Hello blogging world! My first post is written out of the simple need to write again! I love following all this blogs but I also need a place to share my ideas, thoughts, and dreams. I think everyone should have their own blog. I used to be somewhat of a writing junkie in college; starting all my papers before I had to just because I wanted to write. Nerdy, I know. Now I do not do it anymore because I have no reason to except that I want to and that is reason enough!
That being said, a little about myself: I got married in 2010 to the love of my life. I had graduated in 2009 from Malone University with a bachelor's in psychology and I wanted to wait a few years before starting college again to get my master's. In that time, Dane, my devastatingly handsome best friend in the whole world, convinced me to marry him and I happily put all other plans on hold while we got married, worked our various jobs and moved from the little town of Mount Gilead to Wooster and back again. It's been a very wild ride with a lot of highs and a few lows. In that time, Dane has been very sick and hospitalized with no explained cause. He will faint a few times a week. With all the stress and the caring for my husband, I forgot about myself. I realized very starkly on March 8th 2012 that I was headed down a bad path for myself. I had let myself become less than a priority in my own life. I was a normally vibrant, intelligent, and healthy young redheaded girl who loved learning playing piano, writing, running, and spending time with friends and being active in my church. None of those activities or adjectives any longer defined me. I had a moment of deep realization that I was the only one who could fix it and take of me! My wonderful husband and I had a heart talk and I expressed that I indeed was going to take care of myself for the first time in a long time. I told him that this was going to be for me and I might seem like I'm being selfish at first but to know that I will be a better wife and future mother because of it and he agreed with me!
When we first got married, I was 144 pounds. At 5' 3" that was technically overweight as far as the BMI scale goes. I was happy with myself for the most part, while always inside wishing I weighed about 125 or so, which was my high school weight and where I was most comfortable. However I never did much to change it drastically at that time. I felt beautiful on my wedding day and it truly was one of the happiest days of both of our lives! We got engaged in November and married in March and never looked back! After the wedding we went straight to Disney World and ate at the best restaurants and lived it up for two weeks straight. We had a blast and the lifestyle never stopped when we got back from the honeymoon. We ate out constantly and ate whatever and whenever we wanted. My husband is tall, 6' 1", and I still felt the need to eat exactly as he did! On my small frame, that did not start looking too good. I never weighed myself. I refused to. I knew that I wouldn't like what I saw and pretended I was fine. I was not fine. We moved to Wooster where there were many local amazing fine dining restaurants and became somewhat of food and wine snobs. We had so much fun going out to eat and tasting wine. Sometimes we would spend over $200 at a restaurant! We thought it was our reward. Dane had a stressful job but was making good money. To make matters worse, we were trying all kinds of new foods and recipes which is great, but none of them were healthy. We never ate breakfast and gorged late at night. At work I went to fast food drive thrus or snacked on chips and energy drinks. I put on 30 lbs in two years. I found myself depressed, unhappy, no direction and with 169 pounds (maybe more, I avoided the scale like the plague) packed on my small frame and for whatever reason couldn't figure out how I got here. Needless to say something had to give!
I started this journey to be a better me and I never looked back. I feel driven and motivated for the first time in my life! I researched weight loss as if it were a foreign language and pretended like I knew nothing about it. I started eating meals every three hours like clock work. I drank a full glass of water in the morning and before meals. I read weight loss blogs and studied the women who wrote them. I pinned every motivational fitness pin on Pinterest I could find. I drank only black coffee (a big step for me!). I ate fruits and veggies like they were going out of style. I bought my groceries strictly in four categories: produce, whole grains, lean meats, and low fat dairy. I ate nothing but those things! I got a new love for fish, especially salmon which I never thought I liked! I started walking the dog for 30 minutes almost every day. I took a my prenatal vitamin every day. I instantly lost 5 lbs the first week! I felt so happy and so good! I never wanted to stop. I made a goal to lose about 2 pounds a week and created large hard goals and mini weekly goals for my weight loss. I journaled every day. I made a point to eat extremely healthy no cheating for 60 days because it takes 60 days to break a bad unhealthy habit. I have finally reached my 60 days this Thursday! And I can honestly say I never want to go back.
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| March 12th, 2012 |
This is me when I started at 169. I get a horrible feeling when I look at that picture still. I had no idea I looked that way! It doesn't even look like me! I still have a ways to go until my ultimate goal. My first goal is 140. My ultimate goal is 115. I have gone from 169 to 152 as of today and I want to keep going gung ho until I am at my healthy BMI! After that I am starting my insanity adventure! I'm so excited and that is my starting off point for this blog! It is meant more for inspiration and outlet for me, but if you're along for the ride, welcome!
