My bachelor's degree is in Psychology, and master's degree in school counseling. I have been a high school counselor at a very large high school for the last 6.5 years. I really love working with my students, and seeing them as they grow and mature into responsible young men and women. A few years ago, I began working on my PhD full time (while maintaining my full time job as a school counselor). Right now the coursework is over, but I am still working on writing my dissertation.
Between sitting all day for work, then sitting for classes, and then more sitting while writing all of my papers and studying, I started to gain weight. A lot of it. I was not so good at time management, and neglected my "me" time necessary to take care of myself. I thought I was too busy to exercise, and quite honestly, just didn't make it a priority. I ate whatever, not thinking about what I was putting into my body. When I was stressed, I ate. When I was happy, I ate. When I was worried, I ate. When I was having a good day, to celebrate, I would eat.
I began to deny how much weight I was gaining, and instead, would just buy new clothes to fit my ever increasing belly and rear. I had zero energy, felt terrible, and zero self confidence.
Then right before Christmas of 2013, I saw a picture of myself with my mom and sister, and I realized just how big I had gotten. They have always been thin and healthy (and so I had I up until the past few years). I saw how happy they looked, and then looked at myself. There was a sadness in my eyes, even though we were at a holiday get together. At that point, I decided I was going to make a change. I went to WW, and I lost five pounds in one week. But, I did not make eating clean or meal prep a priority, and so I ate all frozen dinners for that week as a way to save my "points". I lost a few pounds, but I felt horrendous. I didn't go back.
Then a few days later, I got a message on Facebook from my high school friend Alisha about a challenge group that she was running for the new year, asking if I would perhaps be interested in joining. At first, I was *almost* a little offended, like, "Hey, do people think I'm fat and need to lose weight?!" (I was, but God forbid anyone say it or imply it!) But then I got out of my own head, and looked back through at her transformation story through Beachbody, and I realized that she was offering me a gift; the opportunity to start loving myself again and taking care of myself again. I thought about it for a few days, and talked to my husband. He was on board, and he wanted to lose a few pounds too. We ordered a T25 challenge pack, because we knew that we were both very busy, and thought we could handle 25 minutes a day of working out.
The program and Shakeology came in the mail, and it was like Christmas all over again. Something inside of me changed. I WANTED this. My husband and I committed to this lifestyle change together as a team. We went through our pantry, and got rid of anything that wasn't clean (we donated it in case you were curious-only throwing out what had expired). We jumped in, head first, and haven't looked back! I'm not going to lie, we were intimidated by this process, but there was nothing else in the house to eat, so we had to eat clean! We started planning out our meals on Sundays for the week, and prepping as much of the food as we could Sunday afternoons for the work week. We tried some awesome recipes, and most of them were pretty simple. We did try a few that ended up taking FOREVER...and though they were good, they will not be a weeknight recipe, haha!
John and I found out that afternoon workouts just didn't work for us. We had so much going on after work that we were not always able to be consistent with getting our workouts in. So, we started getting up at 4:30 in the morning to exercise (since I have to be at work at 7 and live kind of far away, hence the un-Godly early hour!). Some people call us crazy, but it works for us.
Since beginning this
journey on January 6, 2014, I have lost 24 pounds, and gained a whole new
outlook on life. I'm still working towards my goal, but this is a lifetime
commitment to health and fitness, so it's a journey, not a destination. It's
not necessarily about a number on a scale, to me, it's more about a feeling I
get when someone I haven't seen in a few months says, "Wow, you look
great! Have you lost weight?" My confidence is back, our marriage is
stronger than ever, and we are enjoying life.I decided to become a Beachbody coach to help others in their journey towards better health and fitness because I simply love helping people. I know how much making these choices has impacted my life, and how much that support from Alisha meant on both my good days and my bad days. I want to pay it forward. If you have any questions or are interested in learning more, please contact me! I'd love to help! I can be reached at anezatpyne@yahoo.com or www.beachbodycoach.com/anezatpyne. Have a happy and healthy day everyone!
~Alecia~
