Hey y'all! I just wanted to share my story about my weight issues, weight loss, and struggles with all my new followers and anyone who doesn't know it.
My name is Brittany and I am a 30 year old mommy to 3 beautiful little girls. I actually have one more biological daughter that is 9 that I gave up for adoption, but you can read all about her and that story in a previous blog (my 9 year old daughter). On December 29, 2014 I weighed in at a whopping 230.5 pounds. Heavier than I had ever been (not pregnant). I was 8 weeks post partum, so I couldn't use the excuse anymore of baby weight. .. which it was, but it was there because of how much I gained while pregnant. 2 weeks before I weighed myself and was 230.5 I had weighed myself and weighed 219 pounds. I managed to gain over ten pounds in 2 short weeks. Now my story did not just begin after this pregnancy, I have struggled with my weight most of my teen and adult life.
I began secret eating at a very young age. .. when my parents said no I couldn't eat something I wanted I rememBer I would just sneek it. I have always been very active... my younger years was a competitive gymnast, in high school a very competitive cheerleader, in college I was not as aCtive, but still did a lot of dance and cheer stuff. .. and the past 7 years have gone to the gym here and then, but have been an active zumba instructor for two and a half years. Oh yeah and trained and ran a full marathon 3 yeArs ago (training for my second full starting in May). So being active has NEVER been a problem for me. It has always been the food. Food has always been my enemy. When I turned 16 I rememBer I was so excited to drive. .. just so I could go thru drive thrus and eat whatever I wanted. Before I had kids. ..I was definitely bigger, but it never was as bad as it got once I got married and had kids.
After my husband and I got together that was when I really started struggling worse than ever with my weight and secret eating. I would literally eat all meals at home. .. and after all of them go to fast food and eat another meal. For absolutely no reason. I would run to wal greens or anywhere and I would by 3 to 5 full size candy bars and eat them completely gone before I was home. ... and it was only a five minute drive. I truly believe that I had an addiction to food, but it was something I was so ashamed of and never knew of anyone else that struggled with it. .. that I didn't know what to do.
Finally after having our second daughter and at six months post partum....something hit me. ..I was over it. ..I weighed 226 pounds. .. that's when I started this blog. I had never seen a weight loss blog before, but for some reason I thought of doing it publicly through Facebook and blogging, I thought it would help to hold me accountable. Do I enjoy everyone seeing my fat hang out... or me in a sports bra? Absolutely not, but I knew this would keep me going. So publicly I began my weight loss. ..I got all the way down to I think 201 and then just kind of stopped. I was weighing in on camera, taking lots of progress pics, and eating healthy. .. even ran my first half marathon, but I just slowly started getting out of everytHing. Stopped blogging, working out, eating healthy, and before long I was back up to 220 pounds or so.
By early 2012 I was 3 months in training for my first full marathon (still weighing 220) but doing absolutely nothing about my eating. I thought by training for the marathon I would just naturally lose weight, but back then I couldn't get through my head that it was all about eating right. At the beginning of March I had finally had it. I had gained almost all my weight back and I was miserable, so I decided to start blogging again. I was a little discouraged to blog again because I felt like people would look at it like, here goes Brittany once again trying to lose weight, but I got nothing but support...and a great amount of it! It was so encouraging to hear encouragement from so many people I knew, barely knew, or didn't know at all. Or even how I was inspiring them. Which when I began this journey publicly 4 years ago, 3 years ago, and now almost 4 months ago....I never have thought of it inspiring people...I truly just started it to keep myself accountable, but the fact that so many people have told me how inspired they are by it....makes me now know the real reason I began this blog/public weight loss journey. So after being on facebook one night in March my husband and I came across this Oklahoma's Biggest Loser (you can read more on those blogs and what it was in my past blogs if you are interested). So i signed up. Over the next 8 weeks I went from 216 pounds to 184 pounds! I felt amazing! I promised I was not going to stop after the contest ended, but then life happened....and since I was so strict while doing biggest loser...I cut EVERYTHING out and pretty much ate only chicken and broccoli for breakfast, lunch, and dinner....It was not long before it started coming back on. I had told myself this was it, but in May of 2012 when I was at my lowest weight since I had been with my husband, we decided we were ready for baby number 3.
My name is Brittany and I am a 30 year old mommy to 3 beautiful little girls. I actually have one more biological daughter that is 9 that I gave up for adoption, but you can read all about her and that story in a previous blog (my 9 year old daughter). On December 29, 2014 I weighed in at a whopping 230.5 pounds. Heavier than I had ever been (not pregnant). I was 8 weeks post partum, so I couldn't use the excuse anymore of baby weight. .. which it was, but it was there because of how much I gained while pregnant. 2 weeks before I weighed myself and was 230.5 I had weighed myself and weighed 219 pounds. I managed to gain over ten pounds in 2 short weeks. Now my story did not just begin after this pregnancy, I have struggled with my weight most of my teen and adult life.
I began secret eating at a very young age. .. when my parents said no I couldn't eat something I wanted I rememBer I would just sneek it. I have always been very active... my younger years was a competitive gymnast, in high school a very competitive cheerleader, in college I was not as aCtive, but still did a lot of dance and cheer stuff. .. and the past 7 years have gone to the gym here and then, but have been an active zumba instructor for two and a half years. Oh yeah and trained and ran a full marathon 3 yeArs ago (training for my second full starting in May). So being active has NEVER been a problem for me. It has always been the food. Food has always been my enemy. When I turned 16 I rememBer I was so excited to drive. .. just so I could go thru drive thrus and eat whatever I wanted. Before I had kids. ..I was definitely bigger, but it never was as bad as it got once I got married and had kids.
After my husband and I got together that was when I really started struggling worse than ever with my weight and secret eating. I would literally eat all meals at home. .. and after all of them go to fast food and eat another meal. For absolutely no reason. I would run to wal greens or anywhere and I would by 3 to 5 full size candy bars and eat them completely gone before I was home. ... and it was only a five minute drive. I truly believe that I had an addiction to food, but it was something I was so ashamed of and never knew of anyone else that struggled with it. .. that I didn't know what to do.
Finally after having our second daughter and at six months post partum....something hit me. ..I was over it. ..I weighed 226 pounds. .. that's when I started this blog. I had never seen a weight loss blog before, but for some reason I thought of doing it publicly through Facebook and blogging, I thought it would help to hold me accountable. Do I enjoy everyone seeing my fat hang out... or me in a sports bra? Absolutely not, but I knew this would keep me going. So publicly I began my weight loss. ..I got all the way down to I think 201 and then just kind of stopped. I was weighing in on camera, taking lots of progress pics, and eating healthy. .. even ran my first half marathon, but I just slowly started getting out of everytHing. Stopped blogging, working out, eating healthy, and before long I was back up to 220 pounds or so.
By early 2012 I was 3 months in training for my first full marathon (still weighing 220) but doing absolutely nothing about my eating. I thought by training for the marathon I would just naturally lose weight, but back then I couldn't get through my head that it was all about eating right. At the beginning of March I had finally had it. I had gained almost all my weight back and I was miserable, so I decided to start blogging again. I was a little discouraged to blog again because I felt like people would look at it like, here goes Brittany once again trying to lose weight, but I got nothing but support...and a great amount of it! It was so encouraging to hear encouragement from so many people I knew, barely knew, or didn't know at all. Or even how I was inspiring them. Which when I began this journey publicly 4 years ago, 3 years ago, and now almost 4 months ago....I never have thought of it inspiring people...I truly just started it to keep myself accountable, but the fact that so many people have told me how inspired they are by it....makes me now know the real reason I began this blog/public weight loss journey. So after being on facebook one night in March my husband and I came across this Oklahoma's Biggest Loser (you can read more on those blogs and what it was in my past blogs if you are interested). So i signed up. Over the next 8 weeks I went from 216 pounds to 184 pounds! I felt amazing! I promised I was not going to stop after the contest ended, but then life happened....and since I was so strict while doing biggest loser...I cut EVERYTHING out and pretty much ate only chicken and broccoli for breakfast, lunch, and dinner....It was not long before it started coming back on. I had told myself this was it, but in May of 2012 when I was at my lowest weight since I had been with my husband, we decided we were ready for baby number 3.
With our previous 2 children I coughed and I was pregnant. Literally...Our oldest was not planned at all, and our middle daughter we literally talked about starting to try and two weeks later I was pregnant....I seriously didn't even know how ovulation worked back then. So we just figured it would be super easy to get pregnant again. 8 extremely long months later....weighing back in at 215 pounds, on December 16th 2012....we found out we were finally pregnant again! That 8 months of trying and not getting pregnant had completely done me in. I was so depressed with my weight, depressed with not getting pregnant, and was over eating and secret eating worse than I ever had. To top it all off, when I was 11 weeks pregnant they had confirmed that I had a miscarriage. I was devastated.
From February 2013 until November 2013, I felt like everything was so crazy. I wanted a baby so bad, but I also wanted to lose weight and get healthy so bad. So during that time we tried off and on to get pregnant...I was trying to control everything. I had stopped trusting that the Lord had a plan for me and getting pregnant and losing weight as well. I had tried to take it all into my own hands and was not leaning on the Lord for any support. November 2013 I was OVER IT! I started back working out...I was teaching 3 to 5 zumba classes a week and I started eating healthy. Except this time I really was trying to focus on not changing everything at once. I allowed myself a cheat meal every week and did more portion control. I started admitting that I was a desert person and liked sweets, and allowed myself sweets quite often, but in small portions. I also started putting 100% of my trust in the Lord. I knew when it was time...I would be pregnant. He was just waiting on me to give it back to him. I truly believe that is how I was so successful losing weight as well. By January I had already lost over 30 pounds. I finally felt like I was comfortable enough to start trying for a baby again. So we started...and in March of 2014 we found out we were pregnant with our rainbow baby. The Lord gave me this calmness from the very night we conceived her...I truly knew that night I had gotten pregnant....I only needed the test to confirm.
My entire pregnancy I ate what I wanted. Never tried to control anything. Even though it was my 4th pregnancy and I knew what happened with my last one...I wasn't really packing on the pounds that much, so I continued eating. But for some reason a lot of women believe pregnancy is an excuse to eat. I know I did. I wasn't even secret eating that much...I was just eating. I also went from being super active, to not working out at all. I was so scared of miscarrying that I decided to stop teaching my zumba classes and doing any other work out as well. Obviously I know I shouldn't have done that, but I did...and I regret that. By the end of my pregnancy...I went from 198 pounds to over 250 pounds. That is also with starting my pregnancy obese...and I was only suppose to gain like 10 pounds, but honestly I never felt like I looked that heavy until the very end.
So flash forward to how I ended up starting my weight loss once and for all. I weighed myself mid December 2014 6 weeks postpartum and weighed 219. I actually was not too unhappy with that number. I mean it was high, but I remember thinking, if I just start watching my eating and now that I can start working out again I should be able to get under 200 pretty quick...then just go from there. Yeah....not so much. The next 2 weeks was Christmas and all the stuff that goes with it...so what did I do? I ate...and I ate some more...and then I kept eating. In this two week time period as well we sold our house..which closed on December 23rd, our 6 week old was admitted to the hospital for the flu and an infected belly button (it was so sad poor baby) I was there with her for 3 nights, while in the hospital that entire time we were moving from our house to my sisters, we had Christmas, and then on January 1st moved to our rent home, oh yeah plus I gained 11.5 pounds too. So in that 2 weeks period when I was eating, I also knew I had to start something...(I didn't even know I had gained 11 pounds yet) I saw on a commercial the $200,000 transformation contest through bodybuilding.com. Well I like a good contest (because I sadly am the most competitive person, one quality of mine that I really don't like) so I thought...OK here's my sign...I'm doing this contest...and it starts December 29th. So I weighed myself that morning and OMG I weighed 230.5 pounds. I was mortified. But I got over it and knew I had to start somewhere.
I was ready to get the party started. I chose to do Jamie Eason's Live Fit Trainer. I knew I wanted to build muscle as well as lose weight, but I didn't really know much about lifting, and I had started that program 2 other times and never finished it so I thought lets do it! My first couple weeks back I was pretty embarrassed to be at the gym. I cried almost every time I was there because of what I saw in the mirror. I felt like the fat girl that everyone at the gym stared at and thought there's a new years resolution girl. Which a little side note on that...nothing bothers me more than people that are annoyed by the gym being busy because people make it a new years resolution. Are you kidding me? We should be encouraging those people....get over yourself fit person that has been coming forever and encourage those people....you have to start somewhere. Maybe some of them fail at their resolution and probably more do than not, but seriously you are no better than them. Ok rant over, but I didn't even have work out clothes that fit. Nothing fit....I looked ridiculous. But I did it....I went to the gym and I lifted weights where all the fit people do. I didn't really have an idea on what I was doing with my "diet" but I was just kind of watching what I ate I lost about 13 pounds. But before long...I was literally forcing myself to go to the gym, and not making the best decisions with food, but also not making the worst. Then my husband went on a business trip at the beginning of February for 4 days...during that time, I got strep throat and all I did was eat. I was so sick and all I did was eat. Two nights in a row I ate an entire pizza by myself. I knew I was slowly getting off track before, but that week was my breaking point.
The night before Jonathan came home I somehow started coming across peoples weight loss transformations on instagram. And I became so inspired. There was one in particular that really stuck out to me. @Happyhungryfit I saw her before pics and her current pics and read some of her story. Then I realized she had done it all in a year. Not that you stop when you get to your goal weight, but she had hit her goal in a year. I was thinking how short a year really is, and how quickly it goes by. We all want these overnight transformations, and those just are not realistic. But in the scheme of things a year is such a short time. So I was inspired. The next day when Jonathan got home I told him about the weight loss instagram accounts and we read up about iifym. That day I decided to change my name to @britsweightlossjourney and once again publicly do my weight loss. We got rid of facebook over 2 years ago so instagram was my only way to do it (so for any of you guys who have said lets connect on fb, I can't because I no longer have an account) This all happened February 5th and I have been going strong ever since. So my journey began December 29th and from then to Feb. I lost 13 pounds, but I started my instagram on Feb. 5th.
Since then I have worked out 5 days a week every week, and a lot of the weeks 6 times, but I aim for 5 and if I do 6 or 7 that's a bonus. I feel like a different human being than I have ever been. I have never in my life seen much muscle definition on my body, but slowly I am noticing the changes. I have set small goals for myself so I don't get overwhelmed by the big picture. My first goal is under 200 pounds. Next is under 180 pounds, then 150 pounds, and finally 130 pounds. I'm not too hung up on numbers and size....to some extent. For about 5 weeks I was stuck and had hit a plateau, I was stuck at 207. So 5 weeks ago I decided to hide my scale and not weigh myself. I finally weighed myself and I am at 202 pounds. I usually would let this discourage me, and honestly it does really make me mad, but what are my options? To quit? Where will that get me? In the five weeks I have noticed some major major changes in my body. It might only be 5 pounds, but I have definition in my arms, and have dropped to almost a size 14. Guys...I started in an 18 being extremely tight. I mean SERIOUSLY I can not be mad about that. I know it will take months to really notice the muscles, but I believe in 3 more months or so I truly will not believe what I see. I have been on this journey now for almost 4 months, which is about 2 months longer than I ever have, but there is no end to this...and we are not even going to talk about getting pregnant with our next one until I am more than comfortable and positive I can continue during pregnancy (yes we want more kids 1 more for sure, possibly 2 or 3...crazy we know)
I will end with this...THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! You are all my encouragement...everyday you keep me going. Your kind words of encouragement and love are truly more than I could even imagine. From people I know, to kind of know, to people I don't know at all. And let me tell you...all the fitness people or people on their own journeys that like or comment...wow...it seriously means so much! And to all you ladies or men that I follow on instagram with weight transformation accounts...thank you so much for inspiring me. You might not even know that I exist or that I follow you, but you have truly inspired me. It's because of you that I now believe I can be even more than I ever even begin to imagine....it's because of you that I know I am going to have massive guns one day, and it's because of you that I believe one day I might wear a bikini again! I love all of my followers and encouragers so much, you all have changed my life! But most of all I owe all of this to my savior...it's because of him any of this is possible! Again from the bottom of my heart....THANK YOU!
Brittany
