Melissa’s Fitness Journey

I’m excited to share a guest post with you today!!! Melissa and I have been messaging a bit back and forth and I asked her if she wanted to share her fitness journey with us.  She kindly accepted.  I’m sure there are so many of you that can relate to her being a mother of two and trying to balance a busy life with staying healthy.  Thanks for sharing Melissa!!
 
Hi! My name is Melissa and I am a 32 years old. I have been married for twelve years now and have two beautiful children, a girl 5 and a boy 4. I am a full-time working mother, a full-time student and I manage to volunteer at both of my children’s school and volunteer on my son’s baseball team. 
 
I am very active and like to stay busy and feel that I had stayed fit, for the most part, throughout my first 10 years of marriage and through the pregnancies and births of my two children. It was not until my daughters 3rd birthday in July of 2010 that I realized that I was not who I used to be. I had gained an extreme amount of weight and I have to say was at my heaviest of 210 lbs. I am only 5’7″. I was unhappy on the inside and thought I could hide it with baggy clothes and a good smile. I ate what I wanted and the only exercise I got was chasing a 3 year old and a 2 year old!!! I was a stay-at-home mom at the time and was tired all the time. I was literally at my low point. 
 
This is me at my daugther’s 3rd birthday party in June 2010. I’m actually wearing a maternity shirt in this picture!

I was having some allergy issues and thought that I would go and see an allergist in August of 2010. I found out that I was allergic to numerous types of food. I was surprised that I had so many allergies and they were all foods that I was eating on an everyday basis. Mystery behind sinus infections…SOLVED!! Of all the foods that I am allergic to, the hardest one to avoid is corn. I had found that it was in EVERYTHING!!! Everything we ate had corn in it!!! It wasn’t until October 2010 that my life took a noticeable change. I had realized that I was cutting out all processed foods, which all contain corn, and was eating more fruits and vegetables that were fresh. More healthier natural meats…not from corn feed cows…but naturally raised beef, chicken and fish. I was feeling good! I stepped on the scale and I had lost 10 lbs.!!! 

My friends and I were talking about running a Disney Princess Half Marathon Royal Family 5K (3.1 miles) and I decided that I was going to do it!!! I started training for my 5K the day after Thanksgiving in 2010. I weighed in at 205 lbs. I ran on the treadmill 4 – 5 nights a week. My training was always conducted at night after my children were in bed and it was always done on a treadmill. I ran at a 5 speed and I ran until I hit 3.1. Some nights were harder than others, but my husband knew that I wanted to run this 5K and always motivated me and pushed me to get out there and do it! After all…what is 30 – 40 minutes of running going to hurt! I was training, I was eating right, I was dropping the weight…AND…on the day of my first 5K, February 26, 2011, I weighed in at 172 lbs.!!! I was finally at my pre-pregnancy weight!!! I couldn’t believe it!! I lost a total of 33 lbs. AND I ran a 5K!!!
 
It was all worth it when I crossed that finish line and I saw my two babies and my wonderful husband that had stood behind me and supported me through it all!!! I had made a huge turn around in my life and I FELT GOOD!!!!! To add more boost into my step, I had a physical shortly after this run. I got my blood work back and I can tell you that this was the first time in my life (except when I was pregnant with my daughter) that every test in my blood work came back in a the normal range!! I have a family history of high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol…it was a relieving feeling to see all of my levels in the normal range. I knew then that if I continued on what I was doing I would be able to live a healthy life. 
 
After the 5K, I stopped running. I had no reason to…I was not running anymore races…UNTIL…I got a challenge to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon the following year. I was so excited! My husband and I registered for it in July 2011. I told him I was going to start training and I was going to prove that I could do this!! He, again, supported me! Life continued on, stresses, more eating, going about my everyday life minus the running. It was not until one day in September of that year that my husband had reminded me that I was supposed to run a Half Marathon (13.1 miles) in FIVE MONTHS!!! I had 5 months to train my body to run 13.1 miles! I, again, started my running on the treadmill 4 – 5 times a week, every night after the kids were in bed, I was back to eating my healthy foods and kept my calorie intake at 1200 a day. This was something new I was trying. I felt it was easier for me to write down the foods and calories I was taking in then just concentrating on just eating right. My starting weight for the half was 175 lbs. My goal weight was to be 145 lbs. By this time, the only thing different in my life from the last training was that I was now a part-time college student and I had homework to take care of! BUT…I was going to do this and I managed to re-arrange my schedule to be able to train and do homework. I was exhausted but I knew I had to prove that I could do it. I had told many people about this goal and if I didn’t do it I felt I was going to let them down!
 
I ran my first Half Marathon, February 26, 2012, weighing in at 165 lbs. and came in at a time that was not expected of me by anybody! I ran it in under 2 1/2 hours coming in at 2:19:18!!!! I was completely beyond excited! I could not believe that I had trained for only 5 months and that I had did better than what anybody had thought I was going to do! I was on cloud nine and literally thought I could take on anything!!! Again…my babies were there at this finish line waiting on me, cheering me on. I can tell you the moment that I will never forget is crossing the finish line and looking up and making eye-contact with my baby boy and watched as he was yelling ‘Go Mommy!!’ It was then that I knew that I had not only made a change in my own life for me but that I was making a change for him. I was showing him that you can do anything that you set out to do and that staying healthy and active is fun!!
 
 
Where am I at today? Well, it is May 2012, I have not ran since the half marathon and I have set yet another goal and this time I am going big!!! I am registering to run the Walt Disney World Marathon in January 2013. This is 26.2 miles!!! I have started my official training on Sunday, May 13th and I am weighing 173 lbs. My goal weight is 145 lbs. I will meet my goal weight, or at least I hope to.
 
I am have been lucky enough to come across this wonderful blog site and I am currently following Erin on her journey to living an active and fit life. I am starting to eat clean..staying away from corn! ;-)…and I am also planning to do some different training techniques. I know that I must start my training now, and not wait till it is five months till, but I live in Florida and it is very hot during the summer months!! My goal is to work on my weight loss during the summer and cross train with weights. I have been told that I need to work on my body core. I am also planning on working on my speed.  After the summer, I will then focus on  my distance. I am hoping by September I will be at, or close to the weight I want to be, will have worked and toned my body and will be comfortable enough to tackle the distance. I often feel like I am on a yo-yo…I train, I lose the weight, I run then I am back to gaining the weight back until another race comes along. I have seen that setting goals is what keeps you motivated. I am so excited about the clean eating and have seen myself feel better in just a weeks time. 
 
Thank you Erin for blogging your journey so that people like me can see. You make it easy for a full-time working mother to fit the training and your cardio routines in our already busy lives. 
 
Thanks Melissa, you are such an inspiration!!! I completely agree, setting goals is something that helps us all.  I always try to set goals for myself because it’s the greatest thing in the world when you accomplish a preset goal!!! You rock, girl!
 
Feel free to leave Melissa a comment below!
 
Do you have a great fitness story too?  If you would like a chance to share your fitness journey on www.livelifeactive.com, please email me at erinstaysfit@gmail.com

4 thoughts on “Melissa’s Fitness Journey”

  1. Great guest article! I totally relate to Melissa (as I have two kids, a 5 yr old & 3 yr old), and always seem to have the same ‘set weight’ as her as well. Best of luck to her in her goals!!!

    Reply
  2. Our stories pretty much mirror each others.
    I’d love to correspond with you. I’m doing my first half in Sept. Only SIXTEEN weeks away. YIKES!!!
    Feel free to email me, I think you’ll find our similarities intriguing. 🙂

    Reply

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