Hello world! My name is Kerri and I was born and raised in good old South Jersey. I am 25 years old, married (to my wonderfully supportive high school sweetheart), a Spanish teacher, a volleyball addict, excellent cook and overall perfectionist. I am creating this blog to document my fitness/weight loss journey, which has been emotional to say the least!
I've always been active ALL the time. I was a dancer for 12 years (all types!) and upon entering high school, decided I wanted to get more involved. I discovered my passion for volleyball, playing in high school and club teams. I continued to play throughout college and still do. I am also a musician and was heavily involved in wind ensemble, singing in chorus and at times the school musicals. Often, I have had two (or more) jobs. I have 4 degrees and am definitely an overachiever. One area I have always struggled with, unfortunately, has been my weight. My family is Italian and does not follow the rules of portion control, limitation or healthy eating. Since I never really learned about nutrition, I quickly began to gain weight as I became a young adult. At my heaviest, I ballooned up to 249 pounds, pants size 20-22. This was the lowest point in my life. I felt depressed, helpless, desolate, emotional, ugly, undesirable, useless. When my husband and I purchased our new home 3 years ago, I saw the pictures of me in the house and I was shocked. I finally got it. WHAT DID I DO TO MYSELF?! I was huge. I decided at this point that I wanted to change the way I was looking and feeling and get healthy. My brother Ken was a huge inspiration, as he lost close to 80 pounds that year. I felt empowered and motivated to start.
I had stopped playing volleyball (and all exercise really) because I was so depressed and out of shape that even attempting working out made me feel sad and incompetent. I joined a gym, started running, played volleyball again regularly. I also joined Weight Watchers. I quickly dropped about 35 pounds. Then, I started to plateau. I was cheating on my diet and really felt that WW was not a viable diet solution for me because it still gave me the freedom and ability to make bad food choices and still stay within my point values. So I started calorie counting. This helped me drop about another 10 lbs. This was over the course of about 2 years due to lack of consistency and time (I was pursuing my masters degree, working full time and planning a wedding!)
I battled a lot of sickness (think hospitalized for pneumonia, bronchitis, residual low immune system) during my first two years as a teacher. This January, year 2013, I realized I gained back about 3-5 pounds due to lack of activity and clean eating. I decided that since 13 is my lucky number, I was going to FINISH my weight loss journey once and for all. I researched many plans for nutrition (because let's face it - diet is about 80% of the battle when trying to lose weight... working out about 20%). In the end of June, I decided to kick it up a notch after dropping the 3-5 I gained plus another 10 lbs: I AM GOING PALEO. My family is teasing me, but I am getting amazing results. My husband supports me so much and has been eating some of my paleo meals with me as well as running once in a while with me. My friends are also fantastic - Rebekah, my running buddy... Allie, my close friend and volleyball partner in crime... Christie, one of my thinspirations who posts her progress and inspires me. Everyone has been great!
I want to document my progress here as well as paleo recipes/tips/tricks. Here is a picture of me at my highest and a picture of me as of July 5th, 2013. Here's to getting healthy, losing weight and being happy :).
This doesn't cover the cocktail hour, appetizers, desserts, breakfast bar, or many other unhealthy things I consumed :). Everyone needs a cheat day and this was well worth it.
