My Story

This is my first attempt of my life at writing a blog. I'm doing it for two reasons, first, to finally appease my sister who has been wanting me to write one for years, so even if she is the only one who reads it I will be okay, and second, to hopefully feel more accountable in my weight loss journey.

A little over a year ago I got back from an 18 month LDS mission where I had done the impossible. Most people come home from their mission quite a few pounds heavier than when they left. I managed to lose weight on mine, between that and the extra weight I lost the first two months I was home. I lost a total of 53 pounds! Not too shabby. I was feeling pretty good at 140 pounds, fitting into a size 4. My mood was improved, my energy was up, I didn't have to use clothes to hide my body, instead I could wear slim fit clothing. I've never felt more confident and comfortable in my skin. It wasn't just about my weight though. I was just all together healthy. So how did I do it?

At the beginning of my mission I discovered that I was lactose intolerant, that didn't stop me from eating ice cream almost every night after dinner though. A point came when I looked at myself and thought about how I felt and looked, and realized I was tired of being that way. I started out with giving up sugar. My sugar addiction was so bad that I had a withdrawal headache for the first week. After that it got easier. The longer I went without sugar, the less I craved it until eventually the thought of eating it made me feel sick. Giving up sugar cut out a lot of the dairy I was eating, and the less I ate, the more sensitive I became to it, until eventually I gave it up all together. Dinner was hard to control what I ate because the church members fed us everyday, but I tried to make healthier choices when I could, and tell them ahead of time what I couldn't eat. When I was making my meals I made sure to try and eat mostly vegetables. In our mission we were required to run every day, so I was exercising regularly as well. I was able to lose 40 pounds on my mission.

I got home from my mission in August of 2014. When I got home I did a 3 day juice cleanse, and after that I gave up all gluten and meat. I had a suspicion on my mission (that rhymes) that I was gluten intolerant, but it wasn't the right time to test out that theory. Turns out I was right though. Becoming vegan was not a protest against animal rights. The healthier I became, the more in tune I was with my body and what it wanted and needed, and my body was telling me it was tired of meat. I already couldn't eat dairy, so I figured I'd give up eggs and call myself vegan to make it easier, (it's less of a mouth full than dairy and meat free). I continued to exercise, which was pretty easy because I was living at home with no job and didn't have much else to do, and within about a month or two I lost 15 more pounds. I went from 193 to 140 in about a year.

I moved out to Utah in November and moved in with my brother and his wife. It was fairly easy there to continue to eat healthy and exercise, although I had the occasional gluten and dairy-ful meal when they invited me to eat with them. I was able to maintain my weight though.

In January I moved in with the most awesome roommates ever. The problem with roommates though, is that eating becomes a social event. I was eating out more often than before, but we were doing insanity every night, so I was still able to maintain. That takes to about March when I got sick and couldn't work out for about a  week. It can take a long while to make healthy habits, but they are so easily broken. After that week off of exercising it was hard to get back into the routine. I have tried to exercise here and there, but it's been hard for me to make it a lifestyle again. The problem with me being lactose and gluten intolerant is that it's not bad enough to stop me from eating it. It gives me a stomach ache and makes me gassy, but not bad enough. So I eat, which contributes to my weight loss.

Long story short, here I am 9 months later and 20 pounds heavier. I think at least every other week I say that I am going to start running, and stop eating gluten, dairy, and sugar... and then I get hungry. I'm tired all the time, I hate the way my body looks and feels, I'm moody, I'm depressed, and my energy level is constantly in the negatives. I'm tired of starting over. I know for a fact that I can do it, I've done it before. So here I go again. I'm hoping this blog will motivate me and keep me accountable, because if I learned one thing from my mission it's that people are much more likely to do things when they have to be accountable for it. So keep me accountable!

Wish me luck!