Jump ahead a ***cough cough*** few years. When I was 19 my then fiancé Daryl and I moved out on our own. I was working from sun up to sun down. I worked in banking from 8:30am to 5:30pm and then 6pm to 10pm at a grocery store . Daryl and I ate out A LOT! It was a shock to my system. I grew up in a family that the only time we really ate out was for special occasions. We ate at a sports bar so much we had our own waitress that knew us by name. Over the course of time the weight slowly started to pile on. When I graduated in 1999 I weighed 185 pounds on our wedding day 4 years later on Aug. 16, 2003 I weighed in at 253 pounds. Then life happened and we had to move into my in-law’s home for a little over 2 years. While we lived there, I found a magazine called Oxygen. Looking through the pages something lite a fire in me. Here was a magazine with woman who had feminine muscles. They weren’t the over muscled woman that you think of when you hear the term bodybuilding. I knew I wanted to be one of those woman. So Daryl and I started to go to Oak Opens every Sunday rain, snow, or sunshine and walk the 5 mile trail. This walk worked its way to a run/walk and finally we were running the whole 5 miles. The girl that couldn’t do the one mile run without walking in middle school, COULD RUN 5 MILES!!!! Daryl and I even ran a 5 miler race in 2006. I was close to the last person to cross the finish line but I finished. HaHa, never said I was a fast runner. During this time I also joined my first gym. I wish I could say it was love at first weight……it wasn’t. I had no clue what I was doing. So I read books and my wonderful husband got me a subscription to that magazine that lit that fire. I slowly started to love going to the gym. I looked forward to feeling sore the next day. I even decided to get my personal training certificate.
Between the runs, playing Sunday night softball, and the gym, I was able to get my weight down to 220 pounds in 2007. Then there was a BIG surprise July 4th 2007……..a positive pregnancy test!!!! I wish I could say that I kept up with working out and eating better……nope. When I went in to deliver Dylan on March 8th 2008, I weighed in a 285 lbs. I gave birth to an 8 lb. 10 oz. baby boy and fell in love in an instant. It didn’t matter to me that at my 8 week check-up my weight was still 285. I was in love and my new baby was all that mattered. He was perfect and such an easy laid-back baby. Then as he grew we noticed he wasn’t hitting milestones and was mute. We talked things over with his pediatrician and through a year of testing and many specialist our beautiful baby boy was diagnosed with both autism and cerebral palsy. In my mind, my needs no longer mattered. It was all about Dylan and getting him everything that he needed. The next few years it was all about therapy, playgroups, specialist, doctors, and test after test.
Jumped ahead to 2011, Daryl and I decided to was time to go back to school. As much as we wanted to go to U of M. we both just missed getting in. We decided to attend Eastern Michigan and move to Ann Arbor. I decided I wanted to go for Athletic Training and then switched to exercise science with a minor in nutrition. After doing a lot of research on preschools up there, I found out that Ann Arbor had an amazing preschool for children with special needs. Dylan did amazing there and was starting to make leaps and bounds! I could finally start putting me on the front burner. I went out and bought a scale. Our’s had broken a few years prior and I never bought a new one. So that last weight that I weighed in at was the 285 lbs. after Dylan was born 3 years ago. I cried on the bathroom floor after I stepped on that scale. I had hit my highest weight ever, 315 lbs. I was devastated. How did I let myself go this bad? I joined a gym and met an amazing trainer, Major! He renewed that fire that was lit so long ago.
Then life happened again! Daryl hit a deer on his way to work one morning and our CR-V was totaled. We had to get a new car which meant a new car payment. New car payment meant it made paying Ann Arbor rent impossible. So we moved back to Bowling Green in 2013 and started to attend BGSU. Money was a little tight when we first moved back so a gym membership was out for a few months. I finally got a gym membership in May, 5 months after we moved. A month later…….
Then, on July 6th, 2014 after only training for a month, we were surprised with another positive pregnancy test. My first appointment I stepped on the scale and it read 305 lbs. I wasn’t so surprised this time because I knew that I wasn’t working out or eating the way I should have been. Being in school made cooking difficult and we ate a lot of fast food. This pregnancy was the complete opposite of Dylan’s with Dylan I had bouts of nausea but only got sick once. With this pregnancy I was sick all the time. Due to horrible morning sickness (which should be renamed morning/noon/night sickness) and later gestational diabetes. I was lucky and was able to control the gestational diabetes with diet and exercise. I dropped down to 284 lbs. the lowest weight since I was pregnant with Dylan. On Feb. 22nd 2014 a handsome curly haired boy was born. Tristan weighed in at 6 lbs. 13oz. This time at my 8 week appointment I weighed in at 278 lbs.
Then SURPRISE at the beginning of August 2014, just a little over 6 months after Tristan was born we found out we were expecting yet again! My weight gain with my 3rd pregnancy was very slow. Luckily my 3rd pregnancy didn’t have the horrible morning sickness but I did wind up with the gestational diabetes again. Once again I was able to control it with diet and exercise. In the course of this pregnancy I gained 15 lbs. Then on March 25th, 2015, we welcomed our 3rd and final son, William “Liam”. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 2oz. Of course, just like our other two boys, it was love at first sight.
And now here we are today as I start this journey once again. Liam is now a year I have started to get serious again. I started Sister Iron after I had Tristan with the hopes of blogging and someday vlogging my weight loss journey to help keep me accountable. I had to put it on hold for my pregnancy with Liam. So here I am, ready to start this journey once again. My official starting weight this time around is 305. My goal is to start a Wednesday weigh in post. I will be using my home scale to do these weigh in’s.
Please understand posting my actual weight was a very difficult thing to do. I had a fear of people judging me based on these numbers. Then I really started thinking. People can visually see my weight and my size. Why am I worried about a number? This is also going to be a long road with many twist, turns, and a few bumps. The greatest paths often have these. My ultimate goal is to lose the weight and gained the muscle to compete in a figure competition. I want to thank you for following my journey and making it this far into this post.
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