3 weeks and another year older.....

Hey there!  I wanted to take a minute of your day and update you on my progress since my last post!

It's been 3 weeks since I started back to trying to lose weight and thus far I have made only dietary changes, no exercise.  I hope to incorporate activity in the future, but for now I'm just focusing on food as it seems to be my biggest competition!

Here are some results:

Starting Weight: 222lbs
Current Weight (as of today): 214.0lbs

8lbs....not a huge loss, but it's a little more than 2lbs per week which is healthy I think.  I prefer slower weight loss as it gives your skin time to adjust so you don't get that saggy look! LOL.  I've enjoyed the journey so far, mainly because it hasn't really felt like an effort!  Matt has been amazing at cooking up delicious yet nutritious meals and being a great support and keeping us both on track!  That helps a whole lot!

So today is a special day because it's ..... my birthday!  Yes today I turn 28 (cough)......ok I'm 34!  There I said it!  Although it's still hard to imagine that I'm actually almost midway through my 30's!  What the heck happened here?  I was 21 yesterday.

Alas, this is the day I reflect back on the last year of my life and analyze what's been good, bad, ok and anything I wish to forget about!  Looking back over this past year (from 33 to 34) I can't really say there has been much bad or things I want to forget.  I ended up in a job that I've been working toward for a few years, I'm still with the love of my life, my family and friends are all in good health and doing well.  Which by the way I have some pretty amazing friends and family who have made this past year particularly wonderful!  So shout out to them!

Weight wise this time last year I was about 180lbs.  So that is a disappointment to know that I'm about 34lbs heavier today than I was on my birthday last year.  But the good news is, I'm working on it.  When I first started this blog (if you go back and read day 1 in November of 2011) I said that this was a never ending quest.  I don't think we ever truly reach and maintain a satisfactory weight or image of ourselves....we work constantly on improving it and it seems like we are never happy.  I remember being 21 and 150lbs and thinking I was so fat and hideous (in my 30" waist!)  Funny isn't it....I'd kill to be 150lbs again! 

My point is that our self esteem and self image is a never ending conquest to be better.  You have to be careful though...don't be self defeating to the point that you put yourself down or lower your own self esteem.  We deal with enough a$$holes in the world who judge us, we don't need to be so hard on ourselves.  Give yourself some credit...so what if you don't have a six pack washboard stomach....maybe you have an amazing smile, or gorgeous eyes, or nice a$$, or a huge heat, great hair or a combination of any of those things or all of them!  We all have good attributes and while we are working on changing the ones we can and want to, we need to accentuate the positive attributes and things we like about ourselves in the process.

Whatever your goal is...stay focused...don't lose sight or hope.  Falling down is inevitable, no one ever learned by being perfect from the gate.  Failure breeds progress and success, you just have to be strong enough to make it through the down times to come out ahead on the other side.

With that, I am off to enjoy a celebratory birthday lunch somewhere with tasty calorie and fat free birthday food!  Because as we all know....on your birthday....calories and fat don't exist! :-)

Good luck to you in your journey, remember the only person keeping you from succeeding is yourself!  You can do it, so can I, we just have to DO.

All the best,

Keith

Here I go again...but not on my own....

So it's been nearly a year since my last post and also since I last attempted anything close to a weight loss program.  I've gained over 50lbs since last summer.  So that means I gained back the 40 I lost PLUS an extra 10 for good measure.  Gaining weight is super easy.....too bad it's not so easy getting it back off.

Having officially ran out of clothes to wear aside from the few articles I have purchased to get by because everything in my closet is too small for me now, I really needed to do something.  But this time I'm not alone!  Matt really kick started me into going back on Weight Watchers when he decided to start doing a calorie counting program.  No more fourth meal I guess.  Sad panda!

I don't really have much to offer by way of a beginning post other than to say I started Weight Watchers up again today.  I know the program works if you use it so I'm sticking with what I know.  I'll figure out the exercise part later, right now I need to get my diet under control and then worry about getting my girlish figure back with exercise.

Last weekend I participated in the Warrior Dash.  If you aren't familiar with this, it's basically a mud run with obstacles.  It was 3.40 miles long with 12 obstacles.  I completed it with a team of folks from work.  We had a blast and I successfully made it through and it only took me 2 hours....just 2 hours!  Now granted we had some time standing in line waiting to complete obstacles, but 2 hours is really slow.  I was proud of myself however for just making it through and only having to skip 1 obstacle (which a lot of people skipped due to logistics and safety).  It was an accomplishment.  Before I did it, I thought to myself, I'll never be able to make it through this, it's too hard, yet I came out on the other side!  Then I remembered that I thought the same thing about the Insanity workout series before I started it, but I made it through 7 weeks! I bailed the last 2 weeks because I met a guy, got a new job and moved 2 states over! LOL. (what I did for love......Barbara, anyone?)

I digress....standing in line and just walking around this event in general, I saw A LOT of buff guys, I mean really buff guys.  Yes I was staring....and so was Matt! LOL.  After the race was over on our way home, Matt told me he wanted to do it with me next year and he wanted to do it without his shirt on too!  So I think that kind of kick started both of us to do something about our weight.

I'm not saying that this time next year I'm going to have a 6 pack washboard stomach or anything, but I know I'm going to be skinnier than I am now and I'm glad I have someone to help keep me on track and support me along the way.

So paying homage to my 80's roots and Whitesnake....here I go again!  Here I GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (you know that one note that you can't ever hit while singing in your car).

Starting weight 222lbs.

Ready.....set.....cheeseburger?

Keith