The Beginning

Here we go.  Fifty pounds in fifty weeks.  I know I can do it this time - I've lost weight before and I know how to do it.  It's the getting lazy and gaining it back that's always the problem.  Well I've been hearing people tell me I'm lazy my entire life, and I will not be lazy about my health anymore.

At first, I wanted to lose weight to look good.  So my boyfriend would give me even more of "that look" (you know what I'm talking about).  I wanted to fit into a certain size jean.  I wanted to be able to compare myself to other women my age and say "Hey, look, I'm finally skinnier than so-and-so".  But losing weight isn't about looks anymore.  I have more serious problems to attend to, like the heart disease and diabetes that crops up in my family all too often.  I want to be healthy so I don't have to face these frightening problems.  And since I don't want kids, I want to be healthy my entire life.  I need to take care of my body so I can make it for the long haul.  There's a lot of things to learn in this world, and I don't want to miss out on something interesting because I was too lazy to get up and exercise.

So here's the gameplan:

- Cut calories.  I figured out via a handy little BMR calculator that to maintain my current weight at my current activity level (lightly active - I am learning to bellydance, after all), I must consume 2,442 calories per day.  Scary.  To lose a pound a week, I have to cut that figure by 500 calories a day down to 1,942 at most.


- More exercise.  Right now, I believe I qualify as "lightly active".  I do dance, and I walk alot from class to class, but I need to do more.  Even though going to the gym requires sports bra technology most likely designed by a top-secret and underground military wing of the government, I'm going to shoot for an hour of cardio four days a week.  I've read that 30 minutes most days a week is sufficient, but in my experience my body needs a little more activity than that to really get burning that fat off.  My dance and yoga classes this first semester will help alot, but I will need to go to the gym a few nights a week as well.  I also hope to get a little strength training in a couple times a week, although the yoga will help with that too.

- Eat healthy stuff.  I think it's pretty obvious from my BMR calculation that I eat like crap.  Not enough vegetables, not enough fruit.  Too much sugary stuff, too much fat.  I need to learn to cook at home, and to cook healthy things.  My grandparents bought me a nifty Food Saver for Christmas, so I can keep my veggies and salads fresh for a lot longer, so I can actually eat them.  And no more chowing down on cookies while I'm at work.



So with those goals laid out, I'm also going to use this blog as a kind of food diary, along with reporting on my feelings about my workouts and my progress.  I'm going to weigh myself on Fridays, hopefully, on the scale at the gym.  I went to the doctor's this morning and found out I weigh 208 pounds - very scary.  So fifity weeks from now, precisely on Christmas Eve, I should weigh 158.  :D

Okay!  Food diary entry number one.  I may not post every day, but I will try to keep track of it most days of the week.

Breakfast: 3 eggs and a glass of milk - ~350 cal
Lunch: Salad with bread and butter - ~400 cal
Snack: two small Hershey's turtles - 80 cal
Dinner: Applebee's dinner (mozzarella sticks, steak and veggies, and dessert) - ~300, ~600, 300
Beverages: water, all day long

Total: ~ 2030.

Exercise: 30 minutes of shoveling the driveway and 40 minutes boxing on the Wii.  (And yes, shoveling really does count).

Not bad for day one.  : )