The Beginning of a New Life

As many of you know, I've struggled with my weight for my entire life.  I've lost, gained and been a yo yo dieter for most of my adult life.  I even struggled as a teenager.  So, many of you might be asking, what would make a 33 (32 at the time) year old person decide to make so many changes...??

Well, it started with a conversation with my amazing mom in January.  By talking with her, I realized how unhappy I truly was with so many things in my life.  I won't go into detail, but my weight was just one of the things I needed to change.  I let my weight mask everything else that was making me so unhappy.  I didn't want to go anywhere, talk to anyone that wasn't a family member and I spent most of my time hiding in my house.

Once I came to this realization, I didn't even know where to start.  I talked to my family and, through conversations with my awesome big brother, little sister and my brother and sister in law (who I am so blessed to have in my life), I agreed to go and talk to someone my brother and sister knew through coaching who might be able to help me with my nutrition, exercise and weight loss.  I figured it was a good starting point and I would just see where things went from there.

I had no idea how much that January afternoon would change my life.  Although I knew I had a very long road ahead of me, I felt like this person actually wanted to help me, cared about me and wanted to know me as a person too.  That was a bit of a foreign concept to me.  See, I'm not the most social person in the world and I absolutely hate uncomfortable situations and being in places where I don't know people.  I often won't say much more than 5 words to people I'm not comfortable with.  I think a lot of times people take that as my being rude... so it's always been hard for me to meet new people, make new friends, etc.  Somehow, she got me to talk to her without much effort.  Maybe I was just finally ready but I really think it's just the kind of person she is and the kind of person I needed to meet and have in my life.  When I left the meeting, I felt really positive and looking forward to what was ahead of me... although I still had no idea how many changes I would be making in such a short time.

The weekend after my meeting, I got a few emails from her with feedback on my nutrition and a sample grocery list... Needless to say I was overwhelmed.  But, if I was going to make change, I knew I had to actually make the decision to go at it full steam ahead.  Hey, if someone is going to take time out of their day to help me, I better show them that I care and that I appreciate it, right?  So, I cleaned out my refrigerator and freezer (good thing it was the day before garbage day) and headed to the grocery store... That was definitely an adventure.  I only found some of the stuff (I actually didn't know what most of it was...) but it was enough to get me started.

The next day, I went to the gym for the first time in a long time.  I started simple (by direction of course) and did 30 minutes on the elliptical.  Not too hard on my knees but hard enough to get a good workout.  I felt good afterwards and was determined to continue.

The next day, it was abnormally warm in January so I went out for a walk after work.  It was amazing how good the fresh air felt.  The following day I went to the gym again and then, the next day, Thursday was weigh in day.  See, I had weighed myself the morning of the meeting so Thursday became the moment of truth of day.  I couldn't believe what I saw!!! 6 pounds in one week!  Now, I am smart enough to know that wouldn't continue but it was such an amazing feeling!  It was the positive reinforcement I needed to see that this could work and to keep going :)

Below is a picture of me from January 2013.