Day 19 - Broken Windows and Crazylegs

Diet tip of the day: The next time you're tempted to stop at a fast food place for something quick to eat, stop at a grocery store instead. Most places have pre-made deli sandwiches that are a lot healthier than anything you'd get at a drive-thru. Skip the soda and grab a personal skim milk, apple juice, or water. It might take you a few extra minutes, but it will save your body in the long run.

I drive a Saturn that was made in the late 90's. It's a good car, or at least it hasn't broken down on me, yet. There's only one problem: the driver's side door. The inside panel is missing, and the window is extremely problematic. It will go down 1/3 of the way, then make a terrible racket like you're putting a pen into a pencil sharpener, then you have to push it down by hand, and it will go down another third of the way and do the same thing. I'm always too afraid that it will stay down and I'll be caught in the rain with my window wide open. It's a little inconvenient, but I can't tell you how many times it has saved me from going through the drive-thru to get food. I really can't remember a time where it hasn't stopped me. And then, I have to reevaluate... do I want to go in, spend money, even though my back hurts from working all day? Or do I want to go home and make something in my jeans? I always end up picking the latter, sometimes not because it's healthier, but just because I'd rather wear jeans than my work pants and relax on the couch while I eat my dinner.

There's a race going on outside my apartment. It's called the Crazylegs race, and it happens every year around our campus. It seems like it rains every single year on the day of the Crazylegs race, and this year is no exception. I always feel so bad for those people, walking for miles on the cold, wet streets of what is usually a quite beautiful city. But today, as I was driving home from work (earlier than I expected), I thought to myself, "Why should I feel sorry for them?" They looked happy. They looked healthy. And they looked like they were having a really great time sharing a great experience with their friends and family. I should be feeling sorry for myself, not in the melodramatic, mopey kind of way, but in the sense that I know I couldn't do what they're doing.

I'd like to change that, and I am changing that! I'm down 15 pounds, and I'm on a mission. I know I can get in shape and walk a Crazylegs race of my own. Even though I won't be in this city next year, I'm sure I can find a race to participate in. I think it would be a great way to celebrate my weight loss when I've reached my goal. So I'm going to plan on participating in a charity walk next spring. There's always a walk for breast cancer in my hometown and it's a big enough city to even start up a walk. What if I could get enough people together to have a walk to prevent childhood obesity or even just to raise awareness about obesity in America. I'll have to look into it and see if something like that already exists, but I think it would be a great project to work on. Think of all the groups that could get involved! Weight Watchers groups, the Diabetes associations, the American Heart Association... obesity causes so many health problems. I'm sure a lot of groups would want to get involved.

But how about an exercise for today? You know how much I hate my underarm jiggle. Here's another exercise for that. Get down on your hands and knees. Put a small weight (1, 2, or 3 pounds depending on what you feel comfortable with) in your right hand. Support yourself with your left hand and your legs, and pull your right arm to your side so that it forms a right angle, with your upper arm horizontal and your forearm vertical. Extended your arm backwards, straightening it out so that your whole arm is parallel to the ground. Let it down slowly, then repeat. Do this 10-15 times, then switch to the left arm. That should work the backs of your arms, and you can alternate with the couch exercise and the behind the head exercise I added in a previous comment. Good luck! Make sure you give me your feedback about my more recent posts.

The Journey Begins

Well this is it. This is the time when I realize just what I've done to myself. Let me start by explaining just what brings me to this point in my life.

I have struggled with weight my whole life. As a friend of mine jokes, "I've been on a diet since grade school." For me, it started on the last day of 4th grade. I told my parents we needed to diet that summer because I was sick of being made fun of. That next Saturday, we started Weight Watchers. I weighed in as a 144-pound 10 year-old and spent the next two years losing over 20 pounds, reaching my goal weight of 120 pounds just before starting 7th grade, having grown about 5 inches. I felt and looked healthy, but when I returned to school in Fall, the boys still teased me. They called me "Man Cow" and moo'd at me whenever I entered a room. I was devastated, and gained back every last pound by the time I went to high school.

This is where my weight gain kicked into high gear. By my sophomore year, I was up to 160 pounds, despite being an active member of my high school show choir. My junior year I hit 180 pounds, and was soon diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, a reproductive disorder that can either cause or be caused by obesity. My senior year, I researched PCOS to find that there are serious reproductive and health consequences involved with this disease, including a high risk of diabetes. People with PCOS also have a harder time losing weight. A specialist I saw put it this way: "A person with PCOS can eat half the amount of food as a normal person and not lose a pound." I lost control of my weight at that point, reaching 215 pounds by graduation. My freshman year of college I reached 250 pounds, and promised myself to take my dieting seriously over the summer. Unfortunately, my boyfriend tore his ACL and needed to have surgery, putting him out of commission for the whole summer and making it a chore just to get him outside. My summer was spent indoors, either working or watching movies with him. Not only did I not lose any weight, I kept gaining steadily, and on April 5th, 2010 during my sophomore year of college, I reached my highest weight, just over 280 pounds.

Here is what changed everything. I went home for Easter the weekend before, and my sister suggested that I try the Special K diet, saying that she had lost 6 pounds in one week. I needed a jump start, and I needed something so structured that I couldn't cheat. I talked to my boyfriend, who agreed we should start it as soon as we could go grocery shopping. One week into the diet, I am down 8 pounds, currently at 274 pounds. We plan on continuing with the Special K plan for a month (twice the recommended 2 weeks) or until we run out of all the cereal we bought at the beginning.

Once classes are over, we are going to continue on a more relaxed form of the diet, substituting cereal for dinner a few times a week instead of every day. We will also add regular exercise into the mix.

My goal is to lose over 100 pounds. My ideal weight is 175 pounds, and I hope to meet that goal within a year and a half. This goal is lofty, but I need to aim high to push myself.

I will be posting my weight 1 to 2 times a week, because if I learned anything from Weight Watchers, it's that you will drive yourself crazy if you're on the scale every two hours. I will also post my daily food diary with nutritional information provided by the Lose It! app for iPod Touch.

Please leave comments, join my diet plan, suggest exercises or recipes, and join my support system. I am dedicated to kicking this over-eating habit and changing my life around.