A Fresh Start

It's April 1st. Easter was yesterday. Spring is in full swing. Everything is fresh and new and ready to start.

Me too!

Time for a fresh start. A renewed dedication to weight loss and healthy living. I realized with horror that I have gained back 20 of the 102 pounds I originally lost. Today I am 199.0 pounds. Sure, some of it is muscle from marathon training, but some of it is the late night fast food, the sodas, the potato chips I just have to have with tuna fish sandwiches, the chocolate eaten after the kids go to bed.

I've fallen back into some bad habits, but I'm going to do something about it before I fall back to the weight I was almost two years ago.

To motivate myself and hopefully others who have been asking for some help, I started The Jolly Green Giant Health and Fitness Challenge. It officially began today and there are a lot of positive vibes and motivational stories floating around over there. Over there being Facebook where the group is online.

There are nursing moms, working moms, single moms, moms over 50, people who aren't moms, people who battle depression, people who endure chronic conditions, those who want to lose 10 pounds, those who want to lose 50 or more, those who are in the middle of moving, a few overseas people, a few students, a few runners, several who don't exercise at all, and all ready to make a change in their life. It's very inspiring!

I have great hopes for all of them and for myself!

I challenged them this week to make one (or two) realistic goals for the eight-week challenge and to write them down. Here is mine:

No sugar five days a week. Only one serving of treats the other two days.

Sugar really is my biggest nemesis when it comes to weight loss. If I could lay off the sugar I could unlock all sorts of possibilities. More energy, more success on the scale, less emotional eating, less self-depreciation. It all seems to lay on my ability to avoid the sweet stuff.

Of course I'm hoping if I can stick to that goal that I will see lots of other goals come to fruition. 20-40 pound weight loss. Fit back into wedding dress. Run marathon without dying. Have more energy and physical ability all around.

Here's to a fresh start!

Blah Blah Blah

Blah blah blah.

I've been missing, but now I'm back.

Blah, blah, blah.

Same old story.

Blah blah blah.

Man! What happened to me? I used to be rather passionate about blogging. And now...pfffffffffft <---That would be the sound that a balloon makes when all the hot air runs out of it. Or in this case...a blogger. Minus the hot air that is.

Speaking of "used to be passionate"...I used to be kind of passionate about weight loss too.

But something happened to me when I got below the 200 mark.

I got comfortable.

It was really lovely to not be 200 something pounds anymore.
And it was really lovely to fit in my clothes.
And it was really lovely to even be able to zip up my wedding dress (and who needs to breathe anyway, right?)
And it has been SUPER lovely hearing all the compliment about how great I look.
And it was lovely lovely being able to eat just about anything I wanted and still maintain my weight.

But all that lovely feels wrong sometimes.

I had a goal. I wanted to reach my pre wedding weight of 175. And while I may be really pleased with losing 80 plus pounds and fitting comfortably in a size 14 and hearing from everyone how fantastic I look...

It boils down to this.

As comfortable as I've been being where I'm at, I'm still not comfortable in my own skin. I still feel "fat". Some might feel I have a skewed view. I believe my dad's words were: "I think you look rather piqued". But by medical definition, at 5'10" and 197.6 pounds (my weight today by the way), I am still a good 30 pounds overweight. My little weight loss journey is far from over. I've been relaxing far too long in Dr. Pepper and Chocolate Land. It's time to get serious again and get back on the bandwagon.

I recently finished P90X and now I'm getting focused on running again. I am in the midst of a 10 week training program for my half marathon zooming right up on me on September 1st. I am really slow. My average mile time is rarely lower than 11 minutes per mile. But I can go the distance. Last Saturday I did a 6 mile run/walk in the morning and stayed busy the rest of the day throwing a cowgirl birthday party for my little 4 year old. The fact that I didn't drop dead, or even feel like dropping dead, during the day felt like an accomplishment to me.

I think my running would go a lot better if I could just get my head back into healthy eating. I've fallen into the pop pit again. It's time to kick the soda habit back into submission. I am trying to track my calories better and work out even on my days off from running. A little cross training never hurt anyone.

My current ultimate goal is to lose that 25 to 30 pounds by the end of the summer. I don't want to carry it with me through that half marathon. It needs to go!! Once upon a time I had enough self control to drop 83.9 pounds. I need that power again. I want to see that 100 pounds lost mark!