Gettin Fit Mama Style: A new story

Everyone has a story.

This is the beginning of my new story. But I wouldn't have a new story without an old story so I'm going to start at the beginning. I'm Michelle. I'm a thirtysomething (ha!) stay at home mom of 3 wonderful kids: 7 year old Elijah (Eli) who is in first grade, 5 year old Elliana (Elly) who is in pre-K and will start kindergarten in the fall, and 2 year old Emery who thinks she's 5. I have a husband, Scott, who has been on this wild journey with me for the last 10+ years.

I never had a weight "problem" until I had kids. Oh, I *thought* I was fat, and there were times that I crossed the line from "normal" weight into "overweight" but I was never more than about 10lbs overweight.

Then I got pregnant. In June of 2006 I found out that I was expecting my first baby and I was ecstatic! I was a regular runner at the time and I SWORE I was going to stay in shape during pregnancy. Nope, I was not going to use pregnancy as an excuse to eat anything I wanted. And I was absolutely going to lose EVERY pound I gained before I even thought about getting pregnant again.

(about 6 weeks pregnant with #1. My pants still fit...)

Hahahahahaha.

Fast forward a few weeks into that first pregnancy and the nausea hit me full force. Suddenly anything even remotely healthy made me want to gag. I read in my pregnancy book (we all know the one) that I should eat what sounded good. So out went the whole wheat bread and in came the white bread, bagels, cereal, pretty much any comfort food you can imagine. I was all about the carbs baby. By the end of my first trimester, despite the morning sickness I had gained about 15lbs. By the time my son was born in January of 2007 (7 weeks early) I was tipping the scales at exactly 200lbs. I cried the day I saw that number. After he was born I started Weight Watchers and was able to lose about half the weight I gained pretty easily. Then I got pregnant again shortly after my son turned 1. Thankfully I didn't gain as much weight the second time around but I still weighed exactly 200lbs the day my daughter was born. I was able to take most of the weight off after I had her but I was still about 15lbs shy of my goal weight when we started trying for #3. By the time I got pregnant with my second daughter I had suffered through 2 miscarriages and had managed to pack on about 10lbs just in the time it took to finally have a successful pregnancy. Even though I swore I wouldn't, I still managed to get back up to that 200lb mark....and beyond by the time she was born in December 2011. The day she was born I weighed 207, the day we came home from the hospital I weighed 204 (which still boggles my mind after delivering an 8lb baby, shouldn't I have lost at LEAST 8lbs??). It took me over a year after she was born to finally decide to take back my body and get serious about getting back to a healthy weight. In January of 2013 I committed to working out 5 times a week and started logging everything I ate in My Fitness Pal and now a year later I have finally reached my goal weight of being under 140lbs.

But that's just the beginning of the story.

Now that I've met my weight goal, it's time to work on my fitness goals. And that's where my new story begins. I became a Beachbody coach and purchased my first Beachbody program, P90X3, which my husband and I started yesterday. I'm excited to write about and share my journey both as a coach and to reach my fitness goals. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

And now for a few "before and afters"

Pre-Kids circa August 2003? Seriously, I thought I was fat!