Take that you body fat!

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I´ve heard that in order to fix a problem, you have to first admit that there is a problem. For a very vain woman like me, admitting that I am overweight is hard, specially knowing that I´ve had this problem for a very long time. I come from a family that is predisposed genetically to be wide. On my dad´s side, men are wide in their torso, while women have very wide hips. On my mom´s side there is the belly and the big but. I guess they didn´t leave me much of a choice, and from a very young age I noticed that I inherited traits from both sides. Looking so much like my grandma, was a hint that I might end up looking like her when I grew older, or even her mom who was a bit bigger. I mean they did birth like 12 kids my great grandmother and 5 my grandmother, but still, because my mom lived in denial for half of her life. She would blame her weight to "I gave birth to you two!" (My brother and me) And I grew up thinking that just because you had kids you ended up overweight, and though this might be true to some point, nothing says that you can´t get slimmer at some point after baby.

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Now let me tell you a bit about my background so you know the predicament I am in. I was very slim when little, and when I was 8 all of a sudden a was a very chubby kid. I wasn´t in ballet anymore, but I was in swimming classes every summer. I was fat all the way until I was 13, and let me tell you I was also in the basketball team. It didn´t matter, I was chubby. When I turned 13 and became a young lady, I grew and stretched and boy did I loose that fat. My metabolism was so fast I was even going anemic. It was like this until I turned 16, somehow I started gaining weight, and let me tell you it had nothing to do with working at Carl´s Jr. If there is something you should know, is that after working for 2 months in a fast food restaurant, the last thing you want to see or smell is burgers.


The next  year I was into martial arts, I was very muscular and exercising like crazy and then became a cheerleader in college. Somehow, when I turned 19, my body changed and I started gaining my family´s trait: "The hips!" Oh boy was it hard getting pants. I have a true belief that in Mexico the fashion industry is in denial of what is out there as your "typical" stereotype body. I would run and exercise. My favorite thing to do back then was to skate. When I was 23, my body changed again. I was working at an airline at the airport and guess what? I learned that stress can contribute big time on the weight part. It was scary. I wasn´t eating much at all, but I was gaining the weight. I was very active. At that point I injured my knees and ankles. I couldn´t exercise as much as I used to because I was injured. That was it. I didn´t have the time to do it either. My job was very exhausting. 

Lucky for me, I found Tai-chi, just so I could still do some exercise and learn to manage stress.



A little reference on how I´ve looked from when I was 15 in 1996, to when I was 28 in 2009.

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In the last photo, there´s my brother and me. We are goofy that way.

Later I met my husband, we married, I moved to the United States and though I thought I was going to have the time to loose the weight, I wasn´t considering the other factors. GMOs, Aspartame, High Fructose Corn Syrup, all artificial junk, and lots of other terrible stuff on food. No wonder why people back home would always say: "The food in the US tastes different." Oh my, what are they feeding you here? Anyways, add to that the fact that I was scared to death to go out. (Have I mentioned, I am the paranoid kind.)  So yup, I gained weight. I got sick, and I gained more. I was stressed and it just kept on coming. I got depressed, and it became the never ending story. I decided enough was enough!

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This is how I look and I am not even pregnant (Yes, I look like if I was pregnant, literally, but I´m not.) I am not joking. Less than a month ago, grandma asked us: "So when are you guys having kids?" We just said: "Who knows, maybe next year, but who knows." And somehow that became a rumor that we were pregnant, and obviously the way I look right now supported the rumor, to the point that my father-in-law got a bit disappointed, thinking that we were and had not told anyone. I said: "No, we are not pregnant, we are just fat!" I felt brave saying that. I guess I am prepared to say that in case someone asks me if I am pregnant. 

We actually gained weird weight two years ago, and had all the symptoms of being pregnant. We actually thought we were. It was a false alarm, but I kept the weight. Hurrah! (Says she with all sarcasm)

So excess body fat, never more! My husband who is also a bit overweight, was participating in a program with the fitbit at work, and I became very interested. It is a very fun little device that helps you track your steps, distance, calories through their dashboard, and more. Obviously I saw it as an opportunity to loose some serious weight. To read my review on the fitbit zip, click here.

So I have been walking almost everyday to reach  my goal of at least 7000 steps daily. I watch what I am eating both in the fitbit dashboard and a calorie counting website that helps me find how many calories something has when the fitbit doesn´t have the record. The cool thing is that you can add it to your list of foods on fitbit, that way if you eat it often, you already have it there, ready to be counted. I also make sure I keep hydrated, which is one of the best things, and fitbit also helps with that. Word of advice, once you find food that is 0 calories and without aspartame, you are almost in heaven.

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Every other day, I do stretching exercises, which are the best for me. This way I avoid pain in my old injuries. I am lucky to have a swimming pool in the complex area I live in, so I go to the pool twice a week after my morning walk, and I keep positive.

This is the most important part. My husband and I made a deal, and we are not going to eat burgers in 6 months. As you know sometimes it is hard when you have all these burger places all around, but did you know that most of the meet comes from beef that is fed corn? (GMO corn) That stuff is terrible for you. Oh and that´s something else we do too. We grow a lot of food organically. We have a youtube channel called "The Lopez Garden" and we share what we are growing and what we did to make things grow so well, for those that want to give it a try. We are also doing this because we want our future babies to eat only organic, and since organic food is expensive, though less these days, nothing compares to the taste of home-grown food. That way the money we save, we can use it towards buying grass-fed butter, meat, etc. This also would help us get the right nutrients in our bodies so that the fat can go bye bye.

So as I keep on doing this, and exercising, I¨ll let you know my results. Why? I want to encourage other people that they can also change and have a healthier lifestyle. Honestly having the genes, and injuries, and stress that can contribute to being overweight, doesn´t mean you have to give in. We are smarter, and it is our own body, we can take charge over it again. All we need is a little help, a plan, and a lot of will.

For me, my biggest motivation is that I wan´t to get pregnant, and the truth is that if I am heavy, and then gain the baby weight, I am going to suffer from my knees, and other injuries I already have because of sports and work. Plus I could be at risk of pregnancy diabetes and that I will not take, because I don´t approve of having an illness or condition that I could have avoided.

Also, because once babies start walking, that´s it. You´d better be in shape to catch up to them because they not always run to the safest of places, and oh, did I mentioned I am the paranoid type? Lol

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So there, that´s my story right now about my own weight. I am not proud of it, but at least I am conscious that it is a problem and it is there and will always be there if I don´t pay attention to it.
Let me know what you do to loose weight? Please also let me know if you´ve done anything to change the type of diet you usually have. By diet I don´t mean starving yourself to death. Because something that people should know is that if you don´t eat 4-5 times a day, you can also get diabetes. (This I heard directly from a nutritionist.) By diet I mean, changing your habits, and the type of food you are eating. (Example: cutting down on sodas, bread, dairy products, etc. Or, eating more of this or that.)

Thank you for taking your time on reading this post. I hope I do encourage some of you to start saying: "No!" to being overweight for the wrong reasons, and more like: "Yes, please!" To a healthier lifestyle.

Oh and before I forget, let me share that it is important to respect other people overweight or not. We have no idea of what struggles got them there. Respect, empathy and compassion are always the white flag towards peace.








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