My Transformative Health Journey: losing 70 lbs pre-pregnancy & 40 lbs postpartum

Why I share my story

Thanks for coming to view my content! I want to create a foundation with my readers, so I need to start by sharing my story. I know it’s important to give some credibility for the posts and content I make. What I share is all personal experiences, what I’ve learned along the way. And I want to share it. I want to help others who find themselves in the same boat pre-pregnancy or postpartum. So hang on as I take you back to where my health journey began.

From the beginning

My whole life I’ve never been someone you’d consider dainty. I have always thought of myself as someone having the build of a football player… not being a light-weight, easily taken down. When we’d play sports with friends, I preferred tackle football. It required a lot of strength, and I enjoyed the challenge. I might not have been great at throwing or catching the ball, but I could tackle well.

In fact, when my twin and I were around the age of 8 years old, we decided to be silly and hold a door shut against a large, teenage boy (who actually was a football player). He couldn’t budge the door. We were sturdy; and teaming us up together, we were quite the duo to go head to head with…just ask my brother. I think he’s a large reason we started out strong from such a young age. He’d wrestle with us, and he wouldn’t dare go easy on us either. So we had to give everything we had to try to win. We had an entertaining childhood!

As I entered my teenage years, body image started to become important to me. I knew very little about fitness or nutrition but that I couldn’t eat in the same way as other girls my age without gaining weight. There was a time I once watched a girl down five cupcakes (FIVE!), and she was a very thin person. I feared eating even one!

Though I was good at losing ten pounds, I was also good at gaining them right back, and more. I simply didn’t know how to approach nutrition and exercise. I continued to struggle all through my teen years and most of my 20’s.

The turning point

I really started to take things seriously in 2013, and I knew things wouldn’t change overnight. I was slowly starting to learn some things to help with my nutrition, and I was starting to love working out. It wasn’t until the very end of 2018 that things began to click.

The new year was just a few weeks away, and God was really working on my heart concerning my health. He was working on me in the fact that I was so overweight yet considered things other people do with their bodies as sin. He was showing me that if I want to truly make an impact for the Kingdom, I had to get myself right in this area first (Matthew 7:3-5).

I began learning about nutrition and fitness by “following” influencers who had similar stories and began to incorporate their advice into my own life. I joined Planet Fitness and started going regularly.

In March 2019, I met someone, a cute someone…. thanks to the help of my twin and her (now) husband. We began to hang out as friends. He was someone who LOVED (still does) to work out, so we started going to the gym together.

He started teaching me things he had learned in his years of working out, how to exercise in a way that would help me reach my goals. He’s someone who is naturally a quick runner, so he started encouraging me to focus on my mile times when I ran. We would run together and lift weights together. It was at this point that I really started to see progress. I was having the time of my life!

I was finally starting to see numbers on the scale I thought I’d never see again. He helped me set and reach goals, and we set rewards along the way. This was no longer just another “diet”. It was a completely new lifestyle. I was feeling younger and freer near the end of my 20’s than I did in my teen years.

Marriage & pregnancy

Our friendship went from being “just friends” to falling in love and getting married in 2020. I sustained my newfound health well into our marriage. Coming up to our 3rd anniversary, I got pregnant. We both were so excited! Having our little baby at that point was a surprise- my journey in that area is a story for another day.

As the pregnancy progressed, I continued to watch my nutrition and exercise. I have vowed that I’d never go back to where I once was. Working at Toyota manufacturing at the time really helped me keep active. I was getting in 6 miles of walking each shift clear up until two weeks before I went into labor.

As is typical with any pregnancy, I still gained around 35 pounds. Some women can avoid the weight gain during pregnancy, but I’m not one of them. And it’s something that hit me hard emotionally when I entered postpartum.

Postpartum journey

It felt like I had gone full circle, leaving me at the place I vowed to never go back to. But the sacrifice I made to have our beautiful, little baby was absolutely worth it and one I’ll gladly make to have more.

I had a choice to make- was I going to allow myself to accept where I was or fight once again to get to where knew I needed to be? I started to track my nutrition and to exercise the way I had pre-pregnancy.

It has been 17 months in this postpartum journey, and it has been a slow moving journey. Postpartum brought quite the learning curve I wasn’t prepared for. Waiting for the body to adjust, heal, normalize… it all takes time, and I’m someone who wants to see results like yesterday.

I’ve had to fight for every pound I’ve lost, but I’ve kept hold of my “why” when I’ve gotten discouraged. My mind turns back to why I started in the first place. It’s still about making sure my health reflects my walk with the Lord. Now I’ve added another reason- I want to have the ability to play with my kids and grandchildren someday.

Join the conversation

My hope is that as you’ve read this you’ve found some encouragement. If you too have found struggle along your journey, you’re not alone.

Please feel free to comment below and share your own story. I’d love to hear how you’re working through struggles that you’ve encountered. Everyone’s journey is different but can have a powerful impact when shared.

You can also email me at [email protected] or find me on Facebook, instagram, or Pinterest

Closing

If you’re struggling to keep motivated, please check out my blog post “Embracing sacrifices: a path to growth“.

Don’t forget to check back every Tuesday and Thursday for new content.

Cheering you on always,

Cassondra