Monday, September 3, 2012

Fat Chick in a Skinny world

Hi and Welcome to my new blog!!  This blog is about my life as a fat chick in a world that is not made for us and my journey to get a healthier body.  A little over three months ago I decided to change the way I live for the better.  I made small gradual changes and spent some money on creating a home gym.  Craigslist was my saviour when it came to gym equipment.  I got good quality stuff for 50% or less of the retail price.  I also researched the internet for all the knowledge that I could find on losing weight, eating right and getting healthy.  Pinterest became a great resource.  I was and am still surprised at all the stuff I didn't know about something so simple as what I put in my mouth.  My kids are lucky.  I am going to make sure that they are not ignorant.  I thought I was making some good choices for my family and I was not.

On May 28, 2012 I started putting all my knowledge in action.  At the time I had no exercise equipment or any idea where to start with exercise.  I decided to start with the one thing I knew I could fix easiest.  I started making healthier meals and only purchasing foods that were good for us.  I did more research and I became shocked and apalled at what is in the processed food I had been feeding to my precious family.  So I stopped buying those things.  I decided that our food needed to be as close to how it looked originally as possible.  Of course this meant that I spent a lot more time in the kitchen.  I like to cook and have always cooked from scratch, just not every meal!  At first I found it tedious, but now I actually love the time I spend in my little kitchen making healthy and tasty meals.

Next I had to tackle the exercise mystery.  I know it shouldn't be a mystery, but sadly it was.  I had no clue how long, how hard or what exercises I should be doing to get lasting results.  I did more research and started with light walking videos and small weights.  I did twenty minutes to begin with every other day.  I started perusing craigslist and bought myself an airstepper for next to nothing.  I used that thing religiously for well over a month.  Then I purchased a set of eight pound weights and started using those too.  My skin started to look better and my energy started to improve.

Fast forward to today.  I have kept to my slow and steady "lose a pound or two per week" goal and am 15lbs down.  Not as fast as I would like to see, but attainable and stustainable.  Those were key for me; I have tried this before and failed.  I thought back on all my previous attempts and why they have failed.  Number one was that I did not change my lifestyle.  I just added more exercise to life without accounting for the ginourmous amount of crap and calories I was loading into my body.  The second thing I found that was off was the exercise.  I always chose some new lose weight quick fad that promised results.  Well I got my results quickly and piled the pounds and then some back on quickly.  I never got to a healthy weight either with the quick weight loss plans.  They were just to strenuous to keep up until I reached my goal.  The third thing was that I did not seek out a support network.  I do believe that even with my previous misguided attempts I would have been a lot more succesful with a support network. 

This time I am determined to succeed.  I know it won't be easy and it won't always be what I want to do, but step by step I am determined to make this work.  I have marked off September 5th as the day that I start the next phase of my transformation.  I eat pretty healthy right now, but I want to attain a very clean diet.  I am saying goodbye to certain foods for at least 30 days.  I am trying out the Paleo diet for 30 days and I will see if I get the energy and focus that living and eating that way promises. 

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