Growing up I was always "chubby." I hated PE classes, sports, exercise, anything that made me break a sweat. It didn't help that I had PE teachers that mocked my efforts in front of everyone constantly that made me not even want to try. Bottom line, I was never very active. Teenage years started and the weight just continued to pile on, along w/ other things my hair started to get really thin. My mom took me to see our family doctor when I was like a JR in highschool. He basically mocked me, said there was nothing wrong and completely turned me against doctors for awhile.
In 2004, I was working a night job, stocking shelves in a grocery store when a girl came up to me and basically said "I think you have PCOS, have you heard of it or been diagnosed?" I just gave her a look and shook my head. She proceeded to tell me that it was something she was recently diagnosed with herself, had never heard of it, but wanted to get the word out. She told me it meant polycystic ovarian syndrome and that I should look it up and talk to a dr. She also gave me a website to go to, where a lot of women w/ pcos post and discuss things on message boards and such. I decided to do some research and everything started making sense to me, I seemed to fit a number of the symptoms. However being opposed to doctors it was another year before I did anything about it. I was officially given the diagnosis in the summer of 2005 and given medication, with also the "diet and exercise will help some of the symptoms" lecture.
Sometime later I decided to give Weight Watchers a try and followed that program online. I started working out by walking more, a treadmill, home gym weight system, and taebo videos. This helped me lose about 20 lbs but as soon as I slipped on WW I gained it back. When I eventually tried it again I didn't lose anything. I continued w/ taebo but soon added Jillian Michaels dvd's. These helped a little and it at least got me into the habit of working out although it was still something I did not enjoy at all.
In 2009 through the pcos website, I came across a fitness website, for those with pcos. I started getting actively involved on that site and seeing what other people were doing. I 'won' a free copy of Slim 'n 6, my first beachbody program. I tried it out and loved it, saw my arms start to tone. Before I was finished w/ the program Insanity was released. A couple people on this website started doing it and showing video clips, really talking it up. I watched the videos, thinking there is absolutely NO WAY I'd be able to do anything like that, but something told me I should order it anyways. So with a temporary lapse of sanity, I did. I completed the program (of course I couldn't keep up, and I modified a ton, but I did it!) with the promise of a free t-shirt motivating me the whole time.
I refer to Insanity as my 'confidence booster' workout. Once I did that, I was convinced I could do anything. I felt unstoppable. In the mean time, I'd 'won' a copy of Chalean Extreme and also Turbo Jam. I did two months of Chalean Extreme and then in the 3rd month added Turbo Jam. I then completed p90x. During this time I 'met' Thrilledmomof2 in the beachbody chat room. She was doing Chalean Extreme at the time. TurboFire was getting due to be released and somehow we decided we were going to do it together, 20 weeks of the program w/ the advanced discs, and then 20 weeks of a hybrid w/ Chalean Extreme. We successfully made it through those 40 weeks (LOVING it the whole time!) and decided to do Insanity together. We whined about this one, as we would whine about anything that wasn't TurboFire, but completed it.
Which brings us to now, our crazy hybrid schedule of P90x, Insanity, and TurboFire. I have lost (and kept off) almost 50 lbs from where I started. I went from a size 22 at my biggest (before ever doing WW) and am now a size 8. I have made different changes to my 'diet' throughout the whole way and eat cleaner than ever. I have learned to LOVE working out, it's now my favorite part of my day. I love these workout programs, they've worked wonders for me. I still have a long way to go on this journey but I'm taking it one day at a time.
