About Me

Hi all!

Welcome to my new Blog!  I'm sure you've all read your share of blogs, fitness and weight-loss tips.  I am a crazy person when it comes to Pinterest boards on Health and Fitness.  Maybe, you're like me and obsessively look at those boards and never really do much about it.

I've struggled with gaining weight since college, particularly since starting birth-control.  I had really bad luck with the Depo-shot, and struggled to get back down to a healthy weight since then.  To be honest, I didn't mind the weight gain, I was happy with how I looked, and wasn't too concerned with what size or shape I was.

I realized at the beginning of this year that I wanted to get back to a healthy size for me.  I put on a few more pounds after my most recent surgery, and wanted to do something.

What kind of plan should a girl follow who hates running, hates cardio, and loves food?  My mother has had awesome luck with Yoga, Zumba, and running.  I'm trying really hard with Yoga, I like the flexibility and stretching, but I can't seem to focus on the uninteresting (to me) parts: breathing, calming my mind, relaxing.  I find my mind wandering, snapping back to Yoga, then back off somewhere else.  And as an uncoordinated, not-at-all graceful person, Zumba is terrifying.  Maybe I can join some sort of elderly Zumba class, so I look awesome and super-graceful.  My mother also told me years ago that "maybe you're not built for running," which I think has something to do with my tree-trunk Polish legs.  It would be a lot of stress on my lack-of-ankles, I suppose.

I tried a Weight-Watchers meeting, which I liked.  But, I'm a server, and live in an expensive city.  Since I can't afford the prices, I checked in with my Grandmother, who goes to her own support group.  It's called TOPS, Take Off Pounds Sensibly, and is a support group with no specific diet plan, much, much lower cost, and is filled with awesome people to help you along your way.  Spoiler alert: it is mostly older women who go, but, if you want to lose weight, make some friends, and maybe learn how to knit, I would suggest trying out a meeting!  The cool thing about TOPS, besides being super-affordable, is that they let you check out as many different chapters (for free) until you find one you like.  It works for me because it holds me accountable.  They have a weekly weigh-in, small prizes for the Biggest Loser of the week, quarter and year, and usually have a silly game going for motivation.   I'm not a very sociable, outgoing person, and I managed to get through my first month sincerely enjoying myself.  It only took me a year to work up the nerve to go to a meeting.
And, after joining TOPS, I have lost weight four of the five weeks I've gone.

Something else that has really helped me is MyFitnessPal.  Women at my meetings have also had good luck with LoseIt and SparkPeople.  Hey man, whatever works for you.  I tried handwriting a journal with food entries, but I found that it's much easier on my phone, and I like to journal after each weigh-in, with how I did, what I did wrong, what I did right, and a small goal for each week.

So here's what I'm doing to lose weight.  I'm going slow.  I'm not trying to lose it all really fast, then put it right back on.  I'm not some kind of sucker.  I'm focusing on staying under about 1,500 calories a day, and trying to work out at least three times per week.  I know I could lose a lot faster, but I don't want to be a person completely consumed by weight-loss, calorie counts, and carbs.  If I kick it tomorrow, I don't want to spend my last day feeling guilty about Chipotle for lunch.

This plan won't be a quick fix, and with my starting measurements, 5'6" 219 pounds, it will take me between seven months to a year to lose down to my goal weight.  I am focusing on long-term goals, not short term results.

I hope you'll keep reading!  I will post about my good weeks, bad weeks, what's working for me, what's not working.  You will get to hear about tasty recipes, fun workouts, not-so-fun workouts (I'm talking about you Jillian Michaels) and how a chubby girl turns into a healthy girl.

Follow me if this sounds mildly interesting!
Good luck getting rid of some pounds!