I DID IT!!!

I am not a finisher.  I start countless things, have loads of great ideas, and most of them are “in process”.  Yet here I am, 12 weeks later, AND I FINISHED A FITNESS CHALLENGE!!! Not only did I finish it, I rocked it out, if I do say so myself!  I don’t even recognize myself from who I was back in January.  I’ve become one of those cliché people who goes around saying things like “it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change” and “please pass the spinach and baby kale”.  And most shocking of all, “No thanks, I’ll pass on the bread”.

I knew things were getting serious when I woke up one morning about a month in and had the biggest craving for raw spinach.  Without a second though, I got up and went to the kitchen where I proceeded to shove a fistful of spinach into my mouth.  Only when I was cramming in the second handful did I think “This isn’t normal.  This is weird.”

That was the moment I decided to just go for it.  Clearly my body wanted it, so all I had to do was tell my head to shut up and follow my heart (err…stomach?).  Shockingly, I’ve not had any cravings.  I take that back…about a week in I wanted chocolate like nobody’s business, but I persevered and haven’t had any cravings since.  Unless you count how much I crave leafy greens, which I don’t count because who craves that anyway?!

I will say that having one cheat meal a week is very helpful.  I’d plan it around whatever was going on that week.  However, I learned that cheat meals, while great for the mouth and that pesky mind, are ROUGH on the body!  Towards the end I wasn’t even partaking in cheat meals because I felt so horrible for a day or two after having them.  Or I’d have “healthy” cheat meals, such as things that aren’t necessarily bad for you but you can’t have in this particular challenge, such as rice and corn toritllas. And let’s face it, pretty much all of my cheat meals were on Mexican food.

I do have one confession to make in this whole thing, and that is that I did not do very well in the exercise portion of the challenge.  And by that I mean that I didn’t do it at all.  I have had a lot of foot and knee pain, but that has been going away, so I feel I’m ready for some low intensity workouts (I bought a yoga mat and plan to start that up soon). 

The stats: 12 weeks, 25lbs, 3 pant sizes.  I don’t have measurements because I didn’t think I’d last 2 weeks let alone 12, so I didn’t do much in the beginning to document my body.  But let me tell you, if clothing tells you anything, it’s when your body changes!

So what’s next?  Well, I’ve become a TERRAfit coach!  And I’m starting the next 12 week challenge on April 18^th.  If you are interested in joining me, please do!  Get in touch with me with any questions and I would love to talk about it with you!  What have you got to lose?  Nothing but some pounds and inches, and even if you think you’d never last, give it a go anyway.  A little bit is better than none!

I apologize for the dark before pics, but as I said, I didn’t think I would reach this point and therefore didn’t care about getting a clear shot!