Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Happyness and Healthier Habits

Hey y'all it's Shannon. :) I hope y'all are enjoying this fine Tuesday! Do you ever just wake up ready for your feet to hit the floor first thing? Even my very much morning boys were kinda lookin' at me funny as I sang and served their waffles! Any other "sometimes morning people" out there? I woke up bright eyed and what the heck happened to my ponytailed (seriously it was stickin' out every which way) This morning started especially sweet with hugs and 'tisses' (kisses) from the cutest most adorable little boys ever My little MnMs are just the best! Well friends we have lots to do today but I just want to share one of my biggest struggles with y'all. This is a very vulnerable post for me but I feel like it's worth sharing if even one of you feels better about yourself or with where you are... 

 Alrighty let's get down to it eh... This is to be honest with y'all about my struggle with weight and my appearance. I have two of the most gorgeous, thin, beautiful best friends Ashley and Kailly! They are amazing and they really are as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside! I love them more than they will ever realize but sometimes standing next to them I have felt like the "fat friend" I say that as gently as I possibly can... But do you ever feel like that?? You ever feel like hiding in the back of photos to hide your body because you feel bigger than the girl next to you? That's me... I have always been self conscious of my weight and I know that's not an uncommon problem especially in women. We've all had those dark moments in our past whether because of a bad break up or the dreaded time of the month blues where we hid in the closet to finish a pint of Ben & Jerrys... no? just me!? Well alright then haha Seriously though we all have our moments of "weakness" I know it's true... so I just want to share what I have learned in my "battle against weightloss". I'm no fitness expert and I am not a nutritionist I just know that this is what has helped me shed some of the baby weight AND feel better about doing it!

 I have recently seen a bunch of pictures in which young women of all shapes and sizes pose in their undergarments to show they are proud of their body and don't care what people think of them... wait... WAIT!! Y'all I promise, promise, PROMISE  I will NOT be posing in my underwear in any upcoming pictures ... breathe easy I will not be doing that! No skivvies pics here! Whew! Okay those of you that have not run off screaming... 
I think it's safe to say to some degree we all secretly wish we could be our old high school size, who wouldn't? I know I do! ;)

(this is me at a store I do not know the gal behind me at all but she's pretty stylish eh?)
 So this picture was taken my senior year in high school I was overly obsessed with my appearance and struggled to keep a meal in my stomach! I was not healthy by any standards and still thought I was "fat" ... Boy if only I could write my teenage self and let her know that she is super thin compared to her post baby self, me! :) Also please teenage self you don't need to pose like such a weirdo ... seriously what is that? Anyhow fast forward to college ... and those pesky freshman 15 lbs ... 
(dear college self why are we still weird posing for pictures)   
 So yea I gained a little bit of weight in college and I was still overly image conscious though with this getup I'm starting to wonder if I even looked in the mirror haha!  Shortly after I got married and then we had kiddos and I gained quite a bit of weight after having two babies back to back... 

(this picture was taken about a week after little M was born)

 This was after I had two kiddos and my littles are 15 months apart mind you so I didn't give my body much time to heal or recover from pregnancy so the scale kept saying a bigger and bigger number until I got up to 198 lbs I decided that I needed to try to make a conscious decision to lose some weight... I will be completely honest with you I didn't lose weight over night and it was frustrating for me ... I started back into some of my old habits and I took unhealthy weight loss pills and started eating only one meal a day (super unhealthy) I was starving myself and pushing my body in extreme workouts without fueling it with any kind of food... This is when my weight and my appearance started consuming me... I would wake up and weigh myself and then have coffee and work out until I would puke eat a very tiny meal and then weigh myself and of course I would get depressed if I couldn't lose weight and further punish myself when I gained weight... I was not nice to my body and losing weight became an obsession for me. I would always suck it in for every single picture I was in and would criticize myself for still looking fat... My husband was deployed for the second time in our marriage and I was absolutely determined to lose all that baby weight by the time he got back! I wasn't happy with myself and I didn't feel beautiful at all. 

 I ended up going to stay with my folks for awhile while he was gone and my sweet mama sat me down and said, "Shann you're disappearing and you're still not happy... you need to eat something." I cried and told my mama about my goal to lose all the weight and and how I was just not winning the battle and she told me something revolutionary! She told me to just "stop letting my weight control me and try to change it to me controlling my weight" My mama has known for a long time about my obsession with my weight... When she saw me returning to my old unhealthy habits she stopped me in my tracks with these words. Why was I letting my weight control me? I SHOULD be controlling my weight not letting it have control over me....

  I realized how unhappy and unhealthy I was and started eating normal meals and drinking lots of water and instead of killing myself with beyond extreme workouts I started walking and jogging more even running. I realized that not only did I feel better I started to look healthier. I am not going to lie to you, this transition did not happen overnight but I would like to share with you some of my "secrets" to controlling my weight and not letting it control me: 

1. Do not weigh yourself every day! I did this and it only made me unhappy. Treat the scale as a tool to help you monitor your progress but don't let it rule you! That number on the scale is only a number and most bathroom scales aren't ever as accurate as the one in your doctors office so don't stress. :) 

2. I personally have cut out wheat/gluten in my diet I have an intolerance to it and when I eat bread, cake, pasta, or anything with gluten in it I get massive headaches and my stomach does not like me at all. :( So I just cut it out of my diet entirely. No more bread, cake, brownies, or cookies definitely helped me in the weightloss department! 

3. DRINK WATER!! I don't get very thirsty ever so I have to remind myself to drink water. I get dehydrated super quickly and get bad headaches easy. I don't remember who taught me this but I also try to drink an 8 oz glass of water before and after every meal. It fills my stomach so that I end up eating much smaller portions and I still feel full. 

4. I don't drink soda! I try not to drink any soda pop I reach for my water bottle instead. The more water I drink the better I feel.

5. I try to walk more! I like to take my boys on walks around the neighborhood and I'm one of those crazy people that will park at the end of the parking lot so I can walk more and I don't like elevators so I like to opt for the stairs when possible. 

6. Give yourself time! It takes time to put weight on and especially when you have kiddos it took at least nine months to put that weight on give yourself time to lose that weight too! Don't rush yourself and stress out honey! You have time. :)

7. Focus on your progress! If you constantly remind yourself you're not at your goal yet you will get discouraged so the best advice I can give you is to stay focused on your progress it will help you stay motivated and not let you get frustrated with the "not there yet blues"! So stay motivated by looking at how far you've come not how much you have left to lose :) I believe in you! 


As I said before I am no expert but I do know that these tips have helped me not only feel healthier but have helped me maintain my current weight and feel good about myself. I'm not at my "goal weight" but I am happy with myself for not being obsessed with it anymore. Every one wants to lose those pesky pounds if that weren't true there wouldn't be all these crazy diets and extreme fitness programs, but what else are we sacrificing to lose the weight? I refuse to diet anymore been there done that and those diets just made me unhappy and HUNGRY! I chose to change my view on my weight by choosing to live a healthier lifestyle and cutting out the junk that I don't need anymore! 
  WE all need to remember that we only we get one body we need to fuel it properly. There is so much junk out there but it doesn't mean we need to put it in our bodies. Just because the big mac and fries are there doesn't mean we have to eat them! ;) I think we all need a reminder that no matter what our size is we can choose to be happy. What we do and how we look don't define who we are! You are each unique and beautiful just as you are! But if you do decide to lose weight please do it in a healthy way and know that your size is just a number don't let it define you; speaking from experience, you will be so much happier. 


(I like my bright pink shirt and I LOVE Tuesdays!)
 I hope y'all have a happy, healthy Tuesday! I want you to all remember that you are beautiful and loved and you mean the world to someone especially your littles! I want my kiddos to look back at our family pictures and smile and say that's my mama and the only sizes I want them to remember are the size of my hugs and the size of our smiles in the pictures! And I hope they both always remember that no matter mommy's size my lap was always the perfect size for them to sit in and my arms were always big enough to cuddle them both! :) I hope that this post reminds you to only be beautiful for yourself and be happy with your current size! Y'all are awesome! I believe in y'all! Keep it up you got this! I gotta run my littles are both trying to climb up in my lap so we are going to go run and play now!


GREAT BIG FAT HAPPY HUGS from me to you... Shannon :)

2 comments:

  1. Very encouraging post- Great reminder for all of us... Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Beautiful post...so very true on all levels :)

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