The first step

Last night, I watched a show on TV about obese people who had surgery to reduce the size of their stomachs, and their struggles and successes in losing weight. The show also followed a family who were all obese with medical problems. All of the people lost a heap of weight, but were left with disgusting amounts of lose skin that they had to get surgically removed. I never want to be like that, so I have to make an effort now to stop this cycle and get healthy.

My weight crept up when I stopped playing sport seriously when I started university 4 years ago. I was training for a couple of hours a day every day, then dropped off to 5 days a week, then 3, and eventually to nothing. The thing that didn’t change was my eating habits. My weight isn’t as bad as these people on the show last night. I’m a size 16 – 18, and I don’t have trouble walking up stairs or anything. I’m simply bigger than I want to be, and I want to be healthy and make good choices.

This year I started playing sport again, and I know that if I get back into it seriously, I’ll lose the weight and be back down to my ideal weight (70kg) in a matter of months. However, my boyfriend and I would like to change out relationship with food, so we’re putting good fuel into our bodies.

Last night, we went through out fridge, freezer and pantry. We hate to waste food, so we’ve decided to keep what we have, but make good choices (like having ONE cookie, rather than 4!). We will also be going grocery shopping as we have NO veges in the house. We have cut fizzy by finishing the open bottles that were in the fridge, and taking out the unopened bottles. We are purchasing a water purifier/cooler today (yay for 20% off sales!!), and will be drinking water instead of fizzy drink.

I’ve tried to lose weight before, but I think I really need the support and motivation of someone who will hold me accountable. I need, at least at first, to be strict with myself, to make meal plans and to stick to them. This blog is to keep me accountable.

I don’t want to deny myself food, I just want to teach myself to make good choices. I’d like to make sure that every day, I do some sort of exercise. I’ve decided that on top of sport twice a week (once for an hour, and once for 2 hours), I’ll go down to the lagoon by my house and walk around it. I’ve set myself the ultimatum that I have to walk around the lagoon a set number of times, and once I’ve done it that many times, I’m done. That means, if I walk, it will take longer than if I choose to run. I’m thinking probably 4-5 times around, but I’m going to walk it today at a decent pace and see how many times I can go around in approximately 1/2h.

So here I am at the start of my journey. I’ll share some weights and measurements when I take them, and I’ll also share any successes or setbacks I face along the way. In saying that, I don’t want this blog to be just about my weight loss; I want this to be a little bit of everything where I can share my passions and exciting news and day to day mundane things.

Until next time,

Lauren