For me, (Annette) growing up I always felt like the girl who was taller and bigger than all my friends. I never really dieted, but I did always feel that I was overweight. However, I was never motivated enough to do anything about it. After each of my pregnancies I lost all my baby weight almost immediately, but in between times, I would gain it all back and more. So at the beginning of each pregnancy, my weight was a little higher. In 2007, Ridge, our third little guy, was born. I got rid of the baby weight, but this time I could totally tell that the weight was coming back. The fact that none of the clothes that I had been squeezing into were fitting at all anymore scared the heck out of me. We have watched Biggest Loser for several seasons now and I always thought, I really need to do something like that. But did I? Noooo!
In January of 2008 the new season of Biggest Loser started and I think both of us knew it was time to do something. We started out small by getting an elliptical with our tax return money. It is sitting right in the middle of our living room, but we knew that it couldn’t be hidden or it would be worthless. We would do the elliptical while watching Biggest Loser and other shows in the evening. It made the time go by much faster. I think we even pushed each other because I would go for 30 minutes so Andrew would have to go for 35. The other big thing was that we bought a digital scale that tracks two different people’s weights. I couldn’t believe how heavy I was. I was sick! With that, our journey began. We didn’t start out with the intentions of losing tons of weight or anything like that. We just both wanted to get down to a healthy weight and get healthy all around. It has been a series of baby steps throughout this past year and all the hard work has totally paid off. I am fitting into a size of jeans that I don’t ever remember wearing. I am eating better than I ever have. For once, I don’t feel like the biggest person around. I am so thankful for the way this last year has turned out.
Neither one of us feel like we have all the answers, but we just want to share the transformation and all that we’ve learned and done. Hopefully our story can inspire someone else.
@andrewtate
Annette
Hey just read your posts and love it that you arent preaching a certain, specific diet that should work for everybody. Like you stated, the 30′s hit us rounder than ever and we got to thinking what we would look like in another 30 years. Yikes! We tried several specific diets, but really found much more success in just eating less, and eating healthy. We jokingly tell people when they ask how we lost the weight that we invented a new diet that no one has ever heard of. We call it the “eat less diet”, and we actually eat less. we started about 13-14 months ago, and are still really encouraged, it has to be a lifestyle change rather than a fad diet. Keep up the good work!!!
By: Dan and Brynn on 01/10/2009
at 9:24 AM