The last step if the essay is to write a 5000-character essay about your experience with the challenge. I submitted mine today, and here it is:
In July, I got an email about the 90-day Weight Loss
Challenge, just as I was searching for motivation to get moving again. I
thought that joining might give me some much-needed accountability, so I
decided to go for it. Like many people who have battled weight issues for years,
I knew WHAT to do—I just needed the motivation to actually DO it. I didn’t
spend a lot of money on this challenge. I haven’t hired a personal trainer or a
nutritionist, and I haven’t purchased any supplements. I have tried to be smart
and not set unrealistic goals for myself. I have mostly stuck with my plans, in spite of
a few life-related setbacks, and I came close to meeting my personal goal of
losing 25 pounds, would put me about half way to my goal weight. In the end, I
lost 21.4 pounds, which is 10% of my starting body weight, and I am pretty
happy with that!
I have never been happy with my weight, but my attitude
about it has changed a lot over the years. I used to view losing weight as a
path to happiness, but I have realized as I have gotten older that happiness
comes from within, and that weight is more about health than anything else. As
a young’un, I used to diet stupidly and work out sporadically, and I truly had
no idea what I was doing or how unhealthy my actions were for my body. In my
20s and early 30s, I went through a couple of periods of coming close to being
in decent shape, but with a real lack of knowledge about what I was doing—it never
“stuck,” and I always ended up back where I started or worse.
In my mid-30s, I started to learn about nutrition. I read a
book called “Fatland” that was a real game changer for me, and I started to
change my diet. Over the next few years, I learned more and more, started
cooking more and eating healthier. I learned a lot by going to the farmers
market every weekend and trying anything that was unfamiliar. I read Jane Brody’s
nutrition book, Walter C Willet’s fantastic guide, “Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy,”
the South Beach Diet books, and many others. I learned to take an additive
approach to dieting—trying to figure out ways to get more healthy things into
my diet rather than focusing on depriving myself of things that were less
healthy. I learned to make healthy choices most of the time, and not to beat
myself up over occasional indulgences. I learned to plan meals for the whole
week at a time, and to do a lot of cooking and prep on Sundays so that it was
easier to keep up with healthy eating through the work week. I believe that our
family eats really well overall. Food is not the source of my weight issues.
My biggest issue is time. I am a mother of two young
children, and I have a full time, extremely sedentary job. I have had a huge
amount of trouble finding time and a way to fit exercise into my life in a way
that I could actually maintain. Through this challenge, I have tried to look hard
at the bits and pieces of my day that were unclaimed by other commitments:
early mornings, evenings after dinner and homework is done and before the kids
are in bed, the brief time at night before I go to bed, my lunch hour at work...
I have found classes and created short workouts for myself to fit into these
holes in my schedule, and I have had a ton of support from my other half to
make that happen. Time management has been a HUGE priority, and we have, as a
family, achieved a level of organization I didn’t even know was possible. It’s
working.
For the last 3 months, I have been utilizing the fool out of
the classes at two locations of the gym. I am doing Zumba classes 2-3 times per
week, Barbell Strength classes 2 times per week, and a Yoga class once a week.
In addition to this, I am also doing daily core work at home, stretching a lot,
and walking 11,000 steps/5 miles per day. Our family has been doing big family
hikes on the weekends—we are having a blast exploring state parks and the local
hiking trails we are so lucky to have all around us. I have been tracking calories on the
MyFitnessPal app, which I have linked to the Fitbit app and the MapMyWalk app. Last,
but not least, I have been blogging the whole experience, including pictures,
research, and rewards. I have put some
good habits in place and worked out a great schedule for our whole family to
get us moving more and eating better. This whole experience has been so
positive. I am confident that it has set me on a path to meeting my personal
weight and health goals—this is our new “normal,” and I think it’s totally
maintainable for our family. I feel better, I am starting to look better, I am
setting a good example for my kids, and last night, I made it into my “goal
pants” for a date night with my awesome and ultra-supportive other half. It’s
all good.
