The beginning of the journey…
June 13, 2019 at 9:22pm
“You’re probably sleep old lady but I need you. I’m fat and I don’t want to be fat no mo!” This is the text I sent my girl, Bri. I was fed up. I knew I needed a change but I didn’t know where to turn. Bri and I met in the MBA program and we hit it off on day 1. She is a tiny, little thing (compared to me) and used to be a bodybuilder. So she would obviously know something, right?!?! Now I didn’t want Bri’s body; I wanted my own but healthy! Bri and I talk about EVERYTHING but it was so hard to send that text. She responded “Let’s do dis!!!” After that, I was like “okkkkaaayyyy! Sh*t let’s do it then.” She’s been motivating me daily (whether we talk or not). I am so fortunate to have her along for the ride. To start is not easy. To keep going is not easy. To change is not easy!
I started looking at my life and I really didn’t know where to start but I knew I needed to move more and eat better. Bri helped me with the first steps of tracking what I eat. Every day she would text me and ask if I started using MyFitnessPal to log my food. I would ignore her messages or send her some funny meme because I had not done anything! LOL! That did not stop her at all. Oyyy… Finally, I started tracking my food. I was flabbergasted with how many calories I was consuming daily even when I thought I was being healthy. I’ve never really eaten healthy. After tracking my food for some time, I realized how little veggies I was eating. I tried to figure out ways to consume more veggies and decided to purchase a juicer.
So, I looked at Breville’s, Omega Juicers, and Hamilton Beach. Nothing felt quite right… One day I said “well let me take a look at the Cuisinart juicer since that’s the brand of my other small kitchen appliances.” Well, well, well, what do we have here? A juicer that is perfect for my budget, has multiple speed settings, comes with a recipe book, matches the rest of my kitchen, easy to use, and the detachable parts can go in the dishwasher. Sold! And this is where my juicing life began. I started juicing for breakfast in July 2019. I juice 4 days a week and it replaces my breakfast. It’s a great way to get lots of veggies in. Right now, my juices are about 60% vegetables and 40% fruits. My goal is to get to a 80/20 split. I have a few favorites and I also try a new one every couple of weeks.
Quick story...one of my coworkers, Vanessa, was telling me about this juice combo she loves, beets, apple, ginger and carrot. I trust her so I was like “okay”. Well she didn’t tell me how much to use and I overloaded on the beets. Listen… that juice tasted like the earth was rotating in my damn mouth. It was disgusting. I told her I would never ever ever in my life make it again! LOL! We had a great laugh. Now, that is one of my favorite juices! I figured out the perfect combo of ingredients and I drink it every week. Uhhh thanks Vanessa!
A little rock tossing at Spring Lake Regional Park
To get moving, I started walking on trails right in my city. Mr. P and I would go to Spring Lake Park and walk the paved trail. It was so challenging for me at first. I had never walked 2.5 miles and was not in a mall or amusement park. We would walk twice a week. It was great to walk with Preston. Showing him how to exercise, eat properly and take good care of your temple is so important. To keep it moving, I purchased a Sonoma County Regional Parks pass which allowed me to enter the parks for free. Preston and I would look at the list of parks and find one with a paved road and hit the trail. Every Sunday, we would explore our county. Walking is such a great way to exercise because it’s low impact and it doesn’t cost you a dime. All you need is some good shoes and the will to walk. There are so many amazing places to walk and hike in Sonoma County. Spring Lake Regional Park in Santa Rosa is definitely one of my favorites. If you want to work on those glutes, hit up Helen Putnam Regional Park in Petaluma.
During this time, I also signed up for swim lessons. Originally, I really just wanted to learn to swim because my son is a good swimmer and I didn’t know how. I absolutely loved the water and was never afraid of the water but I never learned how to swim as a child. As I grew older, I just said “eh whatever” and never worried about it. Then came along Mr. P. He was in his 3rd year of swim lessons and was doing great. So when it came time for lesson sign ups, I took the leap and enrolled. Now, I will admit, I was terrified! Here I was 38 years old and just learning how to swim. I was a little embarrassed but when I arrived that first day and saw 4 other ladies in the same boat (or pool, LOL), I knew I made the right decision. It was such a great experience. I learned how to do the basics, front float, back float, glide, etc. Once that two weeks was up, I needed more so I signed up for swim lessons at the YMCA. Little did I know that my health journey was about to kick into overdrive…
~Tasha