Tracy Iseminger
You may wonder what Kpop, hormones, and blood types have to do with how I lost 45 pounds in 6 months. Well, they are all tied together in a plan that allowed me to actually lose weight, something I hadn’t done in a really long time. I’m sharing my story in hopes that maybe I can inspire others to make changes in their own lifestyle and get motivated to get healthy.
One of my most popular posts on the blog is my review of the Isagenix system. I have tried different “miracle diets” that claim to work to drop weight fast and have found them all to be failures over time. I got frustrated and eventually fell back onto unhealthy eating habits (eating out and larger portions) and dormant lifestyle.
Finally, I got fed up at my heaviest weight ever. At 41 years old and 245 pounds I found I had lack of energy, motivation, and got easily winded just walking to the mailbox. I made a conscientious choice to not allow myself to reach 250 pounds and vowed to make serious changes in my life in order to enjoy the rest of my life in an active manner.
Bioidentical Hormones
So let’s start with the first change. I’d done a little research on hormones and decided the first step would be to visit a local provider specializing in bioidentical hormones. These are compounded in a pharmacy and made exactly to your specific needs and most closely resemble your natural hormones. After testing, I found I was not just a little low, but significantly low in several hormones that greatly impact everything from energy, sleep, skin, weight gain, sex drive and more. After taking them for 3 months, I really started to feel the impact and had more energy than ever. I can honestly say that bioidentical hormones have made a large impact on my life in a short time!
Blood Type Eating Habits
The second change I made was diet. We had really fallen into bad habits with eating out and really just eating whatever we wanted and in big portions. We settled on the Blood Type Diet
because it really made sense that your body reacts to food in different ways based on your specific blood type. After reading through foods that are bad for my type and the impact they had, I felt confident this was the eating plan of my choice because I had felt those exact side effects when I ate those particular foods. Personally, my type calls for a highly vegetarian diet with the addition of some fish, chicken, and turkey.
Don’t know your blood type? Test it easily with this home test kit! ==> Blood Type Test Kit
Once I began sticking to the eating plan, again, I felt better overall and I quickly dropped 10 pounds from just changing my eating habits. I didn’t have the same bloating and fatigue I often felt prior to changing the way I was eating which again gave me more energy overall, however, just changing my eating habits wasn’t enough. I lost the 10 pounds but seemed to plateau and weight loss slowed down.
Kpop & Getting Active
Enter Kpop. Now if you aren’t familiar with Kpop, it’s basically Korean Pop music. This is something I was reluctantly introduced to by my daughter one evening. She had been watching these bands and really wanted to share some of the videos with me, so we sat down and turned on BTS, one of the biggest Kpop boy bands currently. I was shocked to find these Korean boy bands were like amazing dance troops that could sing and rap.
Over the next few weeks, she challenged the family to learn all of the 7 members of BTS… this is not as easy as it sounds for Kpop newbies. They change their clothes and hair so much in one video it’s hard to keep track of who’s who!
Well… I took the challenge and decided to watch some videos while I used our elliptical machine. The more I watched videos, I was introduced to more and more bands and found that they are great songs to work out to…. fast-paced, entertaining, get you moving, and gives you something to do (learn members names!) when you’re working out.
I’ve since built several YouTube workout playlists (check out my channel and click on “playlists”) and spend at least 30 minutes to an hour 5 days/week or more using the elliptical. I started with a low incline and low resistance for about 15 minutes and worked up to using the machine for up to 90 minutes and varying incline/resistance to increase cardio and muscle. I took it slow but never gave up and now I actually look forward to working out because it makes me feel good!
It’s really brought my daughter and me closer to each other being that I can be interested in something that she is and talk about it with her. Actually, we even went to our first Kpop concert together this year too! UP10TION in Seattle. SO good!
She’s now moved on to introducing the extended family to Kpop and members and teaching everyone members of Seventeen, Stray Kids, Day 6, and more. There are even flashcards and poster boards involved, lol!
Next was BTS in Los Angeles ( YES… the BTS that go me started on my Kpop workouts!) and soon to come in November 2018, one of my personal favorite bands, A.C.E. in Seattle!
For you, it doesn’t have to be Kpop or the elliptical. Find a way to get moving that you enjoy. Take the dog for a walk, run around and play tag with the kids, hike the hill, etc… Just get out and move!
Find Your Motivation
The bottom line to me losing weight this year was finding my motivation. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life limited by weight and poor health. It was time to change and taking small steps has yielded big results. As of today, I’ve lost 50 pounds and over 25 inches. My clothes are baggy and I’m feeling great but I’m still on my journey… I hope to lose another 40 pounds but I don’t have a time frame. I’ll continue to eat healthier, balance my hormones, work out at least 5 days/week, and do what I can to get out and enjoy life. I’m joining a gym and starting my weight training soon too! Stray Kids puts out a positive message in this video is one of my workout favorites too. Work at your speed, your lane, your pace. My motivation is my family and my future. What’s yours?
I’d love to hear your challenges and stories and have some open conversations about the changes you are making to move toward health. Leave a comment!
