Goals are amazing!

I'm all about goals. A while back I wrote down some goals that pertained to my health, fitness level and weight. They have been flashing across my screen all day long, slowly sinking into my subconscious mind.

I can attest to the power of writing down your dreams and setting them up as goals. They have a wonderful way of coming to pass, sometimes when you least expect it.

Okay, a little history to get you up to date.

I'm a mom to five amazing children, whom I love to be around. So much so that I have chosen to educate them at home. That makes for very busy days, as we squeeze in all that there is to do. I have a wonderful, supportive, inspirational husband who stands behind me no matter what. He is my foundation from which I build all my castles. We will be celebrating our 17th Wedding Anniversary this July. I can't believe how fast time flies. We still feel and act like newlyweds.

I'm also self-employed and I enjoy a prosperous business as a Wedding and Portrait Photographer.

Over the course of time, facing infertility, two twin pregnancies, my body has taken on a lot of hormones and also tried to deal with hormonal imbalances due to P.C.O.S (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). Weight found it's way to me over the years. I can't complain, it was never very bad. At 5'4" my highest weight was 165 during pregnancies. I was lucky in that I was able to lose a reasonable amount afterwards, pretty normal recovery. Each pregnancy left a little baggage behind.

I really began to take notice after my last twin pregnancy. There is nothing like knowing you are finished having children to set the self image wheels in motion. Besides, why do all that work just to have it pack back on when you get pregnant again? It was obvious to me that it was time for a change.

I began to read and study for a way to change my eating forever. This was not a diet, this was a life change. I read lots of web pages with lots of different methodology, all varying in approach. I finally decided on a balanced carb to protein plan with limited calories. I liked Body for Life's approach to diet. I knew I was not going to do his workout regimen, however.

I took the first step.

I went to the grocery store with a list of new foods, and ended up pushing what seemed to be someone else's cart. It was filled with yummy healthy DIFFERENT food. I loved my new food, charting all my meals and snacks into Calorie King and loving every minute of it. I knew that if I ate carbs, I had to balance it out with some protein. Whey protein was my new most favorite food, well, drink.

I'll go into more detail about the actual diet in another post. This was my life change. I stopped eating all the junk I used to and enjoyed great success doing it. Over 4 months I lost 25 lbs and was down to 125. Over the next 6 months I lost another 5 just by doing maintenance. 120 was my original goal so I was happy.

I've kept it off

I'm very happy to report that this must be working, because I have maintained with hardly any effort and some bowls of ice cream, cookie dough, pizza, eating out etc, but I try to have a low cal/low fat/low carb day following said splurge.