Current Weight: 245.2

Has your new healthy lifestyle made spending time family and friends more enjoyable in any way?
"I now can spend time with my son and husband and enjoy my time without obsessing in my mind about how uncomfortable I feel all the time or how “fat” I feel all the time. My thoughts are more focused on the here and now and not so much drifting off to another dark hopeless place. I feel the same way at work as well. I can focus on my work better even without having most of my thoughts consumed with thoughts about how I feel or look on a certain day."

Have you had any friends, family or co-workers start getting healthy by learning from your example?
"Not that I am aware of. I am hoping still by the end of this challenge someone will be able to tell me I have been his or her inspiration to adopt a healthy lifestyle. I am hoping someone will read my story and say, “If Amy Proctor can do this so can I”. Next year I want to do the Hawk Island Mini triathlon and one of my co-workers said she would train with me for the event. I will be 40 years old next year and that is going to be my birthday present to myself. I am going to compete in that event and finish so I can say I have accomplished something physically I thought I could never do."

What kind of experience have you had taking your healthy lifestyle to work?
"I really have not had many problem at work. My co-workers are all great cheerleaders for me and very supportive. I have been packing my lunch a lot more so I guess I don’t socialize much at lunch time any more which has been a little bit of an adjustment for me but some days when everyone either packs a lunch or brings take out back to work for lunch I still get to socialize and have some good laughs over lunch."

What's something that you've struggled with this month?"Balance, Balance, Balance. I am a mom of a two year old, a wife, I work 40 plus hours at week, I work out at the gym, I try to plan healthy meals, do housework and anything else that may come up in between. I have had quite a hard couple of weeks at the end of this month balancing everything. Prior to this challenge I would have thrown in the towel by now and given up on taking care of me and just kept taking care of everyone else. I am enjoying how I feel too much now that I am exercising, eating better and fitting into some of my clothes better to even think about throwing in the towel. I think once I manage to lose more weight and get even healthier I am hoping that juggling so many responsibilities will not be such a challenge but just a routine."

What have you been focusing on with your trainers this month?
"This month Justin has been introducing more advanced workouts than I was doing in the beginning of the challenge. We are continually building on the foundation that Justin has helped build for me. I get homework every week that includes warm ups, Justin’s essential 8 workout, foam roll stretches and exercises utilizing dumb bell weights. I have “graduated” to the weight room at the MAC, which is very exciting to me. I find strength training very rewarding and I love how I feel even the day after a good workout. Had I not started out building a good core foundation eight weeks ago I wouldn’t be able to perform the exercises I am performing today."

What have you been focusing on with your dietitians this month?
"This month Melanie I have been focusing on balanced meals. I have been trying to balance between healthy carbohydrates, lean proteins and healthy fats. I'm also still trying to increase my vegetable intake everyday and watch my sodium intake. Melanie did a nutritional analysis of three days of my food journal. She took all the foods I ate for three days and used a program to determine how well balanced my days really were. It was really surprising to see that some days I actually thought I was eating fairly well but really nutritionally when it was all broken down for me what I thought was a “good” day was actually just “okay”. Practice makes perfect I guess so if I just keep working at tweaking things a little every week hopefully this will all become just second nature to me and not so much work."

Have you started anything new in the areas of diet of exercise?
"I have started quite a few new things in both areas. One of the big things I have started at home is making large batches of healthy dishes such as turkey chili and freezing leftovers for quick dinners. Our house is so busy at night that planning a meal every night gets really challenging. I have had to get creative with meals and plan for leftovers. With concern to exercise I have started do interval cardio training. I always thought I needed to do 45 minutes or an hour on the treadmill or elliptical for example to get a “good” cardio workout. Not so. I have had great workouts in 20 minutes lately by just doing interval patterns. For example, a few minutes and high intensity and a few minutes at lower intensity."

Have your goals changed at all now that you can see the weight coming off?
"I have been losing weight at a slower rate than I envisioned I would when I first started the challenge. I figured the weight would just fly off and I would have lost double digits by now. That is not the case but I am not disappointed because I am losing weight at a healthy rate in a healthy manner. In the past I would have taken the fast way out to quick weight loss results and then eventually gain all the weight I lost back and even some extra weight. With the help of Justin and Melanie I feel that the 44 pounds I would like to lose by the end of the challenge is still attainable but it will be a lot of hard work. When I started I wanted to lose 55 pounds by the end of the challenge so I have dwindled that number down to 44 pounds so far. The bottom line is that as long as the scale keeps going down, I keep getting stronger and my food choices keep getting better the next four months, I will have succeeded in attaining a healthier life style."

What has been the most rewarding part of this adventure so far?
"To date the most rewarding part of this adventure is how much better I feel about myself each and everyday. I was so intimidated for example the first day I walked into the MAC that I dreaded putting on exercise clothes and having to be in public. Meanwhile on the inside I was feeling so self conscious I just wanted to be invisible so no one would be able to see how out of shape I was. When I signed up for the challenge I couldn’t even stand how I felt about myself in my own skin. Now I look forward to my gym workouts every week and instead of focusing on how I look now at the MAC I can focus on how many more reps I can do or how much more weight can I bench press.

What's one of your biggest accomplishments this month?
"One of the biggest accomplishments this month was avoiding stress eating. I had a really bad overwhelming day the other day and cried all the way to the MAC. Justin was very helpful and talked to me about how overwhelming this all can be since I have taken care of everyone else for so long and not myself. I was able to make it through my workout and it was such a great feeling when I got done. I was so proud of myself for choosing to exercise rather that eat a donut. The old me would have never even made it to the gym. I would have ate some cookies, chips, donuts, cake, brownies or whatever sweet treat that would have taken my sorrows away only temporarily only to come back with a vengeance as added pounds."

Photos:
"Jacob and I have always danced to music together and that is kind of our “thing” we do at home. He even wants me to dance with him during commercials that have music. This was quite challenging for me for months, as I would get winded and have to tell Jacob, “Sorry honey, mommy has to rest because she is tired”. Jacob would cry and it would break my heart that it was something special between us that I couldn’t do because of my being overweight. Now we dance a lot longer and he even likes to talk about mommy going to the gym. He loves to hand me my water bottle as I am walking out the door. The second photo is a similar theme. Jacob loves when I give him “horsy rides” and I use to only be able to make it around the house loop once without having to tell Jacob that mommy has to rest because I was out of breath. Now we can make several trips around the house and usually Jacob will ask to get down from the horsy ride before I am even done. He is a great inspiration to me, as I want to be around a long time to play with Jacob and watch him as he grows up."

Justin Grinnell, Senior Trainer at the MAC on Amy

“Since the challenge has started Amy has made some dramatic lifestyle changes. Amy has a full time career, she is a full time mom and family life, and tends to take care of everyone else but herself. Typical of a mom. This makes it very hard to find time for her. I am very proud of Amy for what she has accomplished so far. I am not as concerned with the weight in the first month or two, as I am with the lifestyle habits. Amy isn’t just taking the “slam bang” approach, where she eats perfect and exercises as much as possible. Instead, we are trying to find out how she can comfortably implement a steady exercise routine, and healthy eating habits for the rest of her life. That is way more important than five quick pounds each week. She has made gradual progress in her weight reduction, but the biggest improvement is in her fitness level. I want to bring her back to the athlete she once was, and still can be! I feel as if Amy is starting to figure out how much hard work it actually is going to be. I have been somewhat nice to her, but now that I know her better, and I understand what she can accomplish, the toughness is on! ”

Melanie Stanczak,
RD Hayes Green Beach Memorial Hospital on Amy

“Amy and I have been working on picking low sodium, low fat options as well as eating consistent meals spread out throughout the day. She is working towards better portion control and healthier snacks as well as increasing the fruits and vegetables in her diet. In order to show her the content of the meals she's been eating, I entered her food records into a nutritional analysis program to show her total calorie intake, grams of fat, grams of protein, etc. This has helped her to make her meals more balanced. Amy continues to have an upbeat, positive attitude and seems very motivated to meet her weight loss goal. I look forward to working with her over the next few months!”