Meet our Group 1 Study Participant, Ashley..

I'm Ashley, a 32 year old wife to a wonderful and supportive husband and mom to our two amazing little girls and four dogs. Both my husband and I work full time outside of the home so, needless to say, life can be a little crazy at times.

Fitting in exercise has been sporadic for several years as our growing family and life in general seems to take priority over carving out time just for me for physical activity.

The last two years have been quite challenging for us as a family: 2009 was a hard year as our attempts at having a second child ended in one early miscarriage and our stillborn son; 2010 was bittersweet as I was pregnant with our second daughter but it was higher-risk and anxiety was high due to our recent loss. Food was a comfort and, being both busy and tired, made poor eating habits that much easier.

Being pregnant for nearly two years, I managed to put weight on and let my workouts become more and more infrequent. I'm excited to be focused on myself in this adventure and ultimately I think I
will be a better wife, mother, and person because of it.

Start Date: November 14, 2011     Age: 32           Height: 5'10"           Weight: 265 lbs

Date:  February 5, 2012

FINAL Weight:  250.8 (-3.2 lbs!!!!!  -14.2 lbs total LOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

It's the end. How 12 weeks went by that quickly I do not know, but three months has passed and here I am. I made it. I'm not done, but if I could get through a huge, life-changing 12 weeks I know I am stronger than I gave myself credit for prior to the challenge. I am excited about the future and I am overwhelmingly thankful for the opportunity to have been able to participate.

Who knew I could make a change in my life in 12 weeks? It was tough. It is tough to get up and make a decision that I'm worth it everyday and stick to that conviction. It wasn't always an easy decision to make with a busy home and family. I know balancing priorities is going to continue to be tough, but I also know how good it feels to make myself a priority and how much better my family is for it.

I am so proud of the rest of the women, we did this over the holidays!! I am even more humbled to have had to opportunity to work with Tabitha and Chelle, two women that saw something in me I didn't see in myself.

Date:  January 30, 2012

I don't want this to be over. I feel like I've learned so much and yet I'm still so far away from being able to fly solo. And yet, I'm excited about the future and figuring out how to do this on my own, when I don't have two wonderful women giving me all the answers. The amount of gratitude I have is overwhelming at times. I'm sure there aren't supposed to be tears when lifting weights, but I can't deny that I am so proud to do bicep curls with 20-pound weights and see how far I've come. I've got a lot more I want to do, but knowing I can do it when I give myself time to make it happen has made a world of difference.

Date:  January 21, 2012

Current Weight:  254.0 (+0.4 lbs)

Back in the game. Everyone is finally feeling better, the kids are sleeping great and I got up early every morning and got my cardio in. This was a good week. I think I have more energy knowing we're in the final stretch and I want that last photo to be fantastic. I also haven't been feeling rushed with all of the food prep on Sundays because every week I've been making a little extra protein and putting away a few extra muffins and now I've got a little stockpile in the freezer. I like having the healthy options at hand.
 

Date:  January 15, 2012

Crazy week, between a busy schedule at work and having a sick baby at home I feel like I was spinning my wheels and getting no where. I wasn't able to eat 100% on plan but I managed to have a water bottle with me at all times, no excuse to get dehydrated too. It's hard to get off knocked off track and try to balance what everyone needs from me and what I need for myself. I found myself giving up what I knew was good for me for what was better for everyone else. Granted, a sick child isn't anyone's fault, so I can't be too hard on myself for that. It's frustrating, that's the best way to put it.

Date:  January 8, 2012
Current Weight:  253.6 (-2.4 lbs!!!)

Week 8 is coming to an end and I'm getting more motivated. I've noticed my attitude is different pre and post workout. I feel like I can conquer anything after a good workout. Even Tuesday when I was back at work after a long, relaxing two weeks off with the family, I dragged myself to the elliptical and just made myself do it. Trust me, I was in no mood to workout. I was tired and cranky and I just wanted my last snack. By the end, I had more energy than when I started. How amazing to feel immediate results! How wonderful to be a nicer person after working out, no doubt my family loves that aspect.

I've gotten more questions from my oldest daughter about working out and why I'm doing this. It's good to know it's rubbing off on her: she boasts about how she's sweaty after P.E. and she jumps around and does cute little exercises and then asks me if she is a "good exerciser". Just that makes my heart bursty - not only am I changing myself, these changes are affecting my family in a positive way. We even started the year with banana doodle mini-doughnuts. Oh yeah, we went there, and I don't think we're coming back. They were good.

Date:  December 31, 2011

Thank goodness the holidays are over. I was so nervous about sticking to the plan with food all over the place but, in the end, there wasn't much to be worried about. As an added bonus, we broke down and got an XBox Kinect and the amount of jumping, running, crouching and all-around fun we had in the house was great. Even the kids got involved.

And since this is the last night of 2011, I am so happy that I know my resolution is to continue what I started in 2011. I don't have to start anything tomorrow, just continue what was already started back in November. Happy New Year!

Date: December 24, 2011

Holidays are tough. The extra stress and trying to avoid food and cram exercise into a jam-packed schedule is hard. Hats off to everyone that makes this look easy. I think the biggest lesson this week, for me, is that this is a decision I have to make everyday. Everyday I have to decide that I'm worth it, my health is worth it and my family will ultimately have a better me if I make the right decision.

Date: December 18, 2011
Current Weight:  256lbs (-2 lbs!!) 

I wore a belt this week, and while that may seems strange to some, I have friends that will attest that I don't wear belts. Ever. But it was necessary and that made me proud. I'm working for this and it's obviously giving me results. Sticking to the plan 100% this week also helped me: the workouts were killer and I played single-parent with my husband out of town so the extra energy it gave me was necessary. Protein ice cream - okay, I'm game!

I'm excited for the holidays and having family around. I bought a Clean Eating recipe book so the cheats won't be too painful. Eating super sweet pie at Thanksgiving made me feel awful later, so I'm planning ahead. I'm feeling good and smiling. It's a good way to end 2011 and I feel even better knowing I'm not going to gain weight over the holidays.

Date: December 10, 2011

I think I'm starting to see a difference, or maybe it's just my mood that is continuing to improve and I'm feeling better. Either way, I'll take it. I lifted more than I thought possible for my leg workout this week and I felt strong/insane/brain dead afterwards. I felt like I needed someone to hold my hair back after the workout and I'll admit that I lied down on the floor for about 10 minutes afterwards wondering how I would make it downstairs, but I lived through it. So that means I can keep going, keep lifting more than I thought I could, and see where it takes me.

Date: December 3, 2011

Current Weight:  258 (-2 lbs!!)

Week three! At home this was survival week since my husband was out of town. I bow down to anyone that can juggle working, workouts and being a mom without another person in the house to wrangle the kids. I think the Benny Hill theme song was my soundtrack this week.   Food is still hard, everything is great on the plan but I'm nervous about messing up and either not eating enough or eating too much. It's hard to eat this much and trust the system, even though it's working.
 

Date: November 26, 2011

This week was hard, I'll be the first to admit it. The weather is cooler, it was a short and insane week at work, and then Thanksgiving and cooking food I wasn't going to eat. But, I managed and it felt good. Real good. I want to continue with the same loss on the next weigh-in and that was a reminder to keep on plan and carve some time out just for me.

Current Weight:  260lbs (-5 lbs!!) 

The first week was hard and so worth it. I have to get over the mommy-guilt thing I've got going on, like my needing for time just for me is wrong in some way. It was flat out lovely to put ear buds in and work out. I felt more human, albeit with noodle arms and twitchy legs, after working out. You know it's been a good week when it hurts to stand up, hurts even more to sit down for too long and you just want to rub your upper chest while no one is looking (helpful hint, car tint isn't a magical invisible barrier even if you have sunglasses on, oops).