Perhaps the most important step in making the choice to be healthier is to decide your WHY. Why do you want to lose weight? Is it for a special family occasion, health reasons, or maybe it's just plain vanity and you want to look better. My WHY was a hurricane of these reasons: my boyfriend's family was going to gather to celebrate their parents' 50th wedding anniversary, I tested pre-diabetic, and I wanted to look and feel better.
It wasn't long after I established my WHY when I moved on to the actual execution or the WHO. How was I going to navigate this personal road to reinvention and who was going to be on my team. Last year at ASAE, I met a personal trainer who was based out Jacksonville, Florida. Her husband is an association rock star and author and every year she tags along with him. When I met her, she described to me kind of a new approach to personal training where she'd send her clients virtual workouts. It took me almost 7 months to decide to officially hire her and make her my Chief Energy Officer. Every month she sends me 1 - 2 new workouts and we Skype 2 x per month. This format works great for me because I can literally workout anywhere in the world on my own time. My significant other was also on board because since we've been together we had put on the weight of a teenager and we needed to make a change for the better of health.
Anyone who has begun a road to reinventing their own personal health knows that it's not without limitations. You have to fully commit, and embrace a new lifestyle of working out and eating better. This is the HOW. How was I going to lose weight with a busy schedule? I had figured out my WHY, selected my WHO, now I just needed to pick a lifestyle that was relatively easy to follow. As a person who has struggled with her weight her entire life, I can tell you I am fairly familiar with just about every "diet" or diet program. I have belonged to and successfully lost weight via Weight Watchers, attempted the South Beach Diet, tried to do the Atkins Diet too. So why would this go round be any different and how could I set myself up for success. After reading up on many lifestyles that people have embraced to be healthier, I ultimately decided we'd try to eat Paleo. It was the least restrictive that I found and seemed to be doable. As a young adult, I discovered I was lactose intolerant. Despite this, I still continued to eat cheese. After eating paleo-like for almost 7 months, I can tell you I really don't miss cheese that much. Do I still eat it? YES. I haven't been able to give up yogurt, but all other dairy aside from eggs have been eliminated.
To put together the most successful weight loss plan, I needed to decide WHEN. After reading about Paleo, investing in the virtual personal trainer it was time to get in gear. On a Thursday in February, I got all the final pieces of the plan together. Monday, I would start an Advocare 24 Day Challenge. Grocery shopping is essential for weight loss because you can plan your meals and ensure that you will be set up to make great choices for eating. The 24 Day Challenge is split up into two parts: the cleanse and the max phase. It's not my first challenge, so I typically just do the cleanse about once every three months to help keep my health on track. For me personally, I find the MAX phase to be too many pills.
My personal road to reinvention is not complete, but I have experienced some success. The last weigh in, I was down 35 lbs, and more than 15 overall inches. I have another 15 lbs to go, but I am going to stay eager to continue my success. Recently I read an article about an entrepreneur who puts his health as his TOP priority. His reason, without his health literally everything else falls apart. I am adopting this mantra in my road to reinvention because without my health. All aspects of my life will fall apart if my health is not in place. If you look back on challenging times in your life, and you correlate that with your health (mental and physical) what would that say about you?
Here's a picture of my progress!
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