My Beginning

My struggle with weight loss has been a life long one.  I come from the Southeast, so eating healthy and exercising was something that I did not grow up on.  Sure, I learned how to starve yourself and lose weight, but that wasn't smart.  I maintained a descent weight for most of my adult life.  I had my first child in 1999 and bounced back pretty quick by eating 1 meal a day and doing yoga.  I actually saw my body changing!  I amped it up for a while, going to the gym about 2x a week along with doing yoga everyday, but never changed my eating habbits.  In 2002, I became pregnant with my twins.  I carried them full term (I WAS HUGE!) I did however, try to do yoga during the pregnancy until I just couldn't do it anymore, again (I WAS HUGE!) and boy, were they big for twins!  1 weighed 7lbs 6oz, the other, 6lbs 7oz. This is the actual start of getting my body back.  I thought I was eating healthy, but not like I should have.  I did yoga, but not like I should have.  I struggled with time management (still a struggle!).  With 3 children, there was NO WAY I HAD TIME TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!  So, I let it all go.  I definitely was not obese all those years, but NOT where I wanted to be.  About a year ago, I really started struggling with how I felt about my body, it was spring and all I could think about was wearing a bathing suit.  I knew I had to do something so I found myfitnesspal and started watching my calorie intake.  To my surprise, the app also wanted me to log in my exercise!  What???? Me???? EXERCISE!  NO WAY!  I haven't done that in years nor do I have the time for it! But it told me that in order to lose the weight, I should.  So i started searching for workouts that I could do.  I stumbled upon a Tone It Up workout that appeared to be fast and simple, so I tried it.  Boy was I wrong!  It was fast, but not simple! I was so sore the next day that I could barely move, but something happened during that workout.  I listened to what the trainers were saying about eating and exercising and how it all ties in with changing your body.  I was hooked on them but NOT the exercising part!  I didn't want to give up like I always had so I kept finding more of their workouts on YouTube.  I listened to more of what they had to say, and kept repeating those words to myself. I eventually went to their website and read up on them more, and also started following them and their team members on twitter.  I loved the before/after pics of everyone!  They became my motivation to keep going.  I couldn't afford their nutrition program so I still had the battle of clean eating going.  But, with their workouts and the pointers they gave for free, my body did change and I felt better being in my swimsuit.  THEN it was time for me to go out on tour for the summer!  Uh oh!  I had no control over how my food was prepared, i worked 20 hr days and most of the time had to eat on the run and at odd times.  Workouts didn't happen except for what I do in my job.  Everything that I had worked for was undone.  The upside to this?  I bought the Tone It Nutrition Plan!  I came home from tour and started over AGAIN!  Starting over is never fun and it was a struggle! I lost about 7lbs from the slimdown, but put it back on because of the holidays.  Yep, you guessed it!  I am a yoyo.  I did the slimdown again after the new year and have been doing a lot better!  I still struggle with choosing the right food all the time, but I am no where near where I used to be.  Working out?  I love it!  I don't get to do as much as others because of my busy schedule, but I make sure I get in as much as I can!  I am still not where I want to be, but so far from where I started.  This is a lifestyle change and undoing all these years of unhealthy habits is hard.  As a fellow Tone It Up sister said, I am NOT a beginner, but I am NOT advanced either.  This is what I want the beginners to a healthy life style to remember, change is hard, but don't give up!  When I  struggle for motivation, the things I use to remind myself of why I want to do this is for my health, to be good role models for my children, and to make my trainers proud to say, that I AM A MEMBER OF THEIR TEAM!  If you would like more information on Tone It Up go to their website at www.toneitup.com  You'll never regret you started!