--->Insert Tarzan Yell Here<---

Man I am feeling good!!!

Let me just start out by saying that I have been exercising and eating healthy for my entire adult life. I was severely overweight as a child but high school was all the motivation I needed. I have obviously learned more and more along the way, but I have always been doing something.

After I got married was no different. My hubby is a gym rat so we actually would go on 'dates' to the gym. Romantic right?

But then we both lost our jobs within a week of each other. We moved to be closer to family. And for the past several months we have struggled to stay on our feet financially.

I much prefer to work out at home anyway, so the loss of the gym membership was not painful for me. But with everything else that was happening in our family at the time (don't get me started), I lost all motivation to work out.

I still ate clean most of the time. But to be honest, cheap food, is not usually the healthiest food.

All of that to say this, for the past month now, we have been able to buy healthy foods, get a gym member ship, and I have even found my lost gumption to work out! It has been a good month.

Oh the Tarzan yell? Well that is because I can see it!!=)


I have heard that it takes four weeks for you to see a difference, eight weeks for those closest to you to see a difference, and twelve weeks for everyone else to see it.

If the above is accurate, I can proudly say I am at the four week point. I can see a difference in myself!

So let's talk about it!!

• First, I have not seen a difference in the scale AT ALL!! At most I have bounced around within one pound. But I know I am at a point where losing weight and gaining muscle almost cancel each other out on the scale. At least for now. 
• Second, my clothes are fitting much more loosely. I had gone through my clothes a few weeks ago to get rid of the ones I don't wear anymore. There was a shirt that I loved but it had gotten too tight to wear so I put it in the giveaway pile. I picked it up yesterday just to see if it would fit, and it did! SCORE!
• Also, I want to run! This is a big deal for me. I hate running and I always have. At one point I was up to running a mile in under 10min (I know that's slow but it was an accomplishment for me), and I ran three times a week. One day I just thought, "I hate this." So I stopped. I have been walking 2 miles 5-6 times a week. I have decided I want to incorporate running too. I am waiting until I get better shoes, though. The $12 pair I bought at Wal-Mart three years ago just aren't going to get the job done. And no I am not exaggerating. 
• I can see my triceps. Oh. My. Goodness. How I have waited worked for this. Since I have lost so much weight over the years, I have a lot of extra skin in my arms. I learned that the only way to tighten it up (without surgery) is to lift heavy. So I have been. It is working=)!!
• Oh and I did 3 - 30 second planks yesterday. Well almost, I fell on the last one just before the timer went off, but still. =)

So needless to say, I cannot wait until I get to eight weeks and I have no intentions of slowing down!

If you are feeling discouraged with your fitness journey; If you have started and stopped and started and stopped or if you have hit a plateau, let me encourage you!

It will be worth it!
You will see the difference!
You can do this!


And just maybe you will feel like making your own Tarzan Yell.


Let's talk about it:  
How do you get over discouragement or plateaus?  
Any suggestions for running shoes? 
What was the first change you saw in yourself?