Oh so about me

Ok so I wasn't always thin but I didn't grow up the fat girl either.  I grew up in a small town in Oregon and I was always the girl with the big butt.  Even as a Freshman is high school, weight 110, size XS, I still had a big butt and thunder thighs.  My mom said the whole family had big butts so I just figured it was genetic. ( I no longer believe that)

I went to college and met my my husband Gary and we have 4 wonderful kids.  Let me see what else to tell you about me, oh yeah, I got fat over the past 15 years.  Not chubby, not some big boobs to match my big butt, I just got fat. F - A - T.  FAT!  FAT!  FAT!

I can tell you all about my thyroid condition, I can tell you about my emergency abdominal surgery when I was 5 months pregnant with my first child, I can tell you how I worked long hours creating my own company while still being a full time stay at home mom, but I didn't need to tell you because everyone could see the pounds. Stress and not taking care of myself showed with each pound I gained and with each bite I took. 

I spent 12 years as a fatty.  That's right I called myself a fatty.  I say with sympathy for the girl I use to be. 

Now back in the day just 2 years ago I would have told you I was chubby but that I was active and the weight did not effect anything I did.  Ohhh, the lies we tell ourselves!  It effected everything!  I didn't play with my kids the same and didn't go some places, I was always aware of the fat even if I didn't say so.  Just so much shame and embarrassment.

So I got a wake up call one day after vacation, May 2010.  I stepped on the scale and at 190lb I was my heaviest ever.  Holy crap that is a lot of weight on my barely 5 ' 4" frame. 

I needed a change and fast.  I went to a nutritionist who put me on extremely low calorie diet.  No fat, no carbs, no sugar, no salt.  The weight started coming off.  Wow it flew off.  The diet took some serious will power.  Making this kind of change, a lifestyle change, does not take physical might and will, but it takes mental power.  Extreme mental and emotional power!  How strong are you?  And how much can you give?

By Spring 2011 the weight was still coming off but I was flabby.  Really flabby so I started to workout.  It was slow at first.  A hike here or there, a walk with friends.  Then I got these videos, The Bazillion Butt Lift videos from Beachbody.  It was fun and well it made me sweat.  Gary would ask me if I was going to be ok when he saw me working out because I must of looked like I was about to die those first two weeks, but I made it though and by end of April I felt strong and I knew I could do more. 

I ordered more videos and I increased my hikes.  The Beachbody video were so awesome they kept telling me I was training like an athlete and I was!  I could feel myself getting stronger becoming in tuned with my body. I was doing things I could never do back when I was in high school or college. 

In May I started running.  Alright more like running and walking.  Each time I ran a little more and walked a little less.  I would run in 100 degree weather and I loved it.  I could feel the pounds melting off and when my face is red and flush from a workout it makes me feel like a kid again.  You know after a day of playing in the sun and running around.

In June, I ran my first 1/2 marathon with just a few days notice.  I was slow but I finished under 3 hours.  In October with one week notice a ran a full marathon, because whats 26 miles, right? 

I run all the time now.  You know that thing they call a runners high, it is real and it is way better than a food high?  It last longer and looks better on you too.  In fact runners high is compared to the feeling of being in love, so when people ask me why I run I say it is because I am addicted to love.

I started at a size 16 and I am now a size 0.  Don't think much a sizes, ok?  I have lost almost 85lbs and some 30 inches.  

So that is me and this is my blog.  I hope to help others and I plan on posting the not so nice part of once being fat, my thoughts and feelings then and now.  It is a messy process and it is not an easy one.  Honesty will be my guide on this and I will try and only poke fun at myself not others with the same struggle.  Again, I know this hard but I also know the excuses and lame crap we tell ourselves to keep on eating and sitting on our rear ends.      

If you are on the path to health you too will learn a lot about yourself.  It is a path of discovering who you are at your core and what you truly find important.  I can be your coach if you like, I work with Beachbody and I do blog on there too.  www.beachbodycoach.com/amycobine  Don't worry I do not yell at anyone as a coach, I am not Jillian Micheals.  I will only encourage you but I will also be the first one to say hey you are getting off track.