Health Journey

🥗I have been on a serious health journey since July 2019 when my doctor👩🏾‍⚕️ told me that she was recommending blood pressure meds. I tried to tell her that I was going through a separation and it had been stressful because I had no help and was trying to figure things out. 🤔I asked if there were other options because If you know me, you know that I don’t do meds very well, so that was not an option for me.

She told me that I would need to adjust how I ate and exercise and try to reduce my stress level. 😢As I was crying in the doctor’s office, I told her that I would handle it.

⏳She had me on a 6 week check up regimen that went on for about 4 months, during this time I would come in and they would check my ⚖️weight, BMI & blood pressure. It took me no time to adjust because I had decided that I wasn’t taking any medications to control what I knew could be fixed with what and how I ate.

👀The weight started flying off. I was dropping lbs like nobody’s business. Coupling that with going through, first a separation then a divorce, that weight wasn’t gonna stay on me if it tried lol.

I’d started at 170. This may not seem like much to most but it was the heaviest that I had ever been in my life. Picture this, when was 🤰🏽pregnant with my first child, teen mom, in high school, I weighed 115 at delivery. Second child in my 20’s, 125 at delivery so I wasn’t in a healthy range for my body.

👩🏾‍⚕️During my first few check ups, I weighed in at 162 lbs, 155 lbs & 143 lbs. The doctor said that I was doing well but I was losing muscle as I lost the fat because I was not exercising. When I tell you that I did not like working out, man I didn’t like it so I was trying to change my life health habits without it but it was very necessary.

💪🏽I considered her recommendation and began to do little things at home. I would use the bands and dumbbells. I even began to workout with a really great trainer. She helped me to start my journey into understanding muscle, protein, cardio etc. I did work with her for a while and it was great. 🏋🏾‍♀️After that I looked for a weight trainer because by myself, I was not going to commit to the type of workout that I needed to gain the type of muscle that I had lost. I was an athlete in school, cheerleader in college, I dance at church and I stand all day at the salon so i needed to get the muscle back.

My weight, when I found my weight trainer in January 2020, was 134 lbs. Yes, I had dropped all of that weight but I had also lost so much muscle.

Quick lesson for those who don’t know, muscle weighs more than fat and also gives you the ability to burn fat while at rest. So this enormous weight loss was quite a bit of muscle.

After consulting with him, I decided that I wanted to gain muscle and hit a target weight of 150. He explained to me that had I come in when I was heavier, he could have shaped me down to that target easily but because I needed to gain that it might be a challenge and I was gonna have to eat at least 3500 🍗calories per day with protein.

😳Now imagine my face… I had just been eating probably at most 1200-1500 calories and now had to double them. Needless to say, it was hard to tell my mind that I had to now eat more when I had trained it to eat less.

🤸🏾‍♀️Well I did it! Even during the pandemic and lockdown, I was able to maintain the weight that I had gained because we would workout over video chat. Once the gyms were opened back up Immediately went back in. I weighed 140lbs. 💪🏽I had 10 more to go so I gained weight easily through planned meals provided by his fiancé, now wife along with weight training.

I eventually hit my goal but thought that I like to get to 160. I liked how I looked in my clothes but wanted to fill them out a bit more, So I kept on the same regimen with meals, protein and weight training and hit it!

I had gone to my final bp check up and my doctor said that I was very healthy so no bp meds were needed😁 and even though I weighed 160 lbs my BMI was great! I told her what I had done and she was impressed and pleased with my success.

Now, today I stand here, in this picture, weighing 170 lbs only this time, the fat to muscle ratio is different. I have more lean muscle than fat so I weigh the same but I’m not the same on the inside.

I fluctuate up and down between 163 & 170 and I am the healthiest that I have ever been. 😊I’m continuing my health journey by weight training once a week for an hour because that’s what works with my schedule. In the kitchen the food is different, fish, chicken, turkey very little dairy.

Now do I have little slips, of course, I love 🍟French fries. I’m not perfect but I am determined to stay committed to myself and my children by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

I wrote this to help someone. Hope it does✌🏽🤸🏾‍♀️😁