...and it begins today

I will be first in line to tell you that I have never stuck to a diet, ever! Through high school and college, I spent time at the gym and was considered an 'in shape' person. After college, I moved and began to slowly go downhill. With my job, being a funeral director, it can sometimes be difficult to stay healthy, or so I thought. If we were busy at work, I would usually hit up one of our numerous fast food restaurants and inhale it before returning to work. On days that we were less busy, my co-workers and I would normally go out for lunch and who just orders a salad?! Yes, I should have!



Within the first few years of my job, I gained nearly 25 pounds. That is twenty five pounds of McDonald's Sweet Tea, fried chicken, greasy French fries, cheese burgers and the list goes on. After meeting my husband, I gained even more weight due to his amazing cooking skills. Dang him! In October 2011, I found out I was pregnant and in turn continued to gain an insane amount of weight. At the time of my daughter's birth I was 200 pounds. That number definitely had me feeling upset with myself.

Within the first two weeks after having my daughter, I was down 25 pounds worth of baby weight. I can give credit to an 8 lb. 9 oz. baby, 'water weight' and the calorie burning of breast feeding. Everyone says how much breast feeding helps you lose the baby weight and that was an added bonus I wasn't turning down. Unfortunately, I only breast fed for two short weeks. Call me a failure or whatever you choose but when it takes multiples times of pumping to be able to produce enough milk for one bottle, it's just not worth it! (steps off soapbox)

Now I sit, one year and one week after she was born and I'm still chunky. I get comments saying that since I am tall it's not as noticeable. I'm thankful for those comments because it lessens the harshness I feel about my looks but it still doesn't fix the obvious problem. By society standards, I'm fat and by the B.M.I. index (see here) I am obese. Yikes! I really dislike that word.

I don't want to diet and spend my days solely at the gym and never at home with family, but I also don't need nor want to spend my life being overweight. Especially when the time comes to have another child, I would really be upset with myself for not being a healthy weight to start a pregnancy with.

So with all of this being said, I am setting goals and hoping to reach them. Numerous goals are being set because I know if I only set the "I want to weigh this certain weight by this certain time", and if I am not skinny by week two I'll be ticked. All kidding aside, here are some of my starter goals:

• Stop looking every morning at the scale. It's like waiting for water to boil.
• Walk on the treadmill every morning. You know, the one you got months ago.
• Try eating better | More fruits and veggies | Actual food - not prepackaged crap.
• Cut back on eating out (I have been doing a little better lately about this anyway)
• NO SWEET TEA or SODA | Drink water and milk only

When I stick to these basic goals and get a firm foundation of cleaner eating and exercise I think I will reward myself with these shoes. (they are the next best things since Reebok EasyTone which they don't make anymore)

 

I feel like if I post on here that I am going to do this, it makes it that much more of a goal that I need to work harder towards and also holds me accountable to whoever may actually read this. (I might just be posting for myself and that's ok too...ha!)

 

I have a few friends that I grew up with that have had great success stories with their weight loss journey and I want to join the club. To Misty, Jessica, Kourtne and Promise...thanks for being inspiring! You go girls ;)

 

Here's to losing my baby belly, chunky thighs and that muffin top! "Clink" using my water bottle of course ;)