"Everything is possible, you just need to find the right way" - the real transformation of Kateřina Coufalíková

[Author: Kateřina Coufalíková]

Dear fitness friends, I'd like to tell you my story about the eternal diets, ups, downs and going around in a circle of diets. Maybe many of you will recognize yourselves in my story, and maybe it will inspire someone.

Who am I? My name is Katka, I'm 31 years old, I have two little amazing kids and a pretty long "career" of theory and practice on how to lose weight.

I've been fat since I was a little girl. I was practically raised by my mother, grandfather and grandmother. And what they wouldn't do for their granddaughter. So I was fed everything but healthy food. I remember my grandmother brought me a popsicle cake, and she said it was all for me. And what's a 10-year-old girl raised on junk food gonna do? Eat it, of course. And so it went on until puberty, when I reached the age of 14, weighing 92 kilos at 165 cm. But by puberty, I was looking for pretty boys who, unfortunately, weren't looking back at me. And I was sorry.

Thanks to dancing, I lost ten kilos, but the cooking in our house was still unhealthy and fatty. And to top it all off, I loved sweets. I secretly went for candy, chocolates, wafers. I still weighed around 90 pounds, until I was nineteen years old, when I discovered a "wonderful" thing - bulimia. My weight was jumping up and down. I just never went over 75 pounds. I was still strong and dissatisfied.

Only the food made me happy. The food that went down the toilet afterwards. I could spend 500 a day just on food that I threw up. Added to that was an irregular schedule at work where I worked a lot of night shifts. Food, bulimia, no exercise.

Then a wonderful man came into my life and I fell in love. I started running 5km routes and also fell in love with "Pole dance". Thanks to the exercise, I got down to a beautiful 70 pounds. I was happy. With that number on the scale, I even got married, I felt like a beautiful princess. But right after the wedding came the first pregnancy. I'm pregnant, so I can be sure of everything I can get my hands on. I have to quit pole dancing, and I have to quit running.

The belly grew not only thanks to the baby under the heart. I managed to get from 70 kilos to my pre-natal weight of 93 kilos and after the birth I was still around 80 kilos. With the baby it was challenging, I stopped eating almost completely because I thought that was the only way I would be slim and beautiful. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. The merry-go-round of not eating started, followed by overeating and vomiting. And the weight still wouldn't come off!

I stopped dealing with it. My husband never blamed me for the weight, he loves me, I'll just be strong forever. At that time, thanks to a social networking site for moms, I found the Fitfab strong program and started practicing it. I started to enjoy it and through years of working out I was able to work up to 77 pounds. But then came an unexpected second pregnancy. And another round of resting and overeating.

A year ago in May, I was back in the delivery room at 94 kilos and I came back from the hospital at 82 kilos.

I didn't feel good at all. Two kids take a lot of work, I was in no shape. Any movement was a problem for me. The only pleasure for me was when the kids were asleep and I could go to the pantry and eat chocolates, wafers, etc. I like to bake very much, so I was able to bake a cake that I almost ate all by myself. My favorite food was also pizza, which I often ordered. I was into very fatty, sweet yogurts. I should also mention that I have been very meat-restricted since I was 13, so protein played no role for me. I do love cheese though - fatty hermelins and salty nivas.

I didn't know what to do with myself.

And then it came. Exactly on October 20 last year, I was lying in bed at night, and I said "Enough!" That same night, I downloaded the calorie charts and started writing down my food. The next day I weighed myself and the scale showed me a beautiful 84 pounds.

I wrote down my food and couldn't stop wondering how bad I was eating. By this time I had started to learn new names such as macronutrients, fats, proteins, etc. And I started cutting back on sugar - very gradually. How about putting half a teaspoon of sugar in your coffee instead of a forehead spoon? How about not having your dose of sweetness after lunch, but grating carrots instead? How about replacing white bread with whole wheat?

This is how, very gradually, step by step, I started to eat right. The hesitation flew down quickly. In a month I was down about 5 kilos! I felt unstoppable! So if I'm trying to be healthy, why not exercise?

I went back to the Fitfab strong program that I started doing at home whenever the kids fell asleep. I also started running. I started with 1 kilometer. Once I mastered it, I started to gradually build up. Bulimia? Overeating? I'd forgotten all about that. Instead, I started looking around the grocery store for foods like red and black lentils, soy, cottage cheese, buckwheat. I'm even learning to eat meat again! Especially fish and chicken.

For Christmas and my birthday I wished for protein powder, weights and new running shoes.

It will soon be a year since I started this new healthy lifestyle journey. I can't imagine stopping working out or running. I run regularly every other day and have already gotten to 10k distances. We still do Fitfab workouts when the kids are asleep after lunch.

I'm looking forward to when they're a little bigger and I hit the gym. That's where I'd like to stay too - I'd like to do a fitness trainer course while I'm still on maternity leave and then hurrah to throw myself into helping others. I'm now 22 kilos down. I'm hovering around 62 kilos, however I don't worry about the weight anymore. I know that health is important.

So moms who have one or more kids, anything goes. You just have to find the right way.

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