Motivation Monday: Keep Searching

This week I want to share Renee's story.  I think the tale of her journey thus far is a good example of the importance of never giving up.  Renee did what so many of us do...overwork at the gym and underwork on food intake.  Ultimately my hope is that this story will inspire something inside of us all to never give up and keep working for the unique balance our body needs to be most effective.  There is a different formula for everyone...which makes the searching that much more uncomfortable at times.  There is no one size fits all when it comes to weight loss and fitness because age, gender and genetics play too big of a role...in my personal opinion.

I should probably start with a little background…. 10 years ago I lost 55 pounds by eating well and moderately exercising. Through the good habits I learned while I was losing weight, I’ve kept most of the weight off except for the 2 years I was pregnant. 18 months after both of my pregnancies, I was back to my goal weight.

About a year ago I began exercising more and more until I was working out (mostly cardio) 60-90 minutes per day about 6 days a week. When I started exercising this much, my diligence about food journaling and watching what I was eating began to decline. After all, I was working out like a crazy woman, so therefore I should be able to eat a little more, right? Wrong! The number on the scale started creeping up and I started to get very frustrated. I began training with Mandy last summer because I wanted to incorporate some strength training and I wasn’t sure where to begin. I continued my crazy-woman workout schedule and while I was eating mostly healthy, I still wasn’t recording what I was eating. The number on the scale was creeping up ever so slowly and I was becoming increasingly frustrated. I went to the doctor because I was sure there was some medical reason for my weight gain, only to be told everything was normal and maybe I should relax a little bit. Relax? Workout less? If I did that surely the number on the scale would go up even faster! The holidays rolled around and after the first of the year I found myself 9 pounds up from my original weight even though I was working out more than ever.


I was ready to just quit all together when Mandy brought up the “X plan”. Hummmm, food journaling. I decided to give it a shot. After all, it worked 10 years ago when I was losing my weight, so it was worth a try. During this time I had also started running more, so I decided to focus on a fitness goal instead of the number on the scale. I started a 10-K training program and decided to cut back on working out a bit. I continued to do strength with Mandy and focus on the 10-K training schedule. I decreased my workouts to 4 days a week (2 cardio/2 cardio+strength) and began writing down everything that went into my mouth. I focused on a calorie goal, drinking a lot of water (80+ ounces/day) and not eating after 8pm. Once I decreased my cardio, increased my strength training and began food journaling, something crazy happened. The number on the scale started going down! And it kept going down…. So far it’s been 8 weeks and I’ve lost 10 pounds. I’m at a weight I haven’t seen in over a year! The best part is I feel great and don’t feel like I’m killing myself at the gym with no results. I feel like I’ve achieved a good balance thanks to Mandy and her guidance. As is evident by my crazy-woman workout schedule, I have a tendency to become obsessive about exercise. Mandy is awesome at keeping me grounded and helping me find balance. I encourage you to find balance as well. The results are worth the effort.