Living with it.

Almost everyone has it. I say ALMOST! Because there is that lucky few that doesn't have a smidge of one. And this isn't a post of a miracle cure, because I wish it was.

This post is about loving one's body even though you may have STRETCH MARKS.

Ah yes, the lovely stretch marks. 

Oh, how I loath you.

They SAY that if you have the purple ones adding Cocoa Butter or losing weight can help them disappear. Who really knows.

But I have the dreaded white ones.

I had a few from puberty but they wasn't that noticeable. But then when I became pregnant they came out of nowhere.

Of course, on my stomach,

my spare tires, as they call them,

my hips, and thighs,

my biceps,

even back of my knees, and shoulders???

I didn't even know you could get them there!

Now I am hoping that as I lose more weight they disappear at least a little bit.

I've seen weight losers have that happen. 

But if I don't and the time comes when I hit my goal, is that going to stop me from wearing a bikini???

HELL NO!

I will wear that two piece. I will flaunt it. Will I care if someone complains of my marks? Or as I call them my "Tiger Stripes".

No I won't care.

And they can just get over themselves.

Because I earned them!

Do you have any miracle remedies to help stretch marks? If you do please share!

How do you feel about them?

Thanks for reading!

xoxo Gina oxox

In the Beginning.... (Post #1)

In high school I was a JROTC cadet. I didn't eat much at all and I relatively active during the day. We had a garden to tend and sometimes I even helped my parents with their car hauling business. During the summer we spent most of the time at a campground that I loved and still do because of mostly one thing. Their 9 ft swimming pool. I rode my bike or walked to and from the campsite.

Even though I weighed 130-140lbs for my then 5ft1in frame I felt like every teenage girl. 

Fat.

And of course looking back I wish I could smack myself and tell myself. "No! Your perfect!"

But alas I can't do that. After I found the love of my life at the tender age of 16 I was open to a whole new world of foods. Coming from the country I mostly ate homemade southern foods. My then boyfriend wanted to take me out and spend time with me as much as we could. Being in a such a small town there is mostly restaurants and really nothing healthy to do. Not at the time anyway.

As time went by my weight started to accumulate, and it saddened me but my love said he would love me no matter what. Knowing he was the one I kept on eating whatever I wanted to.

January 2009 I graduated high school at a disappointing weight of 181 pounds. I had always been the "chubby kid" of the class, and in 6th grade my highest weight was 176lbs then the "baby fat" started to come off. Which mainly from that because at the time we thought I had Acid Reflux, when I was 16 I found out I had a bum gallbladder and had it removed. Anyways.... 181lbs I couldn't believe that after all of that I had gained so much. Seeing my graduation photos disgusted me. But we move on...

By July of that year my fiance and I wanted a place of our own. We wanted to start a life together and be together as much as we could. He worked 12 hours a day 5 (sometimes 6) days a week. Living in the country ALL my life was personally hard to deal with moving into an trailer park. I mean no offense to anyone who lives in one. It's just not for me. I wouldn't say I was going crazy but it felt like I was. No yard to enjoy or anything. I lived on a farm with the neighbors pretty nice and would leave you alone. But you couldn't do anything or you would piss someone off. So pretty much I was confined to a 2 bedroom 1 bath that was in terrible condition from the previous owner, and had to stay cooped up all week long.

 By September we had decided that him and I wanted to get married as soon as we could because we didn't want to waste any time being a married couple. So we agreed on Halloween! It was awesome! I could tell you about it but thats a whole nother story. 

Soon after we found out we were pregnant! Which was very exciting and scary because I didn't know how my family would react.

Growing more pregnant everyday so was my weight gain. By the time I had him June, 2010 my weight had reached a whopping 220 pounds! 

Then around the end of 2012 I had seen several places on TV and on the internet called MyFitnessPal. And I knew I wouldn't be able to log every day on the website because I know how I am. So I didn't make me an account. So I decided to wait. Then around the beginning of January 2013 my husband bought me an iPhone 4s. By January 11th I found out that the MyFitnessPal app was free so I downloaded it. Showed Andrew, he started the next day and its been all gravy since. 

Thank you for reading the first part of my story, 

There will be more to come.

xoxo Gina oxox

MyFitnessPal My 240th Day! (Post #2)

I haven't made a recent before after photos

Day 1: I weighed 220 pounds. I am 5ft 3in. in height. I wore a pant size 16/18.

As my friends may know on my Facebook today is my 240th day on MyFitnessPal. I mean they should. Ever since I started this journey on January 11th, 2013 I have been posting how I wanted to change. After trying many things to get my weight down and all of them failing I had about given up until my husband bought me an iPhone 4s. 

Before I was able to acquire a smartphone I had done some research on MyFitnessPal for about 4 months, though knowing I wouldn't hold fast to logging my foods on my laptop all the time I didn't make a membership. But once I heard that my husband bought me one that was the first free app I downloaded. 

For the first day was a bad day. I mean bad. Right from the get-go I went over my calorie intake. My whole day consisted on:

• McChicken Sandwich -360 cal.
• McDouble Burger - 390 cal.
• 12oz Coca Cola- 140 cal.
• Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich - 270 cal.
• Diet Green Tea - 0 cal.
• 1/2 Red Barron Special Deluxe Pizza- 760 cal.

Yes my calorie intake was only 1,550 calories in the start, and I ate 1,920 calories though I was still hungry and CRAVING soda, knowing I had already screwed up Day One I told myself tomorrow was going to be better.

That night I told my husband Andrew what I was doing and he liked the idea. Which I wasn't sure if he would since we had to log everything and scan our foods. I showed him how to do it, its all pretty simple. Scan the barcode of your product and nine times out of ten it pops up. If not you can quickly add calories or make your own product code. Andrew started on his the very next day and so far he has been right there with me ever since.

I KNEW I had to get off at least regular sodas. I know diet soda is BAD but its better than drinking all those calories. Anyway drinking I know 1-2 2L of soda A DAY was terrible I knew that but being an pop drinker for as long as I could remember was going to be hard going going cold turkey. I even told my uncle I wouldn't be caught EVER drinking a Diet Coke. Dang I ate my words.
Plus I hated water. Love to swim in it. Not to drink it. Go figure. I think it was a childhood thing not going into that piss some family off for that one.

 I SWEAR The month of January was HELL for me. Everyday I would give myself a 12 oz of soda. then go down to 6 oz then 4 oz and ect. until I FINALLY quit it. I felt like a meth addict coming off crack. It wasn't fun at all.  But somehow I did it. I do drink a lot more water now. I even crave it somedays. Which is good. 

Within the first week of using MyFitnessPal I lost 5 pounds. FIVE POUNDS. Nothing else had worked. But this FOOD MODERATION worked. DANG I really wished I had listened to my teachers in health and Foods in high school she wasn't joking when to stay healthy you needed to watch how much you ate. 

Day: 240: I now weigh 180.1lbs and can wear a size 12/13 (depends on the maker) pant/shorts

So Far I've lost a total of 40 pounds!

Mr.Wii Fit can be a real buthole because everytime I go to step on him he says "Oh!" .... Butthole! 

I've done made this post WAY TOO long so I guess I'm going to stop it here. I'm going to try to back track using my memory and go by month by month, or couple months by couple of months. We will see.

You can Add me on MyFitnessPal my username is MrsGinaTaylor or you can click the link HERE

 And Let me know if you have any questions on my journey or on the MyFitnessPal App or website.

Thanks for reading!!

XoXo Gina oXoX

Follow My Journey Here:

In the Beginning... (Post #1)

Weight Loss Update! (Post #3)
My Journey (Post #4)

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was given.