My Quest to Lose Weight Without Surgery #1

Day 1

Entry 1

It took a lot of thought and prayer to come to the decision to publicize my journal and I hope that my story can help someone else who is looking to lose weight without surgery. I have been tagged with the nasty and clinical label of being 'obese'. It is a harsh thing to hear and it is very embarrassing. I think to myself, "I'm ten pounds overweight, not obese!" but doctors think otherwise. I know that it is important to maintain a healthy weight and I have read all kinds of literature that teaches me how. I have also had trainers in the past who have offered up great advice, some of it I still use to this day. I have gone from a great and healthy weight to being over weight and then back to healthy weight over and over again. How you might ask? Pregnancy is the reason, but over indulgence WHILE I was pregnant is the real culprit. I always told myself, "the baby needs this" or "the baby wants this". Lies. All lies, just excuses I gave myself to make myself feel better about what I was doing to my own body.

I am not too different from hundreds of thousands of people battling against obesity out in the world today. I always come out fighting though, I get all determined, all riled up.... I have great intentions and then I fail. (Albeit not always, I had great success finally losing and keeping off thirty pounds after my first child was born.) I got pregnant with baby #2 in 2006 and then BAM! In 2007 baby #3 came along. There were only 13 months between my two boys so I never got an opportunity to start getting myself back in shape again. You can imagine my physical condition only worsened.

So, here I am today, new year, completely dedicated to losing this weight and for good! I am a proud Navy Reservist and it has been difficult being pregnant the last two years of my service and not feeling as 'ready' and in good shape as I used to be. I was a Navy instructor for 2 years and I was constantly on my students' cases to lose weight and be 'fit for the fight'. I feel by not getting this weight off sooner that I have just made a fool of myself and lessened myself in the eyes of my former students. I want to make that all go away. I want to be the beautiful and more healthy me that I used to be! The guys at the base used to feel my arm muscles and say, "wow!". I would like to have that back, especially being a mother to three amazing children!

So I had this idea that if I publicized this journey I could show the world what it is like on the inside of this war. I hope to help people realize how difficult it is for someone to lose weight and to show you that it is just as difficult for some people to lose 5 lbs as it is for someone else to lose 50. I believe that we can all do whatever we want as long as we believe in ourselves and trust in our faith systems. (For me, it is Christianity, but I believe that no matter WHAT you believe in, your faith will help you overcome so much.)

So, this is the introduction to my quest to lose weight. I hope that you will all follow me day by day to see how I am progressing. I intend to publish my meals and my weigh-ins. I will tell you right away that I am under a physician's care and that my 'plan of action' is being closely monitored by my family doctor. I have also been counseled by a nutritionalist. Some people will not agree with some of the things that I do and that is perfectly fine. We all have plans tailored to our bodies, our medical needs and health backgrounds. My physician believes that I am able to sustain myself according to my plan because of my level of activity and my excellent overall health. I will put a standard warning out there that though I am making MY plan public, I do not encourage anyone to follow it without consulting their own doctor. Please consult with your doctor before starting any 'diet' or exercise plan!

Here's to the beginning!

Today's date is January 6th, 2009.

My current weight is 169.5 and I am 5'2".

I am also 29 years old and have a history of Heart Disease in my family. (For this I do routine EKG's just to make sure everything is still going along just as it should!)

Today I jogged 1 and 1/2 miles and walked 1/8 of a mile. Now, I have been jogging for years and the first time I started back jogging after the birth of my 3rd baby I could not run more than 1/4 of a LAP without fizzing down to a walk. There's no shame in that. I believe you start where you can and you work your way up. Don't ever take yourself down for not being 'stronger' because you WILL get there OVER TIME. I believe the main thing is to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF and NEVER GIVE UP.

Getting out and starting a routine is probably the hardest thing in the world to do because there are so many outside factors and distractions to keep us from doing it. If you're like me, you probably see a workout as WORK! You'll find as you go along though that once you get into a good routine you won't have to FORCE YOURSELF to get out there and do it. Believe me, your workout will be the one thing in your life you DON'T schedule over! Anyway, I want to save more for tomorrow. God Bless.