Posted by bassgiraffe in fitness, health, inspiration stories | 3 Comments

Tawna’s amazing & inspirational weight loss story

Welcome to week #2 of inspirational stories of real people loosing real weight.
I want to share with my readers inspirational stories of people’s weight loss journeys. I’m hoping these stories will inspire you to continue to work hard and never give up.
THANK YOU Tawna for sharing your story!!
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I started a weight loss journey back in December 2009 after my last child. I have been blogging it since at Tawnasplan.com.

I was not always over weight but spent my early to mid 30′s packing on the weight and then being pregnant 3 times in 4 years packed on more.

The day I left the hospital, after having my last child I weighed over 260 pounds, about 90 pounds more then I needed to.

To date I am 190 pounds. I have lost 70 pounds and it as not been easy, but I have done it.

Let me give you a quick background.

I have never been the so called “skinny” girl. I have hips and a large bone frame and I gain muscle pretty fast. This is not something a teenage girl wants and because I let the media and my head get in the way I spent most of my teenage years and into my late 30’s beating myself up every day because I did not look like the super models on TV.

At one point I was so thin I was at 11% body fat. If you know much about body fat that is pretty low for a woman. At the time I was still starving myself and thinking, “wouldn’t it be cool to be a single number of body fat?” Meaning I was hoping for it least 9% or less.

I lost a baby in 2008 and a lot of things started hitting me hard and some things did not seem so important anymore. In short, I got over myself that year and the following year during my pregnancy and spent a lot of time working on myself mentally and physically. To be honest, it was and is mostly a mental journey when it comes to weight loss and a healthy lifestyle.

I do not do gym as I always feel like everyone is watching me so I won’t go. I have a BS in Exercise Science, funny eh? Anyway I started doing Beachbody workouts at home. Started with Turbo Jam, then P90X, Turbo Fire, and now Insanity. To tell you the truth I love them all, well I think I will let Insanity collect dust on my shelf when I am done, too much plyometrics for me.

The rest of my weight loss help cam from self help books, CD’s and DVDs. The Secret Documentary got me hooked into learning about the Law of attraction which introduced me to Joe Vitale. Beachbody has now got me hooked onto Dani Johnson. All which are extremely well written law of attraction books and they work!

So now I am 70 pounds lighter and my mind is in a 200% better place then it ever has been. Do I still struggle of course. But now that I am working on myself every day it get’s easier to get myself out of my rut.

I am OK with myself. I am not a bony skinny girl. I have curves, muscle, and I am happy. For the first time in over 25 years I am truly happy with who I am inside and out.

My biggest goal was to lose the weight but now I see that it was/is really my attitude. Now my new goal is to share and help everyone and anyone that I can. If I can do it anyone can!

I decided last year to become a Beachbody Coach. I have had such a great experience with their fitness community and it has helped me gain friends that are on my same path with like goals. They keep me on track and now I can do what I love and stay-at-home with my kids. I would love you to pop on over to my Coach website.

If I can help you please contact me. I am a great accountability partner. Having fitness partners for accountability is a HUGE step in the right direction for obtaining a positive healthy life. It is easy to slip when you try to do it alone.

Have a wonderfully positive and healthy life!

Tawna

You can contact me on my websites via my contact tab
-http://tawnasplan.com
-http://FitAfterBabies.com
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Thank you again Tawna for sharing your story.
If you have an inspirational weight loss story and would like to share it with my readers please feel free to contact me.
To read more inspirational stories you can click here.

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Posted by bassgiraffe in fitness, health, inspiration stories | 0 Comments

Mindie From Bacon Time’s Weight Loss Transformation Inside and Out

I want to share with my readers inspirational stories of people’s weight loss journeys. I’m hoping these stories will inspire you to continue to work hard and never give up.
THANK YOU Mindie for sharing your story!!
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Mindie From Bacon Time’s Weight Loss Transformation Inside and Out

Hi everyone, it’s me Mindie May Hilton, happy to be guest posting here today.

Gasp…cringe…gulp…oh boy, here it is, an old pic of me, before my weight loss!  I still can’t believe I am sharing this pic, since it’s still hard for me to look at the "old me".  Today I am  sharing my own personal struggles, in hopes of helping others along the way.  I call this pic the "old me"  even though I was obviously younger 8 years ago, but let’s not do the math

Today I am finding the courage to share this dreaded pic, in hopes of bringing encouragement and words of advice to those making a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. I think my story will surprise you.  You may be surprised to hear, I sometimes get hate mail, from folks thinking that I eat bacon all day. You see I am the blogger of Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo. Trust me it’s not all bacon, and far from it.  I share weekly posts on crafts, fashion, giveaways, recipes (indulgent and healthy), reviews, and have a weekly Anything Goes Friday to Monday Linky. One person (someone who obviously doesn’t follow my blog) wished me a "heart attack".  I don’t let it get me down, at least I do my best not to, because I know if they read and followed my blog, they would know it’s not all bacon, and I don’t live an unhealthy lifestyle.

I am not a doctor nor expert on weight loss, but I have certainly found things that work for me.

I was younger, but I didn’t feel or look it.  I wasn’t happy with myself, my weight was a heavy burden on me both physically and emotionally.  I had struggled with my weight since childhood, and it got out of control while in college.  I was watching what I ate, working out daily, and yet I kept gaining weight while in school.  I think the stress of overloading on classes and working full time too, really affected the way my body functioned.  Studies now are showing that stress can affect how many calories our bodies burn.  Then while driving one day, a man pulled out in front of me, running a red light, and I hit him going approximately 55 to 60 mph.  Luckily no one was killed, my truck was totalled, and unfortunately I was left with chronic pain in my neck and back.  This didn’t aid my battle with weight loss.  After graduating college, getting married, and having my first child, I still struggled with weight.  Again I was working approximately 65 hours a week, and I believe the stress was my worst enemy.  Restricting calories and working out seemed to have no effect on my weight.  Finally one day I gave up.  I told myself that I would continue to try and make healthy food choices and stay active, but I wasn’t going to beat myself up over my weight anymore.  I was simply going to do my best to be healthy regardless of that number on the scales. 

So as crazy as it sounds, I quit going to the gym, and started working out at home using exercise videos.  I also started taking long walks once or twice a day. I was never comfortable working out at the gym, while heavy, so it made sense in my battle to relax and avoid stress, to simply work out at home. Guess what, it worked, I started losing weight.  I think in the past working out always seemed stressful, so my body never reaped the full benefits.  Now that I had focused on making my workouts an enjoying time, a peaceful time for me to be alone with my thoughts, I was seeing real results.  I didn’t lose the weight over night, but over approximately a year and a half I reached my goal weight.  During that time, we went to a single car family, so that I could afford to work fewer hours outside of the home, reducing my stress load a bit more.  I would keep a food journal to keep me on track, watching my total calories and sodium.  In other posts I have talked about how important I feel a lower sodium diet can be.

The weight loss transformation really did affect me inside and out. Besides physically feeling comfortable in my own skin, I felt free to be the happy person I always knew I could be.  As time went on, I found I was not only able to maintain my weight, but eat more.  I know again, that must sound crazy, but I truly believe I reset my metabolism by reducing my stress and enjoying my peaceful power walks each day.  It is true when

 I say I eat more now then when I was approximately 100 pounds (gasp) heavier. Since being diagnosed  about a year and a half ago with hypoglycemia (hence the "hungry hypo") my appetite is always great. With continued workouts and frequent meals, my hypoglycemia has been little problem for me, besides always feeling hungry, that sort of sucks.  Both my parents are diabetic, but I am hopeful I won’t develop it through a balanced lifestyle.

So my words of advice to those trying to lose weight, simply be happy.  Find a workout routine that you find fulfilling.  If you enjoy going to the gym, then do it. I personally prefer getting outdoors and speed walking.  The fresh air, relaxes me, and makes my workout not only enjoyable but more beneficial.  With your diet, make changes that you can stick with.  If you reduce your calories to less then 800 a day, you may lose weight, but over all I really believe you will only hurt yourself in the end, by stunting your metabolism.  Then when you eat more, you gain weight, and will have the dreaded yo-yo effect that so many people battle.  For more weight loss  tips that I have found work for me you can read my advice post here.

In the mean time, I hope you found my story and advice helpful.  If you need someone to talk to for some encouragement, I am just a click away.  If you stumble with your battle to lose weight, or have a bad day, don’t beat yourself up.  We are all only human, and no one is perfect.  Forget unhappy moments from the past, and start today with a smile.  One more thing, besides encouragement from me, whoever you do or don’t prey to, ask them for help.  I know I don’t talk about religion on my blog, but it is true I asked God for help on my journey to a healthier me.  We often ask God to give us strength in so many endeavors  in life, why not lean on him now.

Feel free to visit or contact me at Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo, via email at mindiehilton@gmail.com, or at my Etsy shop TLC Creations. 

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Thank you again Mindie for sharing your story.
If you have an inspirational weight loss story and would like to share it with my readers please feel free to contact me.
To read more inspirational stories you can click here.

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