The Beginning

Well, a friend of mine decided to blog about his weight loss journey, and I thought "gee, that's good for him, but not for me." Well, ok, I've decided that maybe it would be good for me. I'm not really all about loosing the weight, though that is a big part of it, but I'm all about getting healthy. So this blog is dedicated to that idea, of getting healthy. Yeah, for the most part, it will be about ME and MY journey to health, but any time I get good ideas, I'm going to post those too.

So, to start off, here is where I began:

I've always been overweight. I mean, I look at early pictures of me as a child, and I'm not overweight, but starting at about 3rd or 4th grade, I'm definitely getting there. Of course around that time, I'm also taller then most of the other people in my class. I was one of those girls who reached her peak heighth by 6th grade! In Jr. High, I'm most definitely overweight, and I look at the pictures, and I'm disgusted with myself. I look at my High School pictures, and I'm equally disgusted. When I got my driver's license, I had to lie about my weight, putin 175 lbs on the card. I can't believe now that 175 was what I said, and that I was lying. Even at that weight, I'd be overweight!! My problem? well, I never really exercised, I never enjoyed it. It was like a chore. In Jr. High, I certainly perfected the leisure walk, going as slow as I possibly could. PE in Jr. High Sucked.... so it's not like that made me want to get fit! High School wasn't much better. I was never into sports, mostly because my parents didn't push it, and in High School I wanted to play volleyball, but soon didn't because I wasn't good enough, and certainly not fit enough for it.

I graduated from High School and things began to change. I got my first job at a Girl Scout camp and for the first time, I was exercising daily (sort of had to in order to get from place to place) and eating healthier (no way to really snack and get junk food all the time.) I went to College and again, was exercising daily, having to hike up at least 100 stairs just to get my food at "the J" and also another 100+ stairs to get to my classes, or hike 1/2 mile to get to some of my classes from the dorms. It was good for me, and I actually began enjoying walking a lot more, especially since I had no car, I'd walk all over arcata. the 2nd year I lived off campus, and often walked a couple miles to get to school. Later that year, I actually reached my Driver's license weight and a size 16, something I hadn't been in since I was in Jr. High (another sad fact!)

I always told myself I'd never get over 200 lbs. Well, when I was pregnant with my 1st child, I did get over 200 lbs, but I was pregnant, and in all actuality, my total weight gain was only 15 lbs, so getting over that mark while pregnant wasn't a big deal. I lost it easily, and became pretty healthy between pregnancies, and also during my 2nd pregnancy. After my 2nd pregnancy, I start loosing weight sort of naturally for about 2 years, but then, all of a sudden my metabolism began evening out a bit and I started gaining. The next thing I knew, I was 213 lbs!! Well over the mark that I never wanted to go over. It was also during this time that my mother, who has also struggled with her weight off and on, was really going through a lot of pain and medical problems, many of which was due to her weight. I told myself that I didn't want to have those similar problems when I get older. I've got this one body, and I need to take care of it! It was then that I began loosing weight!!

So, how did I do it? I had to get really strict with myself. I gave myself some really important rules, I started eating better, and the biggest thing, I began REALLY exercising. in 1 1/2 years, I went from 213 lbs to 154 lbs!! Wow, what an accomplishment! From a size 18 to a size 10/12!!! Yeah, I'm pretty happy. But, I still have a ways to go. This summer we had a lot of life changes and my entire routine is all messed up. So, I haven't been able to loose any more weight... in fact I've gained a little and am up to 159 lbs. So, its 2009 and time to get back into the swing of things!!

My goals:
1. to loose a little more weight, my goal weight: 130 lbs
2. to get back to eating healthy, more fruits and veggies!!
3. work on my core muscles, I don't really want a 6 pack, but some nice abs would be nice.