The backstory

I didn't worry much about dieting or exercise for much of my adult life. Life was too short to avoid eating yummy food and it was much too short to waste my time in gyms. Every once in a while I'd look at myself and think "it would be nice to lose some weight". I'd make an attempt for a couple of weeks then dive into chocolate (preferably bags of milk chocolate chips) and forget about it again.

December 2008 I decided that I really needed to lose weight. I set New Year's Day 2009 to be my start date and signed up at SparkPeople that day. I was floored to realize I weighed 212lbs and figured I'd be at my goal weight of 140lbs by September. I even had a little chart with all my weight loss milestones and my reward for reaching those goals (ahh... so naive... so innocent). My biggest downfall was weight fluctuations. There's not much more frustrating then struggling for a month and a half to lose 8lbs only to weigh yourself and discover you've regained six pounds in a week. Sure, it's only water weight but it was enough for me to say "screw the diet... if all my hard work can disappear in a week what difference does it make".

That July I watched as my life spiraled out of my control. And in the middle of all my troubles my Mom got around to loading her spring photos onto her computer and emailed me a couple. One was a picture of me sitting at a picnic table that May. To say it was a shock would be an understatement. I'd put a lot of effort into looking good that day and was wearing my favourite capris, my favourite shirt, and a vest I loved. This was not the me I pictured when I imagined myself.

I decided as soon as I saw my picture that, while I couldn't do anything about issues beyond my control, I could do something about my weight. By the end of the following July I'd dropped down to 170lbs... a 42lb loss. By the following week I'd bumped back up to 173lbs and I've been bouncing between 173lbs and 176lbs ever since.

I've made a lot of positive steps since July 2009. I'm eating a lot more fruits and vegetables, walking more, and we joined our local YMCA last summer. But after stalling, weight loss wise, for 8 months I felt it was time to do something different. Something that forced me to think about what I'm doing daily and make myself accountable in writing. I stink at food journalling and counting calories but I can blather for hours so I figured a blog would be my best option :o)

I'll leave you with a more recent photo of myself, taken myself after I cut my own hair last month.