.marriage looks fat on me.

My beautiful sister Viktoria, is currently in school to become a Holistic Nutritionist and as part of her program she needs to assess a few people on their body, symptoms they may be having and she needs to prescribe for them a meal plan to address the certain areas of their body that are having issues. I was excited to hear she needed some people to be her guinea pig, because I have a problem that I have never addressed, Marriage looks fat on me.

Ever since hitting puberty around 14-15 years I had been a pretty consistent 150-155 lbs. Back then I felt large for my age, which I was, but even as I entered my 20s I maintained that weight and I just decided thats where my body was comfortable at. I was chill with the weight I was. I felt active and healthy and that is all that mattered.

20 years old at 150 lbs

23 yrs old at 160 lbs

Then marriage happened.

All of a sudden after I got married at 23 years old, I put on a surprise 30 lbs in less than 6 months. I jumped from 160 to 190lbs and just like that I went from a little soft around the belly, to feeling huge. I went to the doctor to find out how one could put on 30 lbs in such a short amount of time, but there was nothing medically wrong with me. It could only be my diet, and my lack of excercise, BUMMER! I never had a reason to lose weight before so trying diets was not a fun idea. I would try something for about a week and then quit. I had 0 motivation to lose weight.

After 3 years of marriage and maintaining a weight of 190, I got pregnant with my first baby. I ended up gaining 20lbs with the pregnancy putting me at 210, but quickly I lost 10 lbs of it after he was born and I struggled to kick the last 10 bringing me back to my 190.

Post Elliot at 200 lbs.

Well, after Elliot I started to be really self conscious of my arms and the size of my thighs, but unfortunately just my laziness and love of food won over and I decided, "Well, maybe after I'm done having all my kids I will try to lose weight and be healthy."

It was during this time between babies that I had a gallbladder attack, and I had to go to emergency and they told me if I didn't fix my diet, that I would have a chronic problem. Yikes.

Not too much later I got pregnant with Sebastien. I hoped I wouldn't gain too much weight during the pregnancy, but I ended up putting on 30 extra pounds. Good grief. So here I was, about 6 months after Sebastien's birth, feeling larger than life. (thank you Backstreet Boys for making such relate-able songs) When Tori mentioned she needed a guinea-pig for her class. I jumped on the opportunity.

Post- Sebastien weighing 230lbs

Viktoria has spent the past few months assessing my eating habits (which includes consuming between 3000-4000 calories a day, and rarely exercising), and finding out which systems of mine need the most help. It turns out my liver is the biggest issue for me, I am slowly turning it to crap with fried, processed, and high sugar foods. I also have been noticing side pains lately, and I feel winded going up the stairs. Which makes sense, you know sitting at 225lbs as of today.

So it is time for a change! We already eat very healthy meals around here, but the big problem is snacks, when I snack, and what foods I am pairing together. Today we sat down and made quite the meal plan. I am never to pair starch and meat ever. So its either veggies with a potato or with meat. But the meat and potato NEVER get eaten together. There are all sorts of rules of which foods need to be eaten together. Like fruit must always be eaten with a protein and never at dinner time. I don't understand the science of it all, but if you are interested in learning more, you can follow her blog which is www.soljinutrition.com 

This Monday I am starting an 8 week meal plan based on combining the right foods at the right times, a 30 minute workout circuit daily, and then I will be doing a week long liver cleanse before she assesses my progress for her class. This is my first real attempt at weight loss in my life, and I have to admit I'm pretty nervous. I don't want to screw this up, especially since she's being graded on how we do. To make myself more accountable, I will be updating how things are going each week that I start this  major lifestyle change.

Wish me luck!

March 5, 2016 weighing in at 225 lbs