Weight Loss Story...

hello

(...imagine me presenting you with a box of cookies as I tell you I am sorry and plead my love to you...)

I have been horrible with blogging since school started and graduate school and I am sort of depressed when I look over my blog. When summer time is around I am so on it... but school starts and boom... I quit. Once again I am sorry.

Well, a lot has changed since the last blog entry... here's my story... 30 pounds lighter.

Forewarning: The rest of this post may inspire you and may be life-changing… I sure hope it is. Also my plan here is to be completely honest and open, so be prepared.

On April 28, 2011, I made the decision to change my life. It was truly a, “this sounds interesting, let me try it,” idea. Okay… so what I am talking about is changing my food lifestyle. No I do not mean a diet… a lifestyle change… seriously. Lifestyle because I have no plans to go back to the previous way of eating.

I had read many blogs about counting calories and to be honest I never thought it would work. I was one of those overweight people who thought I was just made that way. Personally, if we are all being honest here I really just didn’t want to think about weight loss… I enjoyed talking about how skinny people couldn’t eat that amazing chocolate fudge brownie with ice cream and I also loved the statement, “fat people are happy people…” COME ON… Really? I continued to tell myself this because it made my weight okay, but honestly it wasn’t. Outwardly I would seem happy, but in front of the mirror, I would be disgusted in the flab that was all over me. I also hated summer time clothes because I would be expected to bare more skin, where in the winter I felt that I could “hide” it. Last summer I decided I needed to purchase a tankini because I would never have that “body” again, but seriously I was 23… and in a tankini?! I realized that I was making every excuse possible to not change myself and it was getting me nowhere in my self-confidence and this had to change.

So the first step was actually to decide that this was going to be my plan. I found an app on my phone that allowed me to count calories and they also had a website too! Myfitnesspal.com has been the source of all success along with determination. I typed my current weight in, which was actually a guess because I didn’t own a scale. I loved to tell people that I based my weight off of how my pants felt… yeah right that really didn’t motivate me in the morning; to be honest I would blame it on the dryer. So off I went to buy a scale… my first one in 24 years! I decided to wait until the next morning to weigh at my “skinniest” moment… yeah right, I felt like a whale when I looked down at the number… 166 pounds. OH MY… 34 more pounds and I would be 200 pounds. This is definitely not true! This was definitely more motivation than any tight pant could give me… and no wonder they felt so snug!

After the wonderful horrible scale experience I knew I had to do something. I was thinking that counting my calories would be easier than any thing else I could do, because I could eat regular food as long as I paid attention to serving sizes and many restaurants post their calories online. Also I had considered Weight Watchers, but I am a poor teacher and I was not about to pay for weight loss… really?!

Throughout the first week I was realizing how easy this was for me, but it also brought forth some nutritional facts on some of my favorite things, so I had to change my lifestyle. I am pure southern and I love my sweet tea. I would take a sweet tea and Pepsi any day, any hour, but this meant TONS of calories. As I was researching calories I found that there are 100+ calories in 8 ounces of sweet tea and that is about half the size of a regular restaurant glass! WOW! At dinner I am sure I could sometimes drink up to four glasses if I had a great waitress… 800 calories, just for a drink! Of course sweet tea was the first change, but I couldn’t get rid of it, I just had to change it, so I now order unsweet tea and I sweeten it with artificial sweetener. Yes… I know it does not taste exactly the same, but I like the idea of looking in the mirror and actually being happy for once. After the realization of my favorite drink choices I then began to tackle my favorite food choices. I am a girl that craves… I crave chocolate, frozen yogurt, tea, Pepsi, and Bojangles. I had to learn to control my cravings and yes... satisfy them immediately. I found that if I waited to fulfill cravings then they would be ten times stronger in the end.. so I always carefully satisfy my cravings.

Not only did I decide to change my eating lifestyle I also decided to change my fitness lifestyle too. On October 8, 2011 I ran a complete 5k in 33 minutes with one of my best friends, Meredith. When we started running in May neither one of us could run a complete minute without being out of breath.

I am happy to say today that I have lost 30 pounds and I only have 6 more to lose. I started at a size 12 and I am now in a size 4. I am so proud of myself and amazed at how much motivation came out of someone who would make so many excuses and always had "one-day" diets. My God, family, and friends have been a truly wonderful support system and I love them all more than anything.

I hope that you find my story motivating and inspiring because honestly if I can do this anyone can.