Wednesday, July 8, 2009

No more excuses

Something seems to finally have clicked with me. I don’t know how or why but I seem to finally be ready to get healthy and in shape. I’m tired of feeling sluggish all the time. I want to be able to walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath.

While I’ve had a problem with my weight for a long time, I’ve never done anything about it. I’ve never dieted because I was too scared that I would fail. I also didn’t want to become one of those serial dieters who spend their whole lives trying a new diet and constantly talking about their diet. In reality I don’t want to be on a diet. I just want to eat better and in proportion.

I can’t blame my weight on genetics or anything. When I was younger I was thin. It wasn’t until my parents split up that I actually started to gain weight. Talk about a textbook case. Girl’s parents spilt up, girl is depressed, girl eats to make herself feel better. Then after I wasn’t depressed anymore, I just kept on eating. There was a time in high school when I lost some weight and I felt great. I wasn’t a size 2, I’ll never be. I was around a size 12 but most importantly I was healthy. I felt great. I want to get back to there. I want to feel good about myself again. I’m tired of digging myself into this lonely hole. I’m ready to feel like me again.

The only problem? I don’t know where to start. Like I’ve said before I’ve never attempted to diet so I don’t really know where to start with it. Also when it comes to working out there isn’t really any time during the week I could do this. I’m gone for 13 hours each day. Plus I don’t want to take on too much at once because I know I will just give up. I’m the person who wants to go on a diet and loose all the weight within the month. Which I know is A) not possible and B) really unhealthy. I still wish I could though.

I took the first step the other day and joined this website called SparkPeople. It’s a community for people trying to loose weight. What appealed to me is it’s not about a diet; it’s about a healthy lifestyle. There are tons of tools and tips that you can use to incorporate into your daily routine. The best part and the main reason why I joined? Is the site has a nutrition tracker. Every day you just type in what you ate and it calculates all the calories, fat and protein in it. I don’t have to do the math. It’s all done for me!

This makes me optimistic that I will keep up with this because the main thing I hate about diets is the keeping track and adding up everything each day. It’s tiring and too cumbersome for me. This basically gives me no excuses.

Let me just say when I logged in my first day of food I was mortified by the amount of calories I had consumed. I always told myself that while I wasn’t eating the best foods I was eating everything in proportion. Boy was I wrong. My eating is/was out of control. Seeing this, really made me start thinking about the food choices I make each day. Which I’ve never done in the past.

Another great thing about the website, is there are recipes and even a group for people who are picky eaters! I am a very picky eater which has also discouraged me in the past about dieting. Hopefully this will help!

Now I have to go out and buy a scale, which frightens the hell out of me. I’m actually really embarrassed to buy one. I know that sounds silly but it’s true. I feel like if I buy a scale everyone in the store will think “aww poor fat girl trying to lose weight”. Which is ridiculous but I can’t help it!

Do you have any tips for losing weight? Or what was the craziest diet you’ve ever had?

3 comments:

cowboyboot lady said...

I think that your attitude is awesome! You are acknowledging that you are ready to get healthy! I will tell you that last fall I read a book called Skinny Bitch and it changed my life. I used to be a very picky eater also…but after reading this book I learned to cut unhealthy, processed foods including meat and most dairy. I started eating lots of fresh organic veggies and fruit and whole grains. I lost ten pounds within three months.

You seem to have a very busy schedule…do you have time over your lunch break to go to a gym? I couldn’t do it…but I know some people who love waking early to work out before going to work.

That nutrition calculator on SparkPeople sounds like a great tool. Good luck! Looking forward to future posts!

http://www.skinnybitch.net/

Anonymous said...

I love sparkpeople! I think it's really helpful too and there are a lot of ideas on there on everything from exercise to recipes. I've never really done a crazy diet although I was keeping a raw diet until dinner for a few months last year. I felt so much better but it was hard to maintain.

magda said...

I love the idea of a web-based group. I don't know if I would have said that before I became a blogger, but I feel like that could be an awesome community, and a super convenient way to keep track of things!

You shouldn't feel self-conscious about the scale thing at all. Stand strong! You're doing an awesome thing. GOOD LUCK! xx.