Weight a minute; Fat's not what I said

I've been feeling pretty crappy for quite some time now-physically, mentally, and emotionally. There's not much I can do about some of it except find better ways of dealing with it. However, I know that I need to take better care of some aspects of my health & that will help with other parts. First and foremost, I need to lose a significant amount of weight. Heart problems & diabetes are on both sides of my family, so I need to do whatever I can to prevent these in myself. When I saw that one of the awesome gals I follow on Twitter, Mother Tongue, (AKA: Heather) & a friend of hers had decided to launch BlogapaLOSEa today, I debated it for a few days, discussed it w/Hubs, made excuses w/myself why I COULDN'T do it...and then signed up to do it. I need the support, people. I hope my support will help the others that are doing this. The contest ends 5 days before my birthday & honestly, even if I don't win, it would still be a great birthday present to have lost some weight, gained some friends & be healthier.

This is a full-length shot of me; something I avoid like the plague, but a new one will be posted every week for the next 12 weeks. According to my scale (lying bastard!!), I need to lose 60 lbs to get to my reasonable goal weight. You'll notice I haven't shared my current weight or goal weight with you...I'm just not ready for that yet. maybe once I start losing a little bit. Those of you who know me, if the suspense is killing you or something, email me & I may be persuaded to tell you.
Things I'm doing to kick this off: Trying to remember to eat during the day. That may sound counter-productive, but one of my epilepsy medications tends to make me tired & just "blah", and I don't eat until dinnertime-then I eat a huge dinner & snack all evening. Oh, except for the Dr. Pepper that I sip on all day...It's generally only one 20 oz, but I think I'd like to try to turn that into several glasses of water, or caffeine-free iced tea w/Splenda. One of the most important things: I have to get off my ass & exercise. Thanks to Craigslist, Freecycle, Cheapcyle & other second-hand sources, we have a fairly nice home gym with a treadmill, elliptical, recumbant bike, Ablounge sport, 2 different size exercise balls, and a variety of bands & weights. Now all I have to do is dig them out from under the mounds of boxes & other crap piled around them and actually use them for their intended purpose. Hey! That will count as exercise too!

I do not expect to lose the entire 60 lbs in the next 12 weeks-that would be an unrealistic & unhealthy goal. However, I will be going from a somewhat sedentary lifestyle to a more active one, I will be eating & drinking better, and I'm hoping to see at least half if not a little more of it gone!

The Mantra of the Month in September's Shape magazine was just the inspiration I needed:

"I will change...gradually."

"Big changes are tough to maintain. If you make your goals too monumental, you risk feeling disappointment when you can't get there fast enough-and you could give up. This month focus on modifying your life incrementally. So before you commit to making every meal from scratch, brown-bag it a few times a week. Or instead of immediately trying to run five miles, go just one and then add on a few minutes each time you work out. Small steps won't get get you where you want to be quickly, but they'll get you there, and that's what's most important.
~Jared Matthew Weiss

I'm going to cut it out & put it on my fridge to remind me that this is a journey...and a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single Stepp!