The Beginning

My name is Monica and life in my household has changed drastically in the past couple of months. My husband, Ryan & I decided it was time to try to do something about the weight we've gained over the past 20 years and since turning 40 will be creeping up on me in October, I decided it was time. We've tried various things over the years and nothing has worked either because we didn't follow through or because we tend to not hold each other or ourselves accountable. So if one of us didn't want to eat right or work out instead of the other saying "No, let's do this", we'd say "Ok, I don't really want to either" and BOOM, that was it. All it took was one time to kill it.

Ryan landed in the hospital in December 2010. He was admitted the evening of the 20th & kept, in ICU, till the 24th. This was due to him possibly having had a heart attack and also his kidneys were not working correctly because of protein that his muscles were releasing as they were breaking down. This lovely situation happened all because of one day of snowmachining on the 19th and getting stuck about 6 times. He was exhausted and ran himself too far into the ground and being overweight and out of shape didn't help matters at all. It turned out he had not had a heart attack it was just his kidneys straining to work & putting stress on his heart. This episode was all the motivation I needed and even though he may not readily admit it, I believe it was for Ryan too. Amazing what a threat on your life or the life of someone you love can motivate you to do! 

So we signed up with a personal trainer in January 2011. We needed that third person to be accountable to & to help us get going. It's worked and we can't thank Audrey Ross enough! She is fantastic to work with. She's a lot of fun but she helps us with our food issues and kicks our butts regularly in work outs. We are learning to eat healthy. We have given up most fast food & restaurants, unless we're traveling & out of town. She has shown us how to go as healthy as possible in those situations as well. If you'd have asked me just a month & a half ago if we'd ever give up fast food & eating out I'd have laughed in your face & told you that was crazy talk, and the people who know us know that's true, but we've done it. I still miss it from time to time & the t.v. commercials don't help, but we've both stayed strong and left it behind. As Audrey told me once, "Just remember that as good as it was & as much as you liked it, it's what's got you where you are today. Ask yourself if it's worth it." We did & our answer was NO. We cook at home every night or get Subway, which is the only place we can get really "healthy" options that fall into the calories we're allowed to eat. Our kids are getting sick of fish & pork roasts which we have done a lot of but it's not all we eat. We also use chicken & occasionally beef. I have actually reached the point where I feel better for working out and almost miss it on the nights we're off. That's a miracle in itself right there! I have always said I could never do all this eating healthy & working out business but here I am doing it & doing it well! I guess that's the difference between saying you want to do it & really having the motivation to get it done. When you have the right motivation you find that eating right isn't as hard as you thought it was and the time for working out that you always said you didn't have, well you find out that you can't NOT make the time to work out because your body needs it. I lost 26 lbs from Oct of '09 to Oct of '10 just by making a few healthier eating choices. Since starting to work with Audrey I've lost another 14 lbs, maybe more by now. It's not always easy, in fact it can be downright hard sometimes but we have committed to ourselves, each other & to Audrey to do this and this time make it a permanent change, a permanent part of our lives. I don't intend to back out & neither does Ryan. Audrey won't allow it.