Wednesday 30 October 2013

The Beginning

This is my first time posting and writing so openly about myself. My name is Lisa. I have struggled with weight and self image my whole life. I can honestly say there wasn't a moment in my life where I looked in the mirror and completely appreciated what I saw staring back at me. I was constantly under my scrutinizing eye, emphasizing all my flaws, all my failures, all my defects. This lead to a mindset of complete hopelessness.. I mean, why try? I was always going to be this way, overweight, awkward and a bit too abnormal for a majority of people.
Then I turned thirty. Not only was I still single, I was still over 200 pounds, no kids, no home, no career.
Thirty. I struggled with this more than I thought I would. I had nothing. If you had asked me what my life would look like at thirty when I was thirteen, I would have told you I would be married with two children, have a wonderful career teaching music and look incredible for my age. Now, with thirty rounding the corner, I quickly realized none of this mattered.
This was the turning point in my mindset of who I was. I decided to take charge of myself, to stop making excuses, to stop being afraid of failure. I think most of us who want to be healthy become so discouraged at how long the process will be. It took years of not caring about myself to get to where I am today and it will take years of working hard  to get to where I want to be. It takes no effort to gain five pounds. It takes lots of effort and time to get rid of those five pounds the right way. So I began my journey one step at a time. The first step? Tackling smoking. I knew if I could rid myself of that, I could do anything. I read the book " The easy way to quit smoking" by Allan Carr which was suggested to me by a friend. Because of that book, I have been smoke-free for 7 months now, no cheating, no little puffs here and there and incredibly no cravings.  This step was the push I needed to get moving!
I thought I was the only one who struggled with these things. I thought I would have to live the rest of my life cringing every time someone pulled out a camera. I am sick of having to monitor every picture posted on my facebook.  Recently a friend posted their feelings about being overweight and the words stung my heart. I know those feelings all to well, and I am sick of feeling them. I write these things for her. I write these struggles for all of us who are silently screaming at ourselves and feeling desperately overwhelmed.
I know this journey will be hard. This is my way of having accountability to myself as well as others. Please come with my on my journey, it's a long road to have to go alone.
The tools I am using are the following:
My fitness Pal
Couch to 5 k
Squat Challenge
Plank Challenge
I will post tips and tricks as I go. One of the easiest tips I have read was pick your goal weight ( mine is 140) and add a zero to the end ( 1400). That is the calorie intake you must eat each day ( which will fluctuate with any exercise added each day). My fitness pal makes keeping track of calories as well as carbs, fats and protein easy as sending a text!
Here we go!