time to crack down! Pete left for his second deployment when Riley was 6 weeks old, the same age Peter was when he left for the first one. I was determined to have Pete come home to a brand-new me, one who was NOT heavy! Once again, we both lost weight while apart! Pete had lost a lot of body fat and then packed on another 20-30 lbs in muscle. I got down to 165--the lowest I had been since high school! From following the Abs diet, doing Jari Love dvds, walking and running with the kids in my new double stroller, and starting p90x. This time I was going to make sure I didn't gain any of that weight back just

because Pete was home!! I lost about another 8 lbs! I had never felt so good or confident about myself!!

Now I am proud to say I am in the best shape of my life. I have gotten back up to 165 but I am stronger and faster and better at all areas of my personal fitness than I've ever been! I am hoping to complete several fitness milestones in the next five years, and be able to ring in my 10th anniversary with my hard-earned dream body!