Hello!

My name is Randa and I will be your guest poster today! I’m really excited about this post, because I am sharing with you how I have lost 55.2 (I have to be exact) pounds! Let me just start with it took a lot of dedication.

This time last year (on Valentine’s Day to be exact) I found out I was pregnant and I was thrilled. I weighed over 160 pounds, I was heavy enough as it was. During the course of my pregnancy I wanted to exercise but was told that since I didn’t jog or do anything before, while pregnant wasn’t the best time to pick it up. So I waited, and while I waited I gained an additional 30 pounds!

On July 21, 2009 I was six months pregnant and that was also that day I gave birth to my son (Christian Mattias) sadly, he died. It was really hard (still is) to cope. I started to turn to food, but I noticed before it became more of a problem. At that moment I decided that I wasn’t going to get fatter, in fact I was going to lose weight. I wanted my next pregnancy to be healthy and I wanted to be able to exercise while I was pregnant. As soon as the doctor gave me the thumbs up for working out, I got started.

I was really out of shape, it was bad. I weight 191 pounds! It was disgusting. When I started to work out we decided to hold off on trying for another baby, because we were not ready and we decided to finally have the dream wedding I had to cancel the year before because of money problems. It was new motivation. So I started off with the Wii Fit. I played it for about an hour a day (I did every exercise on there) and I lost 10 pounds. I was so excited. Then I added in the EA Active game for Wii and changed My Wii Fit routine (I now jogged for 10 minutes, boxed for 10 minutes and walked for 20) and on top of that I went for a 20 minute walk every night.

When I got down to 167 pounds, I was thrilled. I got rid of the baby weight. But I wanted to lose more, I wanted to be healthy. So I purchased ChaLEAN Extreme from Beachbody and that program has changed my life.

For anyone who is doing (or about to get into) an exercise program: take before and after pictures! You have to! They are a must! I didn’t want to at first, but I am so glad I did. I know I lost weight over the course of my 90 day challenge with ChaLEAN Extreme, but I wasn’t aware of how much until I put them side by side. See the difference for yourself:

Now the before picture of me is me 30 pounds lighter then what I was when I started to workout! I cannot even imagine that. The after picture is me on January 11th, and I am 5 pounds less then that now!  I have lost a total of over 25 inches! My size 28 silver jeans fit again, and I haven’t worn them since I was 15 years old! I’m back to the old Randa, the healthier vibrant Randa.

Now, exercise was a huge part of my success, but I wouldn’t be near the size that I am today without changing the way I looked at food. When I see food now, all I think are calories.

I count calories and it is the best thing I have ever done. I thought it was going to be hard, but it wasn’t. If I am unsure of the calorie content in something: I use Google! Google is a calorie counters best friend. I am sure you have heard it over and over, but that is because it (obviously) works. YOU HAVE TO BURN MORE CALORIES THEN WHAT YOU TAKE IN. It makes sense, doesn’t it? So every day I would plan. (I’m sure it helps that I menu plan as well.) I would plan everything I would eat that day and count the calories. Then I worked out and I used online calorie burning calculators to figure out how long I would have to do it for.

Calorie counting works for me because I can eat whatever I want! If I want to have that slice of pie I just planned ahead. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t eating crap food but once in a while I would treat myself.

If you liked my guest post on my weight loss story, please join me over at my blog The Bewitchin’ Kitchen. Every Wednesday I alternate between Weight Loss Wednesday and Wedding Wednesday and you could keep up with my weight loss journey through there. I also offer great recipes, reviews and giveaways at my blog. Hopefully I will see you all soon!