I've always been an active person. Growing up my family and I always played ball or went on bike rides together, or some other activity. When I was in 6th grade my brother, Kimball, taught me to play volleyball so in 7th grade I made the middle school volleyball team. I played on the middle school and high school teams for the next 5 years. When I was in 9th or 10th grade the weight started creeping up. I noticed my pants got tighter. After the volleyball season was over my junior year of high school I started going to the gym. I really don't remember what my motivation for going to the gym was. For example, I can't remember if I thought, "Oh I'm gaining weight. I need to workout", but I do remember the first day at the gym I lasted only 10 minutes on the treadmill! Somehow I stuck with it and got to where I could run 30-45 minutes on the treadmill. I got to watch Oprah while I ran and that really helped! Sometimes I would just stay on the treadmill longer because I wanted to see a segment. So that's how it all began - my love for the treadmill that is, and my love for fitness and exercise. That's why I got my degree in Exercise Science :)
When I graduated from high school and moved to Utah I got a one year gym membership and definitely got my money's worth out of it. I eventually got certified as a group fitness instructor and taught step aerobics classes, kickboxing, and weight training classes. I was able to maintain my weight through all of that. I moved to Detroit and continued to work out at the apartment gym while I was getting my BS degree. I had tried other cardio exercises but I always went back to the treadmill. Something that helped me maintain my weight was my weight scale. If I saw the numbers going up I knew to either workout more or eat less. After I graduated from college I got a job teaching group fitness classes again.
Then I moved to Mesa, AZ. I was 25 years old and had maintained my weight since I was 17. But my scale broke shortly after moving to AZ and that first year in AZ I gained 15-20 pounds! I was working a full time desk job and decided to get an additional job part time as a personal trainer. And I started dating Steve who lived 45 minutes away from me. That's when my workouts started getting skipped. Between my two jobs and dating Steve after work I started skipping workouts. In addition I was eating out more. There was a Cafe Rio right around the corner from my apartment and I went there quite often :) So without the scale I didn't notice my weight going up until I was 15-20 pounds heavier. Many of my clothes still fit, although maybe some were getting tighter. Therefore, I will never go without a scale again!
Steve and I got married and I got pregnant right away. At that point I wasn't working out anymore and I wasn't feeling well during the pregnancy so I didn't want to workout. I did try a prenatal yoga video but I didn't enjoy that. I didn't feel like I was getting a workout so I didn't do that long. After I had Addison I tried a step aerobics video but again, I wasn't consistent with it. When Addy was just over a year old we bought a treadmill. That was the best purchase ever! I didn't start using it consistently though until after Lexi was done nursing. But I've been consistent now for about 6 months. In those few years of not working out I wondered if I would ever have the self-control & motivation again to workout consistently. Working out helps me emotionally, physically, & mentally. I'm so glad we bought that treadmill!
Losing weight has been a learning experience. I didn't succeed just because of my workouts. I also had to control my diet but that's for another post, another day.
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