19 Pounds Lighter And She Is On Her Way To A Better Body Than She Had In High School!

Meet Nora Taylor

178 pounds……………159 pounds (lost 19 pounds)
Body Fat 32% …….......25.3% (lost 6.7%)
Size 14/16 ……………...Size 12/14
Waist 37 inches ……….. 33 1/4 inches (lost 3 ¾ inches)
Belly 42 in. ………………..38 1/4 in. (lost 3 ¾ inches)
Hips 44 in…………………. 40 in (lost 4 inches)

LOST 13 ¼ inches total and 19 pounds

It has been a wonderful 12 weeks. I can’t believe that the challenge is over and that I have stuck with it. How to put into words what Fit Yummy Mummy  has done for me will be hard but I will try my best.

My fitness level has been raised beyond what it has been for a long time. Back in high school and college, I participated in sports and even my summer job as a lifeguard kept me pretty active. But as my organized part of fitness went away so did any real consistency that I had with it. I would go through periods where I embraced it more but soon enough the drive would fizzle out.

FYM has given me what I need to get focused and stay focused. At the beginning of the challenge, I felt pretty horrible during my intervals of 30 sec high, 2 minutes low. Now I do 1 minute high, 30 seconds low and feel strong throughout.

The other progressions I have seen over the 12 weeks is with my overall strength. I would start a new exercise and barely be able to do the minimum but after a couple of weeks was able to do it for the max. I would need to increase weight because certain exercises got too easy.

If I were doing this on my own I might have been content to stay the same but the support of ClubFYM made we want to strive to improve and continue to challenge myself. I started running 4 weeks into this to train for a half marathon. My body feels so much stronger when I run and I know that it is because of the FYM workouts.

It feels really good to challenge myself after all these years.

The other part of the equation is the nutrition. I’m fueling my body so much better and it gives me more energy to embrace all that life has to offer. Eating every 3 hours was the biggest thing that helped me to eat supportively. Now whenever I eat I think produce and protein and go from there. I can’t see myself going back to eating mindlessly. My body tells me what it wants (the good stuff) and I listen.

One of the obstacles I listed for myself at the start of the challenge was negativity. My solution was to keep those thoughts at bay and be positive. To be honest I wasn’t sure if I would see this through. I wasn’t sure that I could be positive enough to make the change for good.
But to my own amazement I was.

I have been changing the little voice in my head to talk to me and say the positive things I deserve to hear. I think that I finally decided that I am SO WORTH IT!!! I look back at my battle with losing weight and it is exhausting to relive.

Why I spent so much time focusing on the negative I am not sure but I am done with it.
My body is beautiful now- strong and capable of amazing things like 2 pregnancies that resulted in 2 beautiful little girls.

FYM is making me see how much stronger it can get and allowing me to set new goals for myself. I’m for the first time focusing on being the FIT YUMMMY MUMMY I know I can be.
It is hard for me to envision the final goal because I have never been the skinny girl. I was always the one with the little (or lot) extra around her frame, the one who thighs were always (it seemed) ten times bigger than everyone else’s, the one who made excuses for not getting motivated. My before and now pictures are helping me to envision where my body can go and just how good it can be.

While it may sound that my journey hasn’t hit any bumps, I will let you know that it has. I know that there are areas in which I need to improve upon. This is not being negative this is me being accountable for my actions. I have said it throughout my progress journal that I was falling way short when it came to preplanning my meals.

The nutrition wasn’t too hard to adjust to. Staying on track became really difficult at times not for lack of wanting to eat supportively but due to my lack of planning. Not prepping yourself for success can sabotage the best of intentions.

I want to prepare my girls for every success so I need to model that behavior and do the same for myself. A handful of times I skipped a workout and it correlates to this as well. Preplanning and scheduling myself first will eliminate not getting the workouts done or eating poorly.

Moving forward I am going to make the best effort to take the time to preplan for myself (even when things get too busy and I want to put them to the bottom of my list).

All the things that I have talked about so far wouldn’t have been possible if not for the support family that ClubFYM gives you.

My dear friend Yvette joined FYM last year and she was such an inspiration that she made me want to join. Then I join up and have inspiring stories and encouragement coming at me in all directions.

You realize how many people are in the same boat as you. You cheer each of them on and realize that you need to cheer yourself on in the same way. You can’t get down on yourself too much because you know that all these other women wouldn’t do that. Their voices start becoming a part of your own.

I want to take the opportunity to learn about more of these amazing women as I continue my journey with FYM.

At the beginning of this challenge my goals were-
*to lose body fat (about 8% over 12 weeks- came close at 6.7%)
*gain muscle (gained 5 lbs lean muscle and lost 20 pounds fat)
*lower my waist size below 34 inches- YES!
*fit into size 10/12- close 12/14
*make the lifestyle change instead of looking for the quick fix- not going back now!
*Become more confident and positive with who I am and what I deserve- YES!!!!!
*feel energized- DEFINETLY!!!!

Seeing that I have successfully achieved my goals only makes we want to work even harder to get better and better.

My goal now is to work to have a better body than I did in high school. I know it is possible.
Another fitness goal is to compete in the Summit for Life where you hike up Aspen Mountain climbing 3,267 vertical feet – over 2.5 miles uphill and at night! A challenge I look forward to embracing.

A special note to Yvette- I probably haven’t said it quite like this but you have been such an angel to me in these past 12 weeks. The awesome encouragement and many words of wisdom have been something that goes beyond priceless. You are such a large part of the positive voice in my head. I hope I can repay you by inspiring just one person to start the FYM journey so that they can feel REALLY good about themselves again. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
To my husband and 2 girls for the constant love and support you give me everyday. You are the reasons I work so hard and will continue to do so.

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