“You still look pregnant”

I thought you would lose the weight faster”

“Can’t you just buy one of those sucker inner thingies”

These are all things that people actually said to me after I had my second baby. Every time I encountered a person who had negative things to say I would go into a dark place. I even had a family member who would touch my belly and call me preggo even after the baby was born. Seriously, don’t people realize what a vulnerable state you are in after you give birth to a baby. I felt disgusting as it was, did you REALLY need to point out the obvious!

Instead of letting all of those negative comments get me down I decided to write them down and post them up on the wall next to my TV where I exercised. Every time I would hit the play button I would read through those comments and I would “Bring IT” even harder in my workouts. I even posted a picture of a super model that I wanted to look like on the wall so that I could be motivated to achieve my best body that I could have! I know that my final goal is to be able to wear a bikini again. There were days during the first 30 days of exercising that I cried and thought I was never going to get there. I thought I was going to look pregnant forever. Now, after all of the ups and downs and almost 120 days after I started working out I look like a totally different person. I can see that my goal is getting closer and I’m reaching my mini goals along the way. I can finally put on a pair of pants from before Landon was born and they are actually big. I don’t stare at my closet everyday and try to find something that will hide my stomach. I still have a lot of work to do, but I can see the transformation happening before my eyes.

There were a few things that were key to my success:

1. I took before pictures of myself and then took pictures every 30 days to track my progress. I couldn’t believe how much of a change I saw in my body. At 30 days there wasn’t too much of a difference but at 60 days I had a dramatic change. I wouldn’t of noticed the changes unless I took the pictures. I highly recommend taking pictures, even if you never show them to anyone!

2. I limited the amount of times per week that I weighed myself. Your weight fluctuates so much during the week according to water weight and the things you eat. You should try only to weigh yourself once per month. Now that is way to long for me, so I stick to once a week and first thing when I wake up in the morning.

3. Support. I didn’t have the support of everyone that I was close to but my husband was a biggie. I basically sat him down in tears and explained that I needed him to support me in this process. I needed him to watch the kids on the weekends so I could workout and if they didn’t nap during the day I needed him to watch them in the evening so I could do my video. He never says a thing about me working out and I try to be mindful of his time too. I usually get up early on Saturday mornings and workout before the kids get up so that we can get our day started. Most of the time I get my workouts in before he gets home from work. Therefore, there are things in our house that get left undone because of the workouts. My house isn’t always clean and there usually is laundry to be done but at least I feel good about myself and I’m happy when my husband gets home.

4. Diet. The Eat Clean Diet was my saving grace. I was busting my butt working out but I got to a point where I wasn’t losing any more weight. I started reading Tosca Reno’s “Eat Clean Recharged” book. She said that your weight loss is 80% diet, 10% exercise and 10% genetics. It was like an ah ha moment for me. The light bulb went on! I fully commited to changing my diet and eating clean. At first my husband thought I was crazy and was little mad that our grocery bill was doubling. But the weight started to fall off and I felt amazing. I had a lot of energy to keep up with my daily activities. My husband even started to ask me to make his lunch and breakfast too. Right now I am working on getting the whole family clean. The hardest part with be the kids! The diet is what took me to the next level of weight loss. I cut out all the processed foods and white sugars. I started reading another one of Tosca’s books, “Eat Clean Stripped” to help with those last 10 lbs. I am on week 2 of the Stripped plan so I will keep you posted on the results. So far I lost 2 lbs in the first week and finally reached my goal weight after 120 days of working out and eating healthy.

5. Beachbody. The support of my coach, Nikki through Beachbody has been key to my success. When I was down on myself she encouraged me to keep going. When I had a question about my workouts she found the answers. When my weight loss plateaued she gave me suggestions for how to jump start my metabolism. She was a great inspiration with her own transformation. It was nice to know that other mothers were going through the same thing that I was. She introduced me to the facebook support groups and I quickly became an active member. I was spending so much time talking about Insanity and beachbody that I decided to become a coach. I had researched and spent so much time changing my life that I want to help others do the same. So I signed up to be an Independent Beachbody coach so that I could share my knowledge and transformation with others in hopes that I can change some one else’s life as well!

I hope that my story helps to inspire others and that I can be a light at the end of the tunnel for those that don’t know where to start. I love how I feel and the energy I have everyday. I wouldn’t think of my life any other way! All you need is a little determination and someone to tell you that you can’t do it for you to push that much harder to prove them wrong!

If you would like to have support in reaching your health and fitness goals please check out my site. www.teambeachbody.com/melaniemitro. Join my team and I’d be glad to help you in your journey to living a healthy and fit lifestyle!!

If Beachbody has helped you to achieve your weight loss goals and you would like to become a coach please message me for more information!

Don’t let others negativity put you down!