Andrea of Worley House is sharing her weight loss success story with us today. I'm super proud of this girl. She lost 68 pounds by eating healthy and working out AT HOME. If you have weight to lose, take heart, Andrea saw big improvements in just three months! She's got two kids (one my son's age) and a younger one as well. Please leave Andrea a comment on this post so that she knows she has inspired you. It's brave of her to share her story! Also, check out her blog- I think you'll like it!
Hi Honey We're Healthy Readers! My name is Andrea Worley, I blog over at my little slice of the Internet called Worley House! I'm so honored that Megan asked me to share a bit of my story here, on a topic I never thought I'd ever share about; weight loss and becoming healthy.
I had my second baby in December 2012, my pregnancy with #2 was much harder on my body, I gained about the same amount of weight that I did with my first but I was already over weight and not very healthy when I got pregnant the second time around. So I think that those things combined with a difficult pregnancy added to my discomfort.
On delivery day I weighed in at 190 pounds. I knew that some of that weight was baby, excess water and fluids. Couple weeks after having my second baby I weighed myself, 168 pounds on my 5'2'' frame. At that point I knew that I needed to change a lot of habits if I wanted to lose the weight and become healthy.
I started working out and changing what I was eating. I don't have a gym membership, I'm just a woman and a mother using what she has to make her life healthier and better. I dusted off my DVD of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and used it daily. Well past the 30 days. It was 20 minutes, but certainly not easy for me. It was a great starting point, and I knew I needed to make time for myself if I was going to reach my goals.
I set small goals for myself when I first started losing weight. I also started tracking everything I ate through My Fitness Pal. This was a good visual for me to see the calories I was consuming. To learn portion control and because I was still breast feeding as well I needed to make sure I was eating enough calories to still produce and not reduce my supply.
After three months of eating well and daily exercise.
After three months of eating well and daily exercise I started to see some major results. It gave me to motivation to keep going and set new goals. My healthy lifestyle change has spilled over into every area of my life and to my family.
I started drinking tons and tons of water. I believe water intake is huge for weight loss and flushing out your system. I omitted all dairy from my diet as well, started cutting out sweets and sugary drinks. I also eat five small meals a day. My diet is mostly clean, and when I say that I mean I am human. I have a cookie sometimes. I strive for consistency in this- not perfection.
Once I started making changes to my eating habits and working out I noticed right away that I was sleeping better and easier at night. The headaches that I was getting often were gone, and over all I had a better outlook on life and on myself.
I also believe that my lifestyle change also helped get me out of my post baby funk. My whole outlook changed.
The picture on the left is my "before" picture taken in May 2013, and the one on the right was taken at the end of October 2013. I'm down 68 pounds now and have reached the goal weight that I wanted to be at.
I believe in always setting new goals for yourself, stretching yourself and making your body work for you and not against you. I still work out daily, I do videos from the comfort of my own home and have now added running into my workouts. I've learned that food is fuel for your body. It's not supposed to make you feel good about yourself, or make you happy. The purpose of food is to nourish our bodies and allow it to do what God created it to do. I really believe you have to change your outlook on food as well.
Almost a year into my fitness journey, I've met some of my original goals. It's time to make new ones and always continue to thrive in living a healthy life. I'm looking forward to running my first 5K ever this March. Don't give up if you don't see results immediately, change takes time. Your body didn't get where it's at over night, so give yourself time to makes the right and healthy changes.
If you're wanting to make a change I encourage you to just start, there's never going to be a "perfect day" to start or a perfect month. Once you start you will never regret it. Once you start to see your body change you won't regret it either. It's easier to not work out, I believed this for far to long but once I started making changes in my habits it gave me a new outlook as well. And, I won't lie it feels pretty great to have nothing that fits and your pants be a little looser than before. It's a great perk!
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