Guest Post: Alison of Mama's Weeds: Her Success Story!

How's everybody doing today?  Hopefully good and that your week is winding down and you're feeling at peace with Christmas just around the corner.  Read: If you're purchasing gifts for others, hopefully you're well on your way to completion!  We don't do gifts anymore for holidays, birthdays, or our anniversary.  Scott and I have been together 10+ years and there's nothing either of us "needs" and we save our money and skip the gifts and travel instead.  It's not the right choice for everyone, but it works for us.  But something tells me that Santa's Gifts for Skylar made it into our luggage.  Priorities, I tell ya!

I am sooo glad you liked my post yesterday on all my Aruban Grocery Store Finds.

And the Pool Pictures

Thanks for all the nice Hot Mama in my Bikini compliments you left in the comments section!  You sure know the way to a soccer mom's girl's heart!

And the Beach Shots

We are having a great time and it's with pleasure I am blogging a little less I turn over the floor to Alison of Mama's Weeds.  A true friend, a mother in the trenches with me, an educated, amazing woman who "gets it", who knows what it's like to parent mindfully and respectfully, and I just love Alison a ton and appreciate her post for me so much!  Thanks Alison!  Enjoy and I've got a few more fresh beach pics at the end of this post so read on....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Averie fans - I'm Alison and I write a healthy living blog called Mama’s Weeds where I share random and ridiculous tidbits from my adventures as a stay at home mother of two and my ever evolving journey to health and wellness.

Today I want to share about the journey that resulted weight loss success but also ended up being so much more.
I have never been seriously over weight. I have though spent 15 years doing the on again, off again weight loss roller coaster thing. Throughout high school my weight crept up from the 120's into the 130's and then the 140's by the time I graduated from high school. At only 5'3", 145 wasn't terribly unhealthy, but I could still stand to lose a little weight. I have always been able some lose weight with exercise and eating right, but was never quite able to get all the way down to the happy weight I really wanted to reach.
After high school and into college I continued to gain weight slowly, maybe a couple pounds a year. I would see the scale go up, I would pay attention to what I was eating and would focus on being more active and would lose a couple pounds. Healthy eating and exercise have always come easily to me, but it was just as easy to let other things get in the way. I would always get a few pounds to come off and would stop paying attention and the weight would slowly come back on.
Again, I wasn't seriously over weight. I wore a size 10 or a size 12 and always wished I could lose 10 or 15 pounds to be more of a size 8 or even a 6.
After college graduation and getting married my weight crept up into the 150's. In 2004 I became pregnant with my first daughter and gained 40 pounds during pregnancy, tipping the scale at 195 in my last month of pregnancy. My post-partum weight hung out in the 160's until I did my usual "cut out junk, exercise more" routine. I also started to run right about this time, believing that running was the quickest way to lose the baby weight. And it was - I was back into the 150's and my size 10's in no time.
Fast forward to 2006 and pregnancy #2. The story was practically the same.
Weight: 150's
Pregnancy weight gain: 40 pounds
Scale the day before Baby #2 was born: 195
Postpartum weight: 160's
Focus on losing some weight, start running again --> back into the 150's and into my normal clothes again.
For all the times I've lost weight, whether I attempted to lose weight as a teenager, before kids or after kids, I was never able to lose as much as I wanted. The story was always the same. I would reach a plateau, maintain for a while. Unable to lose any more weight I would lose motivation and focus and the weight would creep back on. I eventually concluded that I was just built to be "thick".

In early 2008, with two small children to care for and making no time to take care of myself, my weight had crept back up 165. 165! My post-baby weight! Are you kidding me? 165 and no cute baby to show for it? My BMR was bordering on obese. It was time to get serious. I was about to to turn 29 and felt like my 30th birthday was breathing down my neck. I knew that if I was ever going to have the body I always wanted, it was now or never. I was determined. This was it. I was really going to do it this time!
165 lbs

The end of 2007, the month before my healthy living wake up call

Like so many times before, I cut out junk food, stopped eating candy and drinking soda. I focused my diet around healthy, whole foods and started running regularly again.
And again like so many times before, the weight came off but I hit my plateau of 150 and the scale stopped moving. Despite maintaining my healthy eating and exercise habits I could not manage to lose any more weight.

I complained to my very wise mother about the stubborn scale and she asked me how many calories a day I was eating. I had no idea. I was eating healthy foods though, isn’t that all that mattered? She suggested I spend one day counting calories and see where I ended up.
OK, I'll count calories, what do I have to lose? Besides an additional 15 pounds that is.

With a little digging around on the web I found an online calorie calculator that told me what my calorie goals should be to lose weight based on my current weight, height, age and gender. I'd never before cared about calories, I'd always looked at fat grams when reading labels and believed that was all that mattered. I could all the gummy bears I wanted for a treat because they were "fat free", right?
Without worrying about my calorie goals just yet, spent a day eating normally, calorie counting all the way. I was SHOCKED to discover I was eating the exact amount of calories to maintain my weight.
Amazing! I now had the answer to the question I’d asked myself so many times before: why do I always plateau? Because I was eating too many calories! It didn’t matter if they were healthy calories. Calories are calories and they still add up.
I spent the next 2 months journaling everything I ate. Once I finally figured out that the answer was calories, I started paying closer attention to portion sizes, listening to my hunger cues and stopped eating when I was full. If I slowed down and listened to my body about about how I was really feeling, I didn't need to eat so many calories. I didn't need to go back for seconds, pile huge portions on my plate or eat simply out of boredom. Even if I made healthy choices, those calories still added up. Food journaling was my ticket to mindful eating and held me accountable for the quantity of food I was putting into my body.

I kept up my exercise routine and with my new found way of eating, the weight fell off. Within 2 months I lost an additional 20 lbs, reaching my healthy weight of 129. I was now wearing size 4 and weighed less than I did in high school. That same summer I trained for my first marathon. After breaking through my plateau and losing an additional 20 lbs, I started to find that running was getting easier and I was getting faster too. In the fall of 2008 I completed my first marathon in 4:14:59.

Food journaling and calorie counting for a couple of months allowed me to become a more mindful eater and in the end, healthier and happier too. It was what the answer to what I'd been missing and helped me solve the weight loss plateau struggles I'd battled with for nearly half my life.

Thanks Averie for the chance to share my weight loss success story!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Averie Again Now:
No, Thank You Alison, you amazing woman, you!


Skylar says thanks too!

Yoga Today is an Astavakrasana Variation

Tip of the Day:My Bora Bora Foods Give Away!!!   It ends tomorrow (Friday) so get in on it now!

Have you Entered Yet?  Winner will be announced Friday (tomorrow!!).  Go get yourself in on the Bora BoraAction!!!!!!!!!!


Also wanted to pass along some info about Amazing Grass:

Wanted to give you a heads up that Amazing Grass is having a holiday sale, 25% off all products, Dec. 17th through Dec. 20th.*
 Use coupon code "HolidaySale". 
 *Sale does not include Combo's and Sample Packs.
 

Stay Tuned for the Winner of the Bora Bora Bars...


And More Awesome Guest Posts AND more Vacation Foods & Photos (since you told me you wanted to see them!)