Competitor

After having my first two children, my weight has been an issue for me. I gained 70 lbs with my first, but lost most of it. Then I gained another 70 lbs with my second child, but never could seem to lose the weight I had gained. Over the past 11 years I have lost and gained, over and over. I had three more children during that time period and never gained more than 35 lbs with any of them. I actually lost 50 lbs in the first trimester of my last pregnancy, before I knew I was even pregnant. Gaining that weight back was devastating to say the least. The up and downs with my weight have taken their toll on me emotionally. I have gotten upset and cried more than once about it. And that would get me motivated to work hard to get back in shape. I would workout hard and diet for a month or two, see no results, get frustrated, give up and eat. And the cycle would repeat. I have tried so many “diets.”  Most of the diets you can quickly name, I’ve tried. Most never worked, while a few worked initially, but as soon as “banned” foods were added back in, I regained everything. No matter what I lose initially, I can’t ever seem to maintain it if I backed off on working out at all. The only time I managed to maintain any sort of weight loss, I was doing 40 minutes of strength training along with 60 minutes of cardio EVERY day of the week. Any less than that and I would regain. I have been to doctors to make sure its not a hormone or chemical imbalance in my body. Every time they tell me I am healthy, just carrying some extra weight and to "try diet and exercise for another year."  That’s what I have been doing for 7 years!!! And it’s getting very frustrating. I weigh nearly 40 lbs more  than I did 7 years ago. So obviously its ot working or I am doing something totally wrong. I’ve hired personal trainers and nutritionists. I took a class at my gym that is supposed to help you get into your best shape in 12 weeks. I took it twice and only lost 20 lbs. I gained 12 lbs of muscle also. I was working out 60-90 minutes 6 days a week. I even participated in an indoor triathlon the gym put on. And I didn’t finish last! The tri is what helped me to rediscover that inner athlete, the competitor inside of me that I thought I had lost. I loved the adrenaline rush I got, pushing myself to the limit. Swimming was a lot harder than it had been when I was competing on the swim team in my youth, but my team mates and I had practiced a bit before the race. I had never been in a cycle studio before the race, never been on a spin bike, but I rode hard and fast for 30 minutes! The running portion of the competition was the part I was concerned about. I knew it was only 20 minutes and I could walk what I needed to, but I really wanted to run as much as possible. I could run in 3-4 minutes bursts in class, but usually just walked briskly at at a steep incline ot get my heart rate up. But on race day, I pushed and pushed, running for 7 1/2 minutes straight and could’ve gone longer but time was up! I had run for a total of 13 minutes of the 20 minute run! I know that might not seem like much to moist people, but I was so proud of myself. I never thought I would ever be competing in a race again, and now I can’t wait for the next indoor tri to beat my times from the last one!