My Story

 I never had weight issues while growing up.  I was an athlete (swimming, basketball and track) and had a pretty fast metabolism...so I was quite lucky in a sense that I never had to watch what I ate or anything.  I never paid attention to nutrition really until after gaining 70 lbs with both pregnancies.  I had a pretty easy time losing the weight after my 1st was born but the weight didn't come off as easily after my 2nd.  However, I was able to get pretty close to my pre-pregnancy weight of 135 lbs 4 years ago. 

I have always loved food and like I said, never really knew much about nutrition so I had to learn how to read labels, ingredients, nutritional values, etc as an adult in my early 30s.  I started packing on the lbs during the holidays (up to 30 lbs between Halloween and Valentines!) and somehow managed to lose all the weight back by summer time.  Unfortunately, my old habits and yo-yo dieting have wreaked havoc on my body and as I get older, losing the weight has become much more challenging each year. 

Two years ago, I also lost my mother to cancer.  I have gone through a series of many roller coasted rides of emotions since then.  As an emotional eater (aren't we all?!), I think that mentally/physically/emotionally, I just hit a wall due to the stress and the weight wasn't coming off as easily no matter what I tried.  I've tried South Beach Diet, Atkins, Weight Watchers, Paleo, Advocare, etc.  You name it, I've tried it. 

People have no idea how draining this whole weight loss journey has been for me.  Getting on a scale is just plain stressful and actually causes setbacks in my journey rather than encouraging me to keep trying.  I am trying really hard to change my mindset that losing inches means something, even if that scale isn't budging as quickly as I want it to.

At the beginning of the year, I took measurements of my chest/waist/hips/thigh/arm/calf and measured again 12 weeks later.  Due to clean eating and working out regularly 5-6x/week, I was able to lose almost 14 inches TOTAL in 12 weeks.  I should be ecstatic and jumping for joy.  I lost 7 lbs just from eating clean the first 6 weeks but only lost 2 lbs the next 6 weeks...which only depressed me and thus, the vicious cycle of eating badly began again.  It didn't help that I celebrated my bday, 10th Anniversary and Valentine's during that time either.  Lol.

Anyway, I have kept up with my workouts and joined a few challenges along the way to keep me motivated. But I feel like I needed something else...if anything, something easy and convenient for me to have for breakfast every morning so I can maintain my exercise schedule in the mornings after dropping the kids off at school.  That's why I ordered the Body by Vi Balance Kit which includes one bag of protein shake and I'm now on my 2nd bag as of 4/2/14.  Even though I was working my butt off at the gym, I wasn't really eating healthy with that 1st bag. :(  I would like to wipe the slate clean and be serious again about losing weight, getting lean and fit!  I am on my way and I know that Vi will help me achieve my goals!  Here's to a fresh start!  :)