So, this is my first day of blogging....ever. I created my account about a month ago if not longer but hadn't ever been back on. Bare with me because I have no idea what I am doing.
Today I received an email today at work from my most favorite sis and only sis in the whole world Margo. She was telling me that she had a new blog that I needed to follow. And I quote "Follow my blog biatch :) lovessss." Needless to say, I will start following her blog! :-)
I decided to start this so I could track my journey to becoming a healthier person. Here is a bit of my health and weight history.....I have struggled time and time again with dieting and getting healthy ever since I graduated high school. When I was in school I was played softball and volleyball. I was, I guess in shape for playing those two sports and didn't have a weight problem. Being active was always something I was doing. I was never super skinny, but was not over weight for my height. I was 5'5 and weighed between 140-150 pounds during my high school career. Which according to those height to weight charts I was at the top of where I should weigh for my height. I have health problems that run in my family. This is something I need to watch out. I do not want to be diagnosed as a diabetic or even have a heart attack at such a young age just because of my weight.
I started gaining weight my senior year. This was a year I decided to quite sports. I was tired of the drama and the small town BS when it came to sports. If you didn't have the right last "name" or you weren't sucking up to the coaches sometimes you didn't get to play much. I had gone through that ever since Junior High and was frankly sick of it. During the summer of 2001 before my senior year I went to Europe on a music trip called "Iowa Ambassadors Chorus." This was the trip of a lifetime. I was away visiting 7 different countries for 3 weeks with friends and other students around Iowa. We toured castles, shopped, gave vocal performances and ate great food. During that trip I gained about 10 lbs...thank you Italian ice cream, croissants, baguettes and all the other carbs we could eat because in Europe you ate it at every meal and was the staple of breakfast. I was in heaven! This was the first time I had really been away from my parents so I was free do pretty much what I wanted which meant eat whatever I wanted.
By the time I was home I was 10 lbs heavier starting my senior year. I focused primarily on my music career. I loved singing (still do) but singing was the thing I excelled in during my school career. Like I said earlier, I quit sports my senior year and continued then to gain a little bit of weight here and there. By the end of high school I was around 165-170. That fall I went off to college in 2001 and began to eat and drink. Mind you, I am from a small town so we didn't have McDonalds, Hardees or any other fast food joint within a 20 mile radius. There was nothing like going to Taco Bell at 11:00 PM with my roommate Lindsey...this happened quite often. We would order pizza, hit up the fast food places and this is also when I started experimenting with drinking. I wasn't a drinker in high school but started mixing and seeing what all was out there freshman year of college.
The more beer and food I consumed, the larger my waistline got. I remember the day I hit 199. I looked at the scale and about shit my pants. 199? Seriously? I said to myself, there was no way I was going to be 200 lbs...no way. Sadly enough as time went on I gained and pretty much gave up. I never had any "AHH HA" moments (yet). I was in college, there were parties, boys and food. That's all I cared about. I didn't care about school (regretting it now, duh) nor my weight that kept climbing.
I would try diets on and off but couldn't ever stick with any. I kept saying I would lose the weight, stick with a diet and actually do it...this time. Well, that time never happened. Jump ahead a quite a few years to spring 2009. I joined Weight Watchers for like the 5th time and actually stuck with it for awhile. My first month I lost 12 lbs. I ended up stopping WW because of the cost, but continued to maintain my weight loss. During the summer of '09 I continued losing weight. Now, I don't really remember what I was doing probably just portion control and possibly working out a little. I ended up losing 30 lbs that summer. This was the most weight I have ever lost, I was ecstatic. It was the lowest weight I had been in years. BUT I was 27 years old and still fat. I ended up gaining about 12 lbs back later on.
The following year I joined Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping. Farrell's is a 6 day a week workout program of intense cardio kickboxing and resistance training. I did it faithfully for 8 of the 10 week challenge (1 week I had bronchitis, the other week I tore my soft tissue in my shoulder). I lost 19 inches over all about about 7 lbs. I really liked it, but it became so repetitious I needed a break. Well, my break ended up being like a few months long and then I just didn't go back. I really need to start going again and my boyfriend says he wants to join the next session so he can get healthy also.
Sunday, September 4th my life changed. My boyfriend of almost 2 years proposed to me. I do not want to be a fat bride....I can't be a fat bride. I have been over weight for about 10 years now. I have officially gained back all 30 lbs I last in '09...how depressing. We eat out a lot and eat big portions which isn't nice to the waist. I don't drink a lot, so its mainly the food and not being active. BUT I WILL be in good shape and smaller for my wedding. We set a date!! April 28, 2012. That is about 8 months from now and I know it will FLY by so I need to get going. Not to make excusses (like I always do when it comes to getting healthy) but Michael and I are going on vacation to Lake of the Ozarks over my birthday weekend and I know this is not the time to start a diet so I am going to start when I return home....da da daaaaa the dreaded "D" word. I have to...I gotta get healthy...for ME!! My life, very well could be shortened by being overweight and I want to live as long as possible so its do or die time....literally. :P
