The 20

I just weighed myself and I am down 20 pounds…from when I started weighing myself. The road to fitness and weight loss is paved with happy hours, parties, and hard work. For me, so many of my social outings involve food and drink, and it can be very difficult to say no to all the platters of food being passed under my nose. But, I do it. I have always been a "healthy eater", as so many people like to call themselves. But, I have my downfalls.

When I was a little kid, my Dad had some random heath problems, so when he went on a strict diet, we all did. We made our own wheat pizza dough, we grew our own vegetables in a garden in the backyard, we cut sugar, we went to Trader Joe's before it was cool (and had to drive 15 miles to get there!). It was a treat for my sister and I to get Wheat Thins, because they had a little salt on them. I have never had a Twinkie, and people are amazed by this phenomenon. I got carrot sticks in my lunch, while all my friends had bags of Cheetos. I have to thank my mom for doing all of this, because it did give me a good foundation.

When I was in High School I ran Track, Cross Country and played Soccer. I could eat whatever I wanted because I was incredibly active. I had taken art classes since I was about 5, and excelled in art in high school and took college courses ahead of time, and decided to go to art school for college.

Here's when the trouble started. Private Art Schools don't have athletics, like many Univerities and College campuses. So, I spent college being broke, only able to afford the 99 cent cheeseburgers at fast food joints, or overly sweetened coffee from the vending machines, working on art projects into the wee hours of the night. My comrades were oh-so-cool artsy types, and we drank martini's, smoked cigarettes and ate bar food all the time. I lived off campus, so I drove to school, and missed out on all the long walks between the dorms and classes, plus it was a small campus, so there were only a few steps between buildings. Although I was not eating a lot, I was eating very crappy food. I also worked as an assistant manager at a pizza place at night, so I got to take home pizza, sub sandwiches, garlic bread, chicken fingers, and drink wine coolers while I closed up at night. Yes, I said Wine Coolers.

All of this caught up to me, and once graduating from college and starting work at my first job, I made a concerted effort to change my eating habits back to the way they were when I was living with my parents. I had my own apartment, and no longer ran the risk of my roommates eating whatever groceries I may have purchased. I was finally making (what I thought to be) a decent paycheck and could afford to shop for real food, and quit the Jack in the Box runs. And, I started running again. I ran for years, so getting back into the habit was easy. I also opened up a membership at a certain gym that is open 24 hours…and I got back into shape. Keep in mind that I was in my early 20's, so I had time on my side still. I never ballooned up too big, but I was heavier than I was in High School. And I got back down to where I was pretty quickly.

Then my long-time boyfriend and I got married, and we had quite the tumultous relationship. We were very young and did not have the greatest relationship, and to mask that, we partied a lot. We went to our neighborhood bar twice a week for karaoke, drank all night and would run through Del Taco on the way home. We also went out every Friday and Saturday night, plus Sunday brunches, and whatever else we could get into. I was still running all the time, so I maintained my weight, but barely. I counted calories incessantly, and would justify my meal of a Grande Margarita and 2 jalapeno poppers as ok, because all together the calories were with in what I was supposed to have. I also started taking diet pills to help maintain, and then started to do the Hollywood Miracle Diet every monday and tuesday, to "detox" from the weekend and lose the water I was retaining from a weekend full of drinking. I started practicing Yoga and Pilates, and that was also helpful in maintaining my weight. By this time I had also started my own business painting murals and faux finishing, so my job was physical, and that kept me moving all day, so I was keeping the pounds off that way too.

Surprise, surprise, we got divorced. I moved out, shut down my business for a while and crashed on a few friends couches. My membership to the gym and the yoga studio was suspended because my soon to be Ex shut off our bank accounts without telling me. I was living with friends openededly, and did not really do a lot of grocery shopping, and I was newly single and ready to mingle…so the late nights, partying, and fast food runs came back into my life. By the time I got a roommate and a new job, I had put on weight. I don't know how much, because I didn't have a scale anymore. But, I slowly got my act together and started walking or running again, rejoined the Yoga studio and tried to do crunches each night.

As time wore on, I met someone new (that I am marrying in 6 weeks), had foot surgery and hired Positively Fit to rehabilitate my foot and get me back in shape, lose the divorce weight and get healthy again. I started up my painting business again, joined a running club, took up tennis, started running 10k races and the Mud Run, going kayaking, and more. Things have changed in all the good ways, and I lost 20 pounds on top of it.

I have accepted that I will never weigh what I did in High School again, and that's ok. I still want to live my life and go out and have fun. I like hitting Happy Hour with girlfriends. But I like running miles with them as well. It's a balancing act.

Thanks - here's some training info for all you locals as well -

Personal Trainer Westminster - South East of The LB

Personal Training Orange County - Training from North San Diego to The Westside