My Journey!

I haven't always been a healthy person...

I grew up being morbidly obese. To be honest I don't ever remember a point in my life where my pediatrician or family doctor told me I was healthy at my weight. It took me 17 years to take a step back and ask myself if who I was was someone I should be proud of. I was 250 pounds and miserable. Being a high school senior meant dances, parties, beach trips before everyone goes off to college, and possibly even dates. (The last one didn't ever happen but we get the point.) With all of these exciting things coming up for me to involve myself in there was always one thing that clouded my enjoyment; My weight would always hold me back from living my life to the fullest.

August 2009...

I began a strict diet regime in order to get my health in order. My motivation? Prom. I wanted nothing more then to step into that ballroom and feel happy, healthy, and confident. I started my journey on the weight watchers program which was something I had grown familiar with. I had started and stopped the diet countless times before but for some reason it absolutely felt like it would finally work. And it did, much to my surprise. Weight watchers helped me fit into the beautiful prom dress of my dreams and I had never felt happier. While the program got me exactly where I wanted to be, I knew I needed to start working on researching foods instead of relying on a points system to keep me on track.

Where I am now...

After some ups and downs with my weight (I did gain back a significant amount during the first few months I started dating my fiance) I can now honestly say I have found the perfect balance between my love for food and my love for health. After researching different ways to live a healthy lifestyle I came across one that would trump anything i've ever tried. I became a clean eater. To those of you who might not be aware, this is  the site that first inspired me to live the way I do. Click Here, Never in my life has my body felt as amazing as it currently does. It helped me finally beat the battle of my "last 15" by only allowing myself to eat whole foods in their natural state. (nothing processed here!) This is something I pretty much just jumped right into. I gave up almost everything I normally ate (eggo waffles, boca burgers, microwave dinners, etc) and replaced them with more clean protein (99/1 turkey, chicken, etc) and lots of veggies. While the clean eating lifestyle is one of the most strict regimes i've ever tried I would absolutely recommend it to anyone. While weight watchers helped me lose the weight, eating clean pushed me to make sure I only put good foods inside my body. After all, we only get one of those. 

I will get back to a normal blog in my next post, but I wanted to put a little bit of my history out there so you can all see the struggle a little better. There is no one who wants you to succeed in your journey more then I do. Anything is possible if you PUSH yourself. No one is gonna lose the weight and get healthy for you, it is something you have to do for yourself. Until next time, Jessica.