– Tricia-

If any of you knew me prior to two years ago, you know that healthy living wasn’t exactly a priority for me. My name was synonymous with Pepsi, ice cream, and late night Taco Bell runs. Working out consisted of running across campus because I was late to class. So for those who know me now, might be wondering what brought about the drastic change. Well, here’s the story.

Flashback to a year and a half ago – January of 2012. I had been married a year and in that year, I put on 25 pounds as fast as twinkies flew off the shelves when they were being discontinued. I was eating terribly (well, it really about the same as I had always eaten), downing 64 oz of Pepsi – But it was ok, I was doing Turbo kick at the Y once a week.

I had noticed that my jeans were getting snug and shirts had a few more bulges than normal. It wasn’t until I was in my friend’s wedding that I realized how much I had let myself go. When I saw the pictures of myself in the wedding, I was mortified. I had so much weight around my face. The bridesmaid’s dress that I got fitted for a few months earlier, barely fit. So I decided that I should buy a scale and see how much damage had been done. I stepped on and the number 165 flashed back at me. I was stunned. In my mind, I was at the most 145, but more than likely around 140. I had gained 25 lbs in a year. It really sunk in that the path I was on would lead me to a life battling obesity and health problems. I was young enough that if I made changes now, it would make a huge difference in my future. So that was the start of my complete overhaul.

In the following weeks, we completely changed how we ate. Josh was so supportive and jumped on board. I gave up Pepsi and pretty much pop altogether. (a HUGE feat) We cut back our eating out and limited our “treats.” But then the inevitable came – it was obvious one day a week of Turbokick was not going to get rid of the 25 pounds of fat I had packed on. Enter crossfit.

Josh had been doing crossfit for several years, but I thought it was too extreme for me. I had never touched a barbell before, I hated running, I didn’t know what burpee was, and I certainly didn’t want to bulk up and look like one of those crazy body building women. But it was obvious that what I was doing wasn’t working – seeing as I had put on 25 pounds in a year – so it was going to have to take some extreme changes.

So over the next year, Josh and I both waged war against the weight – he had gained about 30 pounds as well and was just as eager as me to lose it forever. We were far too poor those days to join a crossfit box. So we did our own WODs (work outs of the day) at home or the YMCA the best we could. It took so much dedication, determination, and just down right sweat, but we did it.

I’ll blog more about some specific lessons I learned from that first year of working out and changing our lifestyle. It strengthened me in more ways that just physically and I have discovered a whole to aspect of myself I never knew existed.

Fast forward through 2012 – By the end of the year I had lost 30 pounds with hopes to never find them again. I went from a size 10 to a size 6 (which I hadn’t been a size 6 since probably freshman year of high school) And most importantly I was proud of who I was. But I was ready for a new challenge.

We finally were able to join a crossfit gym here in town and we finished our intro class. We’re now working out three times a week and I am loving/hating it (more to come on that also).  The point of this isn’t to show off what I’ve done, but hopefully encourage someone who’s trying to live a more healthy lifestyle and show that if me, of all people, can do it, you can too.