The White Whale

It’s time to talk about my white whale – achieving a healthy weight. It’s something I’ve struggled towards off and on since I was a teenager. I haven’t always had a great concept of what “healthy weight” is for my body (for example, as a 13 year old, I made a list of goals, one of which was to lose 40 lbs. I weighed 140 at the time and was the same height I am now. YIKES).

I’ve tried so many different methods. I’ve tried just giving up desserts. I’ve trained and run a 5k. I’ve counted calories. I’ve done elimination diets. I’ve done a Whole30. I’ve gone grain free. I’ve had successes. I’ve had failures.

At the end of last year/beginning of this year, I weighed more than I ever had – close to what I did during pregnancy with Charlotte. That was hard. For Christmas this past year, my mom had given me the gift of attending a 12 week nutrition class together. It included a meal plan and a LOT of great information. If folks are interested, I’d be more than happy to share some of what I learned. It was a good reset to get me thinking about weight loss for real.

Here’s where I am right now: I’m down 15 lbs from where I was at the beginning of this year. My scale says I’m 10 lbs down from what the fertility clinic measured me at, and my doctor’s office measured me at 5 lbs down. I’m also ready to make a major diet change to jumpstart my weight loss and work towards being more healthy.

Those last two words are key. Weight loss is something that we get so hung up on, but the real end goal should be better health. Generally speaking, I’m a very healthy individual. Any time I’ve had labwork done, everything comes back normal. My cholesterol is great; I’ve never had high blood pressure; never really been at risk for diabetes. However, I’m still quite young. I want to make diet changes and weight loss now so that I can be as fit and healthy as I can be early on. As I get older, this will help my body to stay in the best shape it can be. And I’ll keep up with my kids. Who have boundless energy.

So what do I plan on doing? Stay tuned. I’ll be sharing in the next few days.