115 pounds later...Mary-Ellen's Journey to Health

I was always the “big girl” growing up. Not really obese, but certainly bigger than I should have been. Out of a family of five kids I was the only one who wasnʼt physically fit. It was after I got married that I really put on a lot of weight. I basically ate whatever I wanted to and did very little physical activity. Three kids and several years later I found myself weighing 278 pounds.

I knew that this was not what God intended for me and that I needed to do something about it. I watched “The Biggest Loser” on TV and came to the realization that these were people just like me. Maybe if they could do it, possibly, just maybe I could do it too.

I had bought a couple of “Biggest Loser the Workout” DVDʼs before with good intentions, but I never followed through. In May of 2011 I decided that this time I wasnʼt going to fail. Enough was enough! I wanted to be able to do things with my kids and more importantly to be a good example to them. I wanted to be a godly example, but I wasnʼt taking care of my “temple”.

And so it began. I used things I learned from “The Biggest Loser” and from the internet and began my journey. It wasnʼt easy. I made the decision right from the beginning that I wasnʼt going to “go on a diet”. I was going to change my lifestyle and the relationship I had with food. I started a food journal and wrote down everything that I ate and calculated the calories that I took in each day.
What an eye opener that was. I set a daily calorie goal and tried my best not to go over.  Sometimes I failed. More often I found that I could actually do this. I did a workout every day.

Was it hard? Yes. Did it hurt? Yes. Sometimes I wanted to give up.  Sometimes I didnʼt want to do one more squat or lunge. But getting on that scale every morning kept me motivated. It sounds so obvious, but when I ate right and really pushed in my workout the weight came off. Amazing. I was really doing it.

In the winter of 2012 I decided to try something that I never imagined I would ever do. I dusted off the treadmill that I had bought with good intentions a few years earlier and started running....well jogging....very slowly. But it was a start and was just what I needed and the pounds kept coming off. I started running 3 times a week and then I added some P90X to my routine and every once in a while Iʼll get brave enough to do some Insanity (itʼs called that for a reason :) ).

 Iʼve lost 115 pounds. Iʼm not skinny, but Iʼm healthy. I feel so much better about myself. What Iʼve learned is that it doesnʼt take some amazing person with super willpower to lose weight. It just takes a one day at a time commitment and a good amount of prayer doesnʼt hurt either. I know
itʼs cliche, but itʼs true...If I can do it anyone can do it.

Feel free to leave a word of encouragement or a bit of your own experience in the comments!  

If you have a story you'd like to share, please send me an email at walkingredeemed@ gmail.com.  It doesn't have to be a dramatic weight loss to be inspiring.  Reclaiming our health will look different for each of us!