Healthy Parents, Healthy kiddos

(Thanksgiving 2011)

(Sometime before)

 

For as  long as I can  remember, Ive had pretty  unhealthy  habits.  I  started smoking  when I was 13 or 14... I knew it was  unhealthy  but I wanted to be cool and then it  progressed to being a major "stress reducer" for me. I have never had a formal exercise routine... working was about all the exercise I thought I needed. I have always eaten fast food like it was going out of style. I felt like I didnt have time, money, or energy to do much else. When I was younger,  it didn't affect me. But during my first pregnancy, I gained 70 lbs. I realized that hormones change and that the weight wasnt just going to fall off like everyone said, but subsequently my self esteem took a plummet. That led to a cycle of more unhealthy behaviors. I smoked more. I ate more. I exercised even less. Every year, mostly on New Years day, I would start some fad diet, and I would lose weight in the first week but eventually I would go back to the same unhealthy habits. At one point in my life I was literally eating fast food 3 to 4 times a day, smoking a pack of cigarettes, and taking in about 80-100 ozs of my worst enemy, Dr. Pepper. My daughter started gaining weight when she was about 7 or 8 and I didnt really see much of a way out. When I met my husband and we started dating, 6 years ago, he was a vegetarian. As we started spending more time together, I got excited to cook new and exciting dishes for my newly formed family. I quickly started eating at home most everyday.

When Josh moved in with Devanne and I, he started eating meat again. I learned to love cooking. Chicken fried steak, bbq pork ribs, juicy bacon cheeseburgers... yea, our eating out subsided a lot but it was less than healthy. Im pretty sure in that first two years, I gained at least 20 lbs and he gained about 40. We started trying to have a baby. I made my first real healthy step in my life... I went from smoking a pack a day to quitting cold turkey. It was probably the worst first month of my life but I finally did it!! My ob doctor told me that if I would just lose some weight, my cycles would probably regulate but I wanted the quickest fix, so we started on fertility meds. First shot, we got pregnant with our beautiful twins. During my pregnancy, I really started thinking about how our unhealthy habits were affecting our older daughter and how they would soon affect our little ones. It was a very close call that I did not have gestational diabetes. I attempted to make healthier choices by switching to diet pop and eating more protein with my carbs (just learning what protein and carbs were was a big step). I ended up only gaining about 20 lbs with my pregnancy and losing about 30 in the first two weeks, post. I was determined to make better choices with my babies and for the most part we did. But that didnt stop me from binging at night and during naptimes... the kids couldnt see me, so that was better, right? By 2011, my husband and I were the highest weight we had ever been. We had tried and tried and tried to lose weight (every new years), it just didnt work. We had such a give up attitude that we didnt even attempt to try a new years diet in 2012. On January 2nd, we woke up feeling sick from all the good food we ingested for new years. We looked at each other and both said  "somethings gotta give." We decided not to get real excited about it just to a little at a time because lets face it, we are probably going to quit anyway.

At first, we didnt even exercise. We poured ourselves into learning how to eat  healthy diet. I didnt want to do any fad diet. By this time, our 11 year old and 1 year olds were aware of what we were doing and I didnt want them to see me eating chicken breast every night. I didnt want them thinking that that was the only way to be healthy. I searched high and low for healthy breakfast, snacks, lunches, and dinners. I tried to make things that the whole family would enjoy. I started teaching  them and myselves about what vegetables and fruits, and proteins did for our bodies. we starting eating whole grain bread and brown rice. We tried new things like quinoa and cous cous. At the end of january, I had lost maybe 10 lbs, Josh, maybe 15 lbs and Devanne, was looking slimmer and slimmer. People started noticing our changes. This was about the time in other years that we said it was way too hard and quit. This time we got a gym membership. At first, josh and I couldnt go for longer than 30 seconds on any machine without feeling like we were absolutely dying. We just kept going. It felt amazing. In that first 6 months, Josh lost about 50 lbs, I was down 40 and our own beautiful daughter was down 10. I went from having pre diabetes, high blood pressure, and extremly high cholesterol to completly shocking my doctor. Devanne was able to stop taking her inhaler for exercise induced asthma. Josh looked and felt amazing! It has been two years since we changed our lives around, and Since we decided that enough was enough. I still exercise 5 days a week. We rarely eat out.Devanne is the most active teenager playing 3 to 4 sports a year. Josh is training for his first marathon at the end of the month. The twins are perfect in every way. We literally changed our whole family's life.

With all that being said, it was HARD! After that first 6 months, it got tough to lose weight and I gained some back even. Josh had been the same weight for over a year now.Josh especially had a hard time with this. He wanted to do anything he could to keep going... low carbs, detoxes, etc. I wanted to completely quit altogether and did for a few months. But he supported me mentally, physically, and emotionally this whole two years and I  reminded him why we started doing this in the first plce... for our family. I never want my kids to grow up and think the only way to stay "skinny" is to eat a chicken breast for dinner evey night, or that baked potatoes are the enemy. I dont want them to think that popping pills or drinking a "miracle" drink is the way to lose weight. I dont even want skinny or fat to be im their vocabulary. Being healthy is a lifelong goal. Living  long and happy lives are the ultimate goals. So we continue on the slow path. My kids eat fruit "pizza" and broccoli and cheese potatoes. They eat hot dogs and (gf) mac and cheese. And most of the time, I eat it right along with them because thats how I want them to see us. I want them to watch me go to the gym and cry after because it hurts. I want them to see me take a day off to go to the zoo with them instead. I want them to see me struggle and succeed. I want them to think healthy is normal. I want them to look back and thank me for all the work I put in for not only myself but for them. Its a work in progress, but then again it will be until im cold in the ground.

                                                         (Adey's Army Walk June 2013)