I have come to several realizations about myself. What I plan to focus on here, is my struggle with my weight. I have been searching the internet and have come across several blogs that have inspired me, and I would like to use this blog to chart my progress, figure out what works for me and what doesn't, and perhaps someday, my efforts will inspire someone else. At the very least, it will be great to have to come back to and read at a later date.
Unlike so many people, my weight did not become an issue for me until my late teens. It was due to many factors, but most of it was out of sheer laziness that I became overweight. I managed to gain 100 pounds in 2 years. My wedding dress was a size 22. When I got pregnant with my first son, I already weighed 226 pounds and only gained 2 pounds during the whole pregnancy. I robbed myself of being able to wear the beautiful wedding dress I had always dreamed of, and I robbed myself of being able to show off my baby bump during my pregnancy because I was already so heavy that it never even showed.
Imediately after having my first son I dropped 20 pounds and I never looked back! When I got pregnant with my second son 2 years later, I weighed 186 pounds. I went back up to 200 during that pregnancy and again lost 20 pounds after that.
I managed to get myself down to 160 pounds in the year following my second son's birth and have been stuck in that weight range for the last 5 years. I should probably mention that I am only 5'1" tall.
I have told myself that I am happy with this weight and that if I never lost the rest of the weight that I would be ok with that, but it is not true. I want to be healthy, and according the the BMI charts I am still considered obese.
So here I am today, focused and ready and armed with all of the tools I need to get myself down to the weight I want to be. I know that if I really put in the time and the effort, I can get the results I want, and I can be HEALTHY! That is the ultimate goal for me.
I have been on diets and exercise plans as long as I can remember and I know that they can be a temporary fix but they never work out unless you make a long term commitment to change the way you think. I consider myself to be an armchair expert at all of the weight loss techniques and tools. I know how it works and how it doesn't, for myself anyways.
Weight loss is not rocket science. It's actually a very simple equation. Eat less, move more. It seems to be harder to make myself do that for some odd reason. I want to be thinner, I want to be healthier, and I know that if I eat less and move more I will do it, and yet I have struggled for so long and wasted so much of my time being heavy and unhealthy.
Well, today is the day! Today I have made up my mind to change the way I eat, and to become more active.
This is my Food Plan:
In order to increase my metabolism, I plan to eat 6 small meals a day vs 2-3 big ones.  Each meal will consist of one carbohydrate, one protein and one fruit or vegetable. I will also drink 8-10 glasses of water per day, and I will use crystal lite juice crystals to make it easier to get in all of my water. I will make sure I eat breakfast before I will allow myself that morning cup of coffee, and I will limit my coffee intake to 2-3 cups per day, eventually weaning myself down to 1-2.
That's it, that's all!  Not so difficult!
Now that we have the food plan figured out, we will figure out an exercise schedule. I know from past experiences that in order for me to make a permanent weight loss, I have to use a balance of cardio and weight training. So with that knowledge, I am going to follow this pattern for exercise.
This is My Exercise Plan:
Monday-Weight Training
Tuesday-Cardio
Wednesday-Weight Training
Thursday-Cardio
Friday-Weight Training
Saturday-Cardio
Sunday-Rest
This is also very simple!
So...here it goes! Today I change myself for the better, I make the commitment to change 2 very simple things in my life... I will eat less, move more!