My Journey to a Healthy Life

It was October 2008 and most of my clothes no longer fitted me. The clothing I could wear was tight and uncomfortable; I knew it was time for a change. I had recently been hospitalized due to a pulmonary embolism, which my inactivity and extra weight may have contributed to. My goal was to live a healthier life, improve my fitness level and of course lose some weight.

Lately my diet had consisted of unhealthy fast food options such as pizza, burgers and fried Chinese food three to four times a week. Items such as ice cream, frozen custard and shakes featured frequently as well. Therefore my first step was to eliminate these very fattening and unhealthy options. I made more of an effort to cook simple meals and if I didn't have time to cook, I would pick up healthier, frozen or ready-made options from the store. I still ate my fair share of candy and other sweet things, but the fast food options were gone.

November 1^st I joined the local gym. I committed myself to attending the gym a minimum of two times a week but preferably three times a week. I started off with approximately 30 minutes of cardio consisting of walking on the treadmill at a decent pace followed by 30 minutes of strength training on the various machines. When I joined the gym, a staff member took me through how to use the various machines and gave me a suggested work out plan. This helped greatly as I had no idea how to use many of the machines.

December I started to increase my cardio exercise intensity by choosing the interval program on the treadmill. This allowed me to alternate 2 minutes of walking with 1 minute of jogging. Over time I increased this to 1 minute walking alternating with 1 minute jogging and then finally 1 minute walking and 2 minutes jogging. I hadn't made any further changes to my eating habits at this stage as I wanted to concentrate on making exercise a habit, plus holidays such as Christmas were coming up and I didn't want to stress about eating over this time.

January 5^th 2009 I joined SparkPeople weighing in at 164 pounds. Spark People is a free website that is a fantastic weight loss tool, which was instrumental to my success. Upon joining, you enter all your statistics, a goal weight and how much exercise you do. SparkPeople help with setting the targets and then they give you a daily target range of calories to eat within. SparkPeople also help with setting exercise targets both strength and cardio, and can give suggested meal plans and training programs. This is only a bare outline of all the tools that SparkPeople provide. Visit their website to find out for yourself what is on offer. The online journaling of foods eaten and exercise helped make me accountable. The recommended daily amounts of protein, fiber, fat and carbohydrates I needed was also a great tool.

I now really concentrated on changing my diet for healthier food options with the help of SparkPeople. I still ate sweet foods as I have a terrible sweet tooth, but I limited these foods and ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and lean protein. My sweet foods were usually 100 calorie snacks or Weight Watchers deserts. My favorites are Weight Watchers Key Lime Pie and Hostess 100 calorie Cinnamon Streusel mini cakes. By March I had lost 14 pounds and was feeling healthier and fitter and had a lot more energy.

It was May when I decided I need to increase my exercise intensity. I had been concentrating on my eating habits and was doing pretty well with my new healthy way of eating. I had started to take group exercise classes at the gym such as step for a couple of months now, as I had started to lose motivation working out by myself on the treadmill and elliptical. I now decided to increase the frequency of these classes. I decided to try and attend a class 5 days a week with a minimum of four times a week. By June I was attending the gym Monday to Friday for at least an hour a day, sometimes two if I did both cardio and strength training.

It is now October and I am currently 133 pounds. I attend the gym Monday through to Friday, participating in Step, Bosu, Pilates, Spin, Circuit and weight lifting classes. The variety increases my cardio fitness while also building my muscles for strength. The Pilates and Bosu helps strengthen my core, and I am no longer plagued by the sciatica that used to trouble me. Health eating and living is now part of my daily life and does not require much effort on my part. I feel fantastic, I am fitter then I have ever been and can jog on the treadmill now for 30 minutes without stopping. The key to my success was taking it step by step, not changing everything all at once. It is best to get used to one change before moving onto the next. Whatever steps you take to a healthier life for you, just think of all the benefits you and your family will reap.

Sources:

SparkPeople