Life before P90X and After

So here are a few before photos:
This First one is me about 5 months after my first child, I had put on so much weight during this pregnancy (45lbs!), I though I would never lose it. I did finally lose the weight but failed to change my eating habits much. I lose the weight mostly due to training for a 1/2 marathon. (taken June 2009)

 

This second photos was taken 2 weeks after my second child was born. I did a little better with the weight gain , again though it was through exercise but not really changing my diet at all.

The photo left is me in October of 2012, about a week before I ran the Rock n' Roll 1/2 marathon in St Louis. The Photo to the right is me right when I started P90X

So here, is my super silly after picture. 
After 3 months of P90X I am down 8-10 lbs (depends on the day), I have lost 3 inch on my chest, 2 on my waist, 2 on my hips, and 1 in on both my thighs and arms. The more amazing part to me is not the changes on the outside of my body but how I have changed my diet, we are striving for a whole foods plant based diet. I feel better more because of my change in my eating habits than I do for the change in my exercise habits. The other amazing thing I have learned from this experience is that strength training really does help with your running. As running has always been my favorite sport, I never felt I have time for strength training, but now that I am running faster than I have in years I have no plans to give up the strength training anytime soon. I hope I can inspire others to improve there lives through more physical activity and healthy eating.

Please remember that although I love exercise and I believe that it can help in our walks with the Lord Jesus, exercise and health is not where our Ultimate hope lies, we need to remember where the real race is:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control,[a] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified."

1 Corinthians 9:24-27