Get Healthy Link Up

Here I am now (as in 5 minutes ago) - Day 1 week 1

Growing up was so not easy on my self esteem. I can remember when I was 10 and already had fully developed and was bigger than all the other girls.  I was teased in Junior High (the worst most awkward years of my life!) and from a certain brother of mine on my weight, which added to my low self esteem. By the time I was in high school, I was a 5'7 and topped the scale at 185. I would come home and eat straight out of boredom. I would finish off a whole bag of tator tots all before my mom was home from work and then eat the dinner she prepared. 

This cycle continued until I got married at 18 and started to feel that I needed to take control of my health. With my husband being in the Marines and seeing how disciplined he was, I wanted to give him the wife/future mother of our children, I knew he deserved.I did what I knew: I fell into the streo type that cardio is the only way to lose the weight and that if I did 1 hour on the treadmill, that milkshake on the way home wouldn't matter. I never once thought about doing weights because I didn't know to "bulk".

It wasn't until I was 22 when I picked up Oxygen magazine on the shelf at the grocery store, that something clicked. I wanted to lose weight, and be like those girls I saw in the magazine. So I kicked processed food out (for the most part haha!) and started counting my calories and worked it in the gym. 

Fast forward a few years, I had dropped 35lb's since I first started, I was in kick as shape, Nick and I had moved back to California & I got pregnant. I was determined to keep my workouts up. No way would I screw myself and go buck wild with food and not exercise and fall back on the "Pregnancy Card". On my lunch breaks at work, I'd go to the gym & do 20-30 minutes of cardio, then when I'd get off work, would go back and do some weights & a little more cardio. I gained 30lbs when I was pregnant, splurged every now and again, and was happy & healthy by the time T Money made his appearance into this world. 

After 3 months we decided that my breastfeeding/pumping just wasn't for me, so it was on like Donkey Kong in the diet/workout department. I didn't have to worry about getting enough calories to keep milk supply up or if some supplements I wanted to take would effect Troy. 

Troy is 1.5 and I've lost the baby weight and then some, and feel more dedicated than ever. By joining in on this link up, I want to help keep myself in check. I can get sorta 'lax on the food department. Sneaking a few bites of Troys Mac N Cheese, eating some crust from his grilled cheese, having a handful of his veggie chips. Those babies add up. Other than that, Im pretty good on eating. Also, workouts can be dropped and Im not ok with it. Nick's schedule is always changing, and at the moment my only practical option is to go to the gym at 4AM. Yes, 4 AY-EMMMM! Its as fun as it sounds to get out of bed at that time. So as you can imagine, it's easy to talk myself out of a workout at that time. My goal is that I want to get to the gym AT LEAST 4 times a week & only splurge on the processed food 1 time a week. So maybe on date night, but keep strict the rest of the week. Also, Im going to Mexico at the end of October, so I want to be able to feel comfortable to take pictures even in a bikini. Thank you Kristen and Raven for creating this!