3/14/2011

I had a friend ask me today about her friend who wants to lose weight. It's great that I have UK friends reading my blog on Facebook. So here's some more information about the beginning of my journey. When I started August 25, 2010 I weighed in at 315lbs and now I've lost 45lbs. The way the program works is every week I weigh in and there have been weeks where my weight has gone up or I've plateaued. So the next week I work harder at my journey and the best way to look at it for me is that it's not a DIET but a lifestyle change. If you're starting your journey you should know that you will have to exercise and work at it. The other thing that my consultant and I have done is have me sign the board when I've lost a certain amount of weight. The fun one for me to sign was the 40lb loss and then I say goodbye to it. So I've said by to the 300's, 290's, 280's and very soon I'll be saying bye to the 270's. The best place to start is in the pool and then I worked my way to cardio. You'll also want to add strength training which I hate but I need to start working on. The other part is what you eat and it's easy for me because Jenny Craig has prepackaged meals. For me it works out great because I don't like to cook and portions are a challenge for me still but Jenny takes care of the cooking and portions. Another thing that has been very important is having as much support around you as possible. I hope this has helped or inpired someone to get off the couch and start. So good luck and just know that this won't be easy but it's so worth all of the hard work.

Another topic that I wanted to talk about is I was watching Too Fat For Fifteen yesterday that I had recorded. If you haven't seen the show it's a school and program for children who need to lose weight. There is a 15 year old on there who weighed in at 511lbs and I was amazed to see these children so obese and it makes me realize the we as a nation need to make changes. I remember growing up as an obese child. When I was an obese kid I was teased and bullied in school and this show brings up some of those memories from when I was younger. I really feel for these kids because I know what its like. I'm just happy to see that there are schools out there for obese children and they're able to learn healthy eating habits. I look back now and wish I had taken advantage of an opportunity in middle school that I passed up. My middle school P.E. teacher offered to take me with her every morning to the gym. She could see that I wanted to lose weight. She saw that I lacked confidence but that I wanted to try but wouldn't because I was scared to think of what others would say or think. So I'm very proud of these teenagers for changing their lives and making the change.