Hello! My name is Megan Rose and I'd like to share my story and journey with you. About a year ago I found myself hating my reflection in the mirror like many people do. Wondering how I got to this point, how I let myself go, and all the self hating and loathing that went along with it. I hated that none of my clothes fit me or that I kept having to buy new ones to fit.
So I decided that was it. If I was going to get back in shape it was going to be all or nothing. You see growing up I was a gymnast, so being fit and in shape was normal. I was used to being really strong and not having to worry about what I ate in high school or being in bikini shape. But we all have to head out into the real world sometime and that's when I started over eating and working out less.
At first I don't think that I was over eating that much. You see my fiance, whom I have been dating since high school, is one of the lucky few who can eat the worse things imaginable and look fantastic, ripped abs and all, unlike myself. So living with someone you tend to eat what they eat and eat when they do. So I started gaining weight slowly the more time we spent together.
Don't misunderstand, I am NOT blaming him, it just did not help the situation living with someone who does not have to work out or eat healthy to stay fit (but I should have had more self control). And like any other college student you put on the freshman fifteen because you are not as active. My lifestyle did change though. For the last few years I have played RPG's and would sit for up to 8 hours a day playing video games and snacking on whatever I liked. I just kept telling myself that I could just jump on the treadmill and burn off the bad stuff. Yeah right, but that never happened or I would give up after ten minutes or so. But about 6 months before I decided to change my life I gave up video games like I was a drug addict.
Genetically I do not have an advantage. My fiance's mother is just like him. My mother was not an athlete and is not a very physically active person but probably weighs in around 220 lbs. Which is not terrible but she is only 5'1". I watched both of my parents struggle with being overweight as a child, but my father decided to do something about it and lost most of the weight. And as a gymnastics coach, being around fit women and girls all the time, and being the fattest coach, was killing me. What kind of example was I setting to the girls I coached? How could I talk to them about eating right when I did not?
When I was in the best shape I weighed 105 pounds. This is not realistic now because I am not working out 5 or more hours a day 5 or six days a week (And I was not as well endowed as I am now). So I set my goal to be back to 115 pounds. I was to hit this goal by November 12th of 2011. So last July I stepped on the scale to see the damage.
Well I was surprised to say the least, but not completely. My heaviest weight that I ever saw on a scale was 149.5 pounds. I couldn't believe it! Now as insane as this might sound me and my fiance have a "fat clause" in our relationship. If he ever gets fat I can break up with him and if I ever weigh more than him he can break up with me. So despite my fears I called him into the bathroom to see how close I was. I was not far off, he was only 155 pounds! Holy crap I was gonna be a single woman! I was always asking myself how people got that fat and here I was one of them!
Now my fiance is 6'2" and he has always struggled to maintain his weight and has been trying to gain weight as long as I can remember. But that is his own struggle. That day, that number, that 5.5 pound difference changed me. I didn't want to be the fat girl with the hot guy who everyone looked at and thought "Why is he with that fat midget?"
That week I went out and bought all new food just for me. I picked up all of my nutrition and weight loss books and starting reading. What should I eat? How much should I eat? How much should I exercise? At first it was really hard to exercise, I was outta shape and tired. But I knew that food was the key. It was all or nothing I kept reminding myself, and to take it one day at a time. So for the first week I drank nothing but water and cut my calories from an estimated 3,000 to 1,000. The first two days I wanted to die. But I only cut them that first week so that I could shock my body into liking the new food. Not that this was a good idea but its what worked for me. By the second week I ate around 1500 calories a day. Which according to my own research was the right amount of calories for minimal or no exercise. At this time I was not exercising at all still.
I thought I was never gonna make it. I was so hungry I thought I would cheat. But I was going to stop cold turkey on eating bad. By September I had lost 10 pounds on changing my nutrition alone. All I did was eat what was good for me (fruits, veggies, and 6 small meals a day) and not over eat. I am a big cheater and a terrible counter so I had to keep a journal so that I would not get off track. That only lasted a couple of weeks and then I could keep track without it. I should have kept a detailed journal and I regret that I did not.
By November I was down 18 pounds! Again by monitoring what I was eating. Now don't get me wrong I was not being anorexic, or bulimic. I love food and eating and I hate throwing up so I could do neither. By thanksgiving I had kept off the weight! Now was the time to exercise. One of the reasons I started with just my nutrition was the fact that I had been having terrible pain and problems with my hamstrings. Basically it would feel like a charlie horse all the time. Now it is pretty much gone but I really think losing the weight helped my leg heal faster.
I decided that I was going to start keeping track of how much I was working out. I started calculating the distances that I was running and the distances on the elliptical at work that I would use. Averaging about 10-15 miles a week. I kept this up all the way till March weighing in at 123 pounds! I had lost a total of 26.5 pounds off of me! That was really exciting. Now my old clothes were fitting. I actually had to go buy new clothes and go through my closet! I was so excited!
Then my leg started bothering me again, so up until a couple of weeks ago (it is now July 2011, almost one year later) I had not been working out. I gained back a few pounds and was back to 128 but since then I have gone back down to 125. I still have 10 more pounds to hit my goal. And in addition I have a new goal. I want to be in Fitness model shape. I don't actually want to be a model but I would like to be in such an athletic condition that I could if I wanted.
This is why I am writing this blog. I want to share my nutrition guidelines with you, my workout journal and program, and hopefully inspire someone else who felt the way I did. I was not an easy journey to where I am now and coming full circle from where I was a year ago is amazing. I had such a great support system from my fiance, his family, and my work family. I have always liked writing about things I love and I think that blogging will really help me on this next step in my life.
I am now reading up on the latest exercises and sticking to a strict calorie intake of 2000/Day and a gallon of water. I have been consulting with body builder friends and trainers to help me in this process and I am hoping this blog will help me down the path I have chosen. I want to be in the Senior Olympics when I am older and I want to be in the best shape of my life for my whole life. I want to have no regrets, and always have a set of guns that are smoking. Wish me luck and stay tuned for my next post. I will hopefully post a new blog at least once a week and a new photo, as well as getting up photos so you can see the before and after of my 25 pound plus transformation thus far. See you soon!
