Inspired a year to get healthy

Hello, a post that's a little different today! Usually it's mummy related things here and reviews of kids days out but today we're focusing on me, the one that tends to like staying behind the camera is starting to take a very nervous step out. Last month I was very luckily chosen as one of two people to work with Inspired Personal Heath and Fitness on a 'Year to get healthy', this means that for a whole year they'll be helping me to achieve my goals in health and fitness by semi-personal training as well as nutrition plans, body diagnostic readings and also constant trainer support.

I know that Cheryl will also be a massive support to me and I hope that I can help her to achieve her fitness goals too.

I am incredibly unfit. I'm not just saying that, there's nothing yummy mummy going on over here. The only exercise I was doing before this was walking Oliver to and from school, other than that there was nothing active in my life. Lets rewind a bit and tell you about my weight/health story so far, I piled on the pounds when I had Oliver because I ate too much (try telling me that at the time and I'd of bitten your head off) but as Oliver got bigger I lost the weight, not all of it but I was happier with how I looked... summer dresses made a brief return which Michael loved because I was confident but then I got pregnant and although whilst pregnant I was ok it was again afterwards that my weight gain happened. I hope someone else reading this also put the weight on 'after baby' and I'm not the only one?!

I had a terrible labour with Isabelle which you can read about here if you want to. So I was already in a comfort eat mood when I had her and then Isabelle was a difficult baby, she didn't sleep during the day or the night unless I was holding her, she screamed so much and we all knew something was wrong but we didn't know what. I didn't cope with this very well. If anyone thought I was coping then they were wrong, those 11 weeks of not knowing what was wrong with Isabelle were actually sponsored by cadburys chocolate.

Every time she was feeding - she was comfort feeding, I found myself also diving into a packet of crisps, biscuits or a massive bar of galaxy chocolate - my own comfort eating was happening and the weight was piling on. Which ofcourse, at 11 weeks I found out that was the problem - she is allergic to cows milk so what I was feeding her was resulting in terrible stomach cramps = the crying, the rash, the eczema, the poor weight gain or failure to thrive whatever they want to call it and the blood in her nappies. You can read about her Cows Milk Allergy here if that's something that interests you. I went completely dairy free to be able to breastfeed Isabelle which I did until she was 14 months old. That included things that had milk in such as crisps, stuffing and random things you wouldn't think of. For 4 months I was egg free too.

So the binge eating got worse, like to a whole new level when I stopped breastfeeding Isabelle because suddenly I could eat flavoured crisps, biscuits, chocolate - anything I wanted again! So I did... not just a little bit either, a lot. The ability to walk into a shop and eat whatever I wanted felt amazing at the time. Then it turned into a habit. Sometimes more than Michael would eat and often to the point my tummy was so full I felt sick but I just loved food. And I carried on. Sounds stupid writing it but in my head, it was not it made perfect sense. Comfort eating, happy eating, sad eating, angry eating all made me feel better. Michael noticed I was eating too much and sometimes I took his comments as awful hurtful mean things, how dare he?! but actually he was just caring, I found myself buying things and hiding them so he didn't know they existed and probably also so I didn't have to share them because I didn't want to. I guess Michael losing about 3 stone by cutting out wheat and improving his diet, didn't make me copy his example, it made me comfort eat because he had always been the bigger one in the relationship and now - I was the bigger one! And that made me sad. Sad with myself, not him as I'm really proud that he's improved his health by losing weight but jealous, so incredibly jealous that my brain wouldn't allow me to do the same. 

I really noticed I had a problem when walking Oliver to school, when you're chubby it's much more difficult to be active with your children and if he wanted to rush up the hill I found myself finding excuses to stop such as "oh Isabelle you need a drink?!" .... *stops to get one out as she pushing it away saying noooo* and I look like an idiot because no she didn't need one, I just needed a break because my lungs were struggling a bit.

So having piled on the pounds, getting married next year and having two young active children it's time for a health and lifestyle change.

My aims for the next year:

1. Go to Inspired Fitness atleast twice per week - mostly three times a week but we all know as parents sometimes finding three times is difficult such as school holidays
2. Change my weekly shopping list for the whole family, we all need to be healthier not just me (Don't worry Michael, I'll still be buying treats for you & the children)
3. Don't binge eat. If you're full - you're full. If you're hungry - have something healthy!
4. Drink more water!
5. Lose weight
6. Walk up that hill pushing Isabelle's pushchair without stopping once
7. Buy a smaller size wedding dress
8. Have a healthier mind
9. Be more active with the children
10. Be happy with how I look and feel. Wear clothes that suit my age.

I want to be a better example for my children, I never want them to have a problem with food either eating too much or too little. I want to appear in more family photos, be confident and wear tight fitting clothes!

 

I would love if you wanted to follow my Inspired Fitness journey, you can follow me here or on facebook - Mummy Memories Facebook page  where I'll be adding lots of posts and photos.

This girl can!

If I can do it then you can do it too.
Mary-Kate, x