How It All Began

The Basics
Until last October, my weight had been gradually climbing higher and higher for a few years. It took me a long time to realize I was fat. In October of 2006, I decided to change my lifestyle because I wanted (and still want) to be healthy. Part of me wishes I had started a journal then, but I guess it wasn't the right time for me to write about everything I was going through.
Since October, I've lost over 40 pounds. I still want to lose more, but I know I've gotten over the most difficult hurdle to health.
This blog will be devoted to my continued weight loss and quest for a healthy lifestyle. I did do some blogging on sparkpeople.com (a great site that is full of helpful weight loss, nutrition, fitness, and motivational tools) while losing the initial 40 pounds, so I will repost those here--just to give you a sense of beginning to my journey.

The Trigger
I attended a wedding last summer with some great friends. I no longer had any clothes that fit suitable enough to wear to a wedding. It killed me to go buy new clothes in larger sizes. Still, though, I felt pretty good about how I looked--until the pictures from the wedding were developed! I really couldn't believe how big I looked. I started going through all of my other pictures, and I didn't like how I looked in any of them. I had gotten fat.
After the wedding (which was in Pennsylvania), my husband and I headed back to Washington (where we live). My grandma had just had surgery and some minor complications, so we went to spend a few days helping her out. I realized that my husband never knew my grandma when she was active and always on the move. She still does so much, but it is hard for her to move around. She has health problems, bad knees, and she's heavy. I realized that I want to be healthy when I have children and I want to be an active grandparent some day.
When we finally finished our summer travelling and settled down in Seattle, I began a new job. I found that I couldn't climb the flights of stairs up to my office (I'm not a fan of elevators, but still use them at times) without huffing, puffing, turning bright red, and feeling like I could die.
Not only was I fat, no longer fitting into my clothes, but I was also out of shape. Crap.

The Beginning
I decided that enough was enough. I knew that if I didn't make the changes now, I never would. It was time to be healthier. I didn't want to go on a diet because diets are temporary--I wanted to make a permanent change. I began researching different programs online and came across sparkpeople.com. Now, this site works great for me, but everyone has their own preferences. There are other sites and programs out there that might work better for you.
It was a secret at first because I didn't want anyone to know if I failed at this attempt to live healthier. The longer I kept at it, the more people I started telling about it.
This is what I did:

• Tracked the calories I consumed.
• Tracked the calories I burnt.
• Began and followed an exercise schedule.

Those are the basics. I also began reading articles and learning more about nutrition and fitness. I learned how to balance my diet with the right amounts of carbs, protein, and fat. Sometimes, I fought huge battles with myself:

"You will work out right now!"

"No, I want to lie on the couch, watch a movie, and eat chocolate."

"Don't you dare, you go put that aerobics tape in this minute."

I even bribed myself. If I could convince myself to make a healthy decision instead of an unhealthy one, I would promise myself a piece of dark chocolate when I got home.

It was a tough time, but worth it each time I stepped on the scale and saw the numbers go down or felt my pants getting looser.