Why Keeping Your Resolutions to Lose Weight is Important

Each day that you have not begun your weight loss crusade could be more damaging to your health than you realize. If keeping your New Years resolution to lose weight has been hard for you, please, do not give up! "Losing weight" has become such a brutal, but important cliché for all of humankind. Have I lost those dreadful 20 pounds myself? No, not yet, but today marked the first day of my life changing journey to shedding the pounds, or should I say shredding the pounds, as Jillian Michaels' "30 Day Shred Workout Program" puts it. If you want to know what the contestants of The Biggest Loser had to endure, and you have Time Warner Cable, you can tune in to this exercise program through OnDemand.

Since making this weight loss resolution during the last seconds of 2008, I am guilty of snoozing my alarm, which goes off at 5am for worship, 6am for exercise, and 7am, just as a reminder that I still had not gotten up at the sound of the last two alarms. So here it is, January 14^th, and after eating chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon with my two-year old son, and cookies n' cream ice cream after 8pm for the last three days, it was now or never. To be completely honest, it was not the promise I made to myself in those last seconds that prompted me to get some fire under me today; three health alarms went off over the course of the week, and they reminded me that my resolution to lose weight is not for vanity.

My weight while it remains undisclosed, has reached far beyond my wildest imagination, even with the birth of my second son. During my annual women's check-up, to my surprise, I was 10 pounds heavier than I was in August when a physical revealed I had in fact lost the weight put on during my pregnancy. This completely floored me. Not only am I the same weight I was at the time of delivery, but also I am beginning to feel the weight, and see myself perhaps as others may see me. Losing 20 pounds was the goal and I am very excited to sweat to shred these pounds, however, losing an additional 20 pounds would put my body mass index (BMI) to the "normal" and healthy index that it should be for someone my age and height.

As much as I hate to say it, and as you can imagine for someone who has never experienced anything over a size 12, according the Body Mass Index (BMI) chart provided in Health Care Partner's health information brochure, I am clinically obese. Can you tell just looking at me? No. I might look like what some may classify as "healthy" or "thick" but not obese. According to the chart, a person with a body index of 30 and over for any height is obese. This chart is for adults aged 20 years and older. The dangerous affects of obesity are breathing issues, diabetes, heart disease, and premature death; the fire that got me started this morning.

My blood pressure was 117 over 22 when taken at my annual check-up. When I asked my nurse if that was good, she said, "Ehhh, it's not bad." Because my blood pressure had become a concern with the second pregnancy, I took an early pregnancy leave in an attempt to stabilize it. From that point on, things just have not been quite the same. However, as a young 28 year old, I thought my youth would take care of that problem. High blood pressure runs on both my mother and father's side of the family, still I took no caution. Earlier this week I developed a migraine type headache that did not let up for 3 days. On the third day, I took my blood pressure with a home pressure taker I used during pregnancy, and it revealed a pressure rate of 122 over 84. It was a very fearful moment-of-truth and I realized that even the youngest person is susceptible to high blood pressure. With a combination of stress, unhealthy eating habits, and being overweight, 122 over 84 was critical. By the way, admitting to being overweight is a first for me and is very sobering.

According to the Mayo Clinic, you can have high blood pressure for years without a single symptom. That is why it is important, even in your young age, to check your blood pressure and keep your scheduled doctor visits. If you are like me, and both sides of your family have a history of high blood pressure, do not be like me and ignore that you are at risk of getting it. High blood pressure is the number one cause for heart attack and stroke. You hear about these affects on TV, and see it in magazines, but did you ever stop to think, "It could happen to me?" I did this last week when my headache persisted, factoring in my weight and eating habits. If I did not make the change at that moment, I might as well have been a dead woman walking. It is that serious.

Eating too much and too late are my worst habits. Eating has always been the best past time for me when, watching my favorite shows on Saturday, studying, brainstorming, or rewarding myself for accomplishments or meeting important deadlines. Moreover, who can forget the number one reason for unnecessary eating, depression? My problem is that I fight to eat in moderation. Three chocolate bars that a normal person would go through in a week, I eat in thirty minutes. I once purchased a 2-pound jar of peanuts and I went through it within a matter of a week. Yes, better timing than with my chocolate bars, but once again, for the average person, 2 pounds of peanuts in one week is just too much. I truly believe that you can eat what you want, but, in moderation.

Eating after 6pm for me and as a general rule of thumb is something I also fight to avoid doing. Working from home affords me the freedom every working parent would want however; it also compels me to work unconventional hours. My real free time is between 5am and 9am, and after 8pm when my children are sleep. It seems only natural that I would eat when my children eat, between 5pm and 5:30pm, but since I am a new work-at-home parent, I take advantage of that free time to cram in work, just until the finances become stable. What is worse; if it is too late in the evening and the meal was heavy, I call myself eating light by eating chips or other food that is unproductive in the body, especially after not eating for hours.

I have been making changes to my eating habits even before these alarming issues came about, because I do not want my children to develop this type of eating habit. Even as young as two-years old (and younger), children develop a pattern, if you will, of what they would rather eat or what seems to satisfy them for a meal. I would rather talk to my boys when they get older about how to contribute to ending the issue of obesity rather than talk to them about how losing the weight they have gained will lower their risk of having a heart attack.

The details of why I am determined more than ever to lose not 20, but 40 pounds over the next 60 days is not only sobering, but also puts me in a vulnerable state, but I bring good tidings. It is not over for me, and if you are reading this for yourself or in thought a loved one in need of a change, I urge you and your loved one to take this life saving step and get your body in order. The factors that make men and women more vulnerable to heart attacks and strokes are different, but the top three contributors are unhealthy weight (often known as obesity), high blood pressure and cholesterol, and unhealthy eating habits. You owe it to yourself and to your purpose in life to live.

Source: Healthcare Partners, www.healthcarepartners.com; Mayo Clinic, www.mayoclinic.com