My Journey Back to Health

I believe there are three things I need to live a healthful life. Mindful eating, Positive thoughts and Loving, supportive relationships.

• To know my eating must be mindful, healthy for the most part, and eat in moderation every couple of hours.
• To think positive and be optimistic about my life, my weight and body.
• To know my loved ones are supportive of me. If they are not, I know how to say no.

This is what I need to become healthy.

I am on my journey back to health and I want to share it with you to show you that if I can do it, you can, too. I will only be stating my opinions throughout my journey. What works for me may not work for you, but I’m going to share my journey in the hopes of helping one person and would love and appreciate your feedback!

The Beginning

I had been exercising since I was very, very young.  I became an exercise instructor as a teenager and continued exercising throughout my life time.  Until I was bedridden for 9 months, many years ago,  and gained a tremendous amount of weight, I didn’t know what it was like to be out of shape and obese.  (The definition of obese is having excessive body fat, so some of us are obese and don’t even realize it.)

After my illness, I went on a journey to health and lost approximately 50 lbs. I accomplished that with self-help/motivational CD’s, exercise and cardio DVD’s. I still had more body fat than I desired, so I began weight training. Weight training was the one thing that changed my body.  Cardiovascular/Aerobics is not enough for me.

Here’s how I see it; you will always have your body shape/type, so you need to work with it.  Some of us are bottom heavy, some top heavy, some hour glass and some just have very few curves. My biggest concern with my body type is losing fat. I am bottom heavy. I can’t just walk or do aerobics to reach my goal(s).  Strength training along with cardiovascular exercise is the only thing in the past that has helped me to improve my metabolism and burn body fat quicker.  As your muscle density increases your metabolism increases enabling you to burn up calories quicker.

April 2011

Let’s move ahead to the present. I let myself go and it wasn’t due to an illness this time, it was due to lack of doing. By this I mean lack of exercising, of eating right, of being mindful of health, and of positive thinking.

I was too much in love to care. I’m still in love but now I’m ready to take back control of my health.  You probably have been there before, right?  You meet the man or woman of your dreams and poof, there goes the usual lifestyle. I finally met the great love of my life and he cooks, too. Oh boy! In the beginning I ate everything he created for me, not even thinking about what ingredients he used. (Although now he cooks very healthy and I still eat everything he cooks for me.) Yummy. Slowly I stopped exercising, with excuse after excuse.

I am not blaming anyone but myself.  I ate the food and I stopped exercising. I take 100% full responsibility for everything I do in my life. That was another life lesson for me. Everything I do, I am responsible for. Wow. Once I started gaining weight and seeing noticeable body fat, I was slowly losing self esteem. I make decisions differently when I feel I am in control of my eating and my body. I believe there is a healthy balance. Not only eating decisions, life decisions.

It’s amazing how different I am when I feel healthy and in control.

So here’s my plan – I started going back to the gym and I started counting calories and keeping a journal, which both work for me.

I am very excited to share this journey with you, please share your journey with me!

Editor’s Note: Always check with your personal healthcare/medical professional before beginning any exercise regiment.

It is possible not all Marion’s “Journey” articles will be available in our print publication; however, they will be posted Monday each week on our Web site http://CountryCourierMagazine.com under the category “Features”. If you wish to follow the Journey or miss an article, please visit our online publication!

Marion’s focus is on overall personal development, health and fitness, growth, healing, and wellness. She has been featured in ‘Shape’ and ‘Miss Fitness’ magazine as a “Success Story”.  Several exercise tips of Marion’s were published in Prevention magazine and she also had a local TV Show called ”Focus On”. Marion was certified as a Personal Trainer and Fitness Counselor, Hypnotist and Level I & II Reiki Practitioner. She practiced Thought Field Therapy and has worked with Kinesiology. She can be contacted via E-mail at Getmotivatedwithmarion@yahoo.com

Tags: body fat, cardio, health, journey, Marion Licchiello-Lenz, weight loss, weight training

This entry was posted on April 19, 2011 at 11:09 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.