New Start, New Blog

Okay, so I never had an old blog but now is as good a time as any to start one.  This can combine many of my loves:  I love to write.  I love to journal my feelings (okay, maybe I don't love it but it's a helpful life tool), and I love to help people (and if this helps one person, that's all I need).

Actually, if I started a blog for every time I made a fresh start, I'd have a hell of a lot of blogs with few posts.  So why is it different this time?  I don't know yet.  But hey, maybe the fact that I've never started a blog before associated with a new start....maybe there's something to that.  Writing is cathartic for me (and so is listening to music, crying, and venting as needed).  And who knows, at any time during the writing of this blog, I may be crying while listening to some sad music as I write a vent-filled post!  Okay, I might just be rambling now....

What motivated this blog was me embarking on yet another journey to weight loss.  I've had several and they've involved a wide variety of methods from the healthy to the not-so-healthy.  I've taken pills (both over-the-counter and prescribed), I've done low carb/no carb, and I've counted points.  Actually, I still count points (Weight Watchers for those not familiar).  I guess when I look back on that seemingly small list, I think, that can't be it!  It's just that I've stopped and started and stopped and started so many times, I've really lost count.  I don't consider myself an expert and I can only comment on what has and has not worked for me.  And also, what I am and am not willing to try.  For example, I am not willing to have any kind of surgery to lose weight.  In all my years - and sadly, most of them at an unhealthy weight - I just never wanted that to be the answer.

"How'd you lose the weight?"

"Surgery."  :-/

I've lost hundreds, maybe even thousands, of pounds over the years and I have gained them back (not proud of that but I can own up to what I've done to myself) and what has brought me the most success is this:

Eating less.
Exercising more.

Wow, what a concept, right?  You can reduce your carb intake if you want, cut out the processed stuff, watch fat and calories...whatever!  But at the end of the day, ask yourself this:  are you burning more than you take in and can you do this for life?  Are you making HABIT CHANGES?  This isn't about what you're willing or able to do to lose 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 pounds or more.  This is about what you're willing to do to KEEP THAT WEIGHT OFF.  I can say from personal experience that even though I lost weight the correct/healthy way, there were other things going on with me mentally that I let get in the way because I did not deal with them (more on that in other posts).  I'm nowhere near cured of this mental stuff but I learned a very hard lesson by gaining all my weight back and then some.  I am a work in progress.

And as a work in progress, I've decided that one very important thing I need to not be lazy about is exercising.  Back when I ventured on what would be my journey to over 100 pounds lost, I joined a fancy new gym in my town, Lifetime Fitness.  The location I went to was conveniently located on my route home from work so I couldn't make any excuses.  I joined and almost immediately began working with a personal trainer (a man who literally changed my life).  It was a long journey but I lost a hell of a lot of weight.  I spent hours and hours and hours every week working out.  It was an obsession, honestly.  I wasn't perfect.  I mean, I remember my trainer asking me at first why I wasn't losing and I would just play dumb when in fact I knew it was because I was eating like shit.

Anyway, the point is things changed for me in 2006.  I got a new job and it was on another side of town (way out of the way of my awesome gym that I loved).  Then in early 2007, I went back to school and so a new life of working full-time and practically going to school full-time began and would continue until graduation in May 2011.  Along the way, I stopped and started many more times, including canceling my membership to Lifetime, rejoining a new location close to my new job (at more than double what I was paying before because it was some kind of "deluxe" location), canceling that membership, and then joining 24 Hour Fitness (and oh, gaining all that weight back).  I really can't remember how long I was a member there but it didn't last long.  As lame as this may sound, I was just not excited about going there to workout (and I was when I went to Lifetime...it's just the price at the second location was ludicrous).  So I did what had sadly become my thing....I quit.

But as of August 2012, I am a proud new member of a NEW gym (okay, new to me): LA Fitness.  Actually, the strange thing is I joined online before I ever set foot in the club and yesterday was my first workout there.  Already, I am in love.  It has every amenity I love (whether or not I may use it all the time) and I have a location conveniently located to my work AND home - what more could a girl ask for?  Even though I am excited about my new gym, I do know one thing...I'm never going to LOVE working out.  I might like it fine some days but most days, I will dread it and try to excuse myself out of going but I have to persevere.  Nothing worth having comes easy.  Cliche?  So what...it's true, especially when it comes to weight loss.

I think this is a good stopping point for my first post.  If you've made it this far, thank you!  You must find my ramblings really interesting OR you're a dear friend of mine who promised to read what I wrote....either way, thank you!  This actually is a little daunting as I will, at times, be laying out my innermost thoughts for you to read but hey, like I said, if you find any solace in them, great!

Let the journey begin.....