In the beginning

This is going to be a story of journey to a healthy lifestyle. I want to accomplish this by the time I'm 45. They say that the weight you are at when you hit menopause is the weight you will remain the rest of your life. I hope this is not true, but do not want to take any chances, so I'm starting now to get rid of it.

I am 43 years old, I have a 22 year old daughter and a 17 year old son. I am divorced, and have a boyfriend, Shane. As you can imagine with a teenage son in the house it is nearly impossible to avoid all temptation, as they eat anything all the time. I try to keep all the junk food out of the house, but somehow it manages to sneak in somehow.

I am just like many of you out there, I have done every weight loss plan (Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, etc...) I even had a personal trainer at one time, but nothing really worked. I would get discouraged when I hit the plateaus and just give it all up, gaining back the weight I had lost and then some.

I have been following my friend Tammy's blog and she is very inspirational and motivating.

I have decided at this point in my life I need to do something. I have aches and pains everywhere and I can't even walk up the driveway without running out of breath. So I have made the ultimate decision to start losing weight the right way. I started on September 21st, weighing 222 pounds. Now I know what everyone would be thinking at 5'1" that is just too much to weigh. I've always had the philosophy that I'm not overweight, I'm just under tall. But is that really a healthy way to think, not really. So here I am, starting over. The only thing different this time is I'm really going to do it this time, FOR GOOD.

I know what I need to do. I have always known what I need to do, just doing it is the hard part. I'm always making excuses for not doing it, too much going on, not enough time, you know all the excuses. I know what I am supposed to eat, but I don't, it's just easier to do the convenient thing. But this is all changing now.

I have been counting my calories, and am staying pretty well within my calorie limit of 1500. My kids say I'm obsessed with this calorie counting thing. I count every calorie, and list out everything, if we have to eat out, I have to pull out my iPhone and check my calorie counter to see what I can eat at a particular restaurant. Fast food has an astronomical amount of calories and sodium. But I make sure wherever we're going has something I can eat within my calorie range. My days of milkshakes and fast food burgers are over. Something that has really been hard to give up is Sweet Tea. It's a Southern staple with every meal and in between. When I went to Las Vegas I thought I was going to die because they do not have Sweet Tea. I have found that, out of habit, when we go into a restaurant I automatically order sweet tea when asked for my drink order. I am making more of an effort to just say water. I'm even trying to avoid diet drinks because that is added sodium. I have noticed that EVERYTHING has sodium in it, things you wouldn't imagine, like milk.

Since starting my dieting on September 21, I have lost 8.5 pounds, and really don't want to find it again. I still have not started exercising, because, of course, I have excuses. I have week knees, a torn tendon in my foot, I have plantar fasciitis (which keeps me from doing a lot on my feet), back pain, hip pain. My doctor says a lot of my problems would go away if I lose weight, but that's easier said than done. I am going to start exercising. I must exercise if I want to actually lose more and keep it off. I actually walked today, but it wasn't a steady walk. My boyfriend and I went to the Civil War reenactment, at Allatoona Pass, so we were walking the trails there, but there was a stop about every 5 minutes or so, so it wasn't a steady pace for 15 - 20 minutes. But hey I was moving, which is more than I do most days. Usually just getting out of bed is a feat all in itself.

I have read a lot of blogs and have decided this is a pretty good way of accountability. Even if no one reads it, I can look back and find out where I was and feel as if I was accountable to God and myself.

Life is all about change and I want this to be the best change of my life. Life is short, and I want to live it to the fullest. To do this I must be able to get there and not be short of breath.

Okay, I am going to publish my food journals and see what kind of feedback I get from that. So here is the one for today. I am under my calorie limit, so yea for me. I am doing good with my water, but sometimes still need something else. However, trying to just drink water. I try to eat fruit as my snack during the day, but have been so busy today that I haven't had any snacks.

			Free Food Diary my-calorie-counter.com
			Cal	Fat	Sat	Chl	Sod	Crb	Fib	Sug	Pro
Breakfast
1	cup	Milk, lowfat, fluid, 1% milkfat, with added vitamin A	102	2	2	12	107	12	0	13	8
1	serving	Special K w/Strawberries	110	0	0	0	220	25	1	10	3
			212	2	2	12	327	37	1	23	11
Lunch
1	serving	Smoked Turkey Breast	145	2	0	44	1155	3	0	3	29
2	serving	Natures Own Double Fiber Wheat Bread	200	3	0	0	380	44	12	6	10
2	Serving - 19 G	SARGENTO« - CHEESE - DELI STYLE PROVOLONE THIN SLICES 12 CT 8 OZ PEG	140	10	7	30	270	0	0	0	10
			485	15	7	74	1805	47	12	9	49
Dinner
1	serving	Stouffer's Easy Express Broccoli & Beef	350	6	3	25	1660	57	2	4	18
			350	6	3	25	1660	57	2	4	18
Snack
Water Tracker
Totals Target Balance			1047 1500 70 453	23 65 35 42	12 20 60 8	111 300 37 189	3792 2400 158 1392	141 300 47 159	15 25 60 10	36 50 72 14	78 50 156 28
			Cal	Fat	Sat	Chl	Sod	Crb	Fib	Sug	Pro
Activity
Totals			0

This is all I will write for tonight. I was so excited to get my blog started, that it is way past my bedtime. So I will leave you with this thought...

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.