I will be completely honest. I did not get serious about my diet and exercise until I turned forty. After I had my daughter, I knew I needed to do something. I gained forty-five pounds with her and was worried I was not going to be able to take that off. So, we bought a treadmill three weeks before she was born and as soon as I was cleared from the doctor I began working out. I was pretty much a cardio Queen. I had a few dumbbells, a few VCR tapes (anyone remember the Firm workouts) and I was good to go. Then I took up running…basically to have some type of fitness in common with my husband but hated it. Then I was trying everything under the sun from the thigh master to at home pilates to Dancing with the Stars DVDs. Then I hit forty and those things were not working anymore.
This is when I stumbled upon the Tone it Up girls. They were fit, toned and gorgeous and all I knew was I wanted to look like them! So I started their workouts which involved some cardio and at home workouts. It still was not enough. Then I became a member and started their nutrition plan. This is where I learned how to meal prep and what it meant to meal plan. I followed this lifestyle for five years. Mainly you eat three times a day with two snacks in between. The plan consisted of mainly fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and absolutely no “carbs”. I still think their plan is great and follow them on social media. But, when I hit forty five I plateaued. I needed another change.
So I started following different fitness people on Instagram and became intrested in lifting weights. I also noticed they were all “tracking macros”. Now, my weight lifting is not anything at all to write home about. But I do enjoy it and have seen major changes in my physique. I paid for my fitness pal and started on my macro counting journey. This backfired in a major way! I had no idea what I was doing and that app is not all that accurate. Over the course of a few months I gained ten pounds. I knew I needed help and finally found my macro coach Tara in February 2019. In my first few weeks of following her plan I lost five pounds and by May of that year I lost all ten. I could not believe I was eating the things I was eating and losing weight!
In a nutshell, macros are macronutrients which include proteins,fats and carbohydrates. When I started working with Tara she knew my goal was to lose weight. So she came up with a plan with a certain amount of these macros that I track every day. By tracking I mean I weigh out everything I eat. At first it was a pain in the butt. After about a month I got into a grove and now it is part of my routine. My plan will change based on my goal. She usually switches things up about every six to eight weeks. In my next post, I will share what a typical day looks like for me. Overall, weight lifting and macro counting has been a huge game changer for me. Check out my before and after pics. There is about a one year difference in this picture.
