Countdown To Day One

It's not quite start time yet, but I've got work to do to prepare. I am at this moment probably as unhealthy as I've ever been. I've made a few efforts to get better in the last two years, but each time, life got in my way as it often does. I "forget" to exercise or flat out find reasons not to do it. I am 32, with two children, and live the fairly sedentary lifestyle of a writer. I am overweight, yes, but more importantly, I am out of shape and unhealthy. I don't exercise as much as I should and I eat too much.

I gave up caffeinated coffee almost two years ago, switching entirely to decaf and I drink it black except at my motherinlaw's house. I keep my caffeine limited to soda, my soda limited (mostly) to Coke Zero, and I try to limit that (but I could totally do better). I don't eat a lot of junk but Friday nights are my cheat night - something decadent to munch on with my friends when we gather to watch Supernatural.

I am a stress eater. I eat when I'm upset, PMSy, depressed, sad, nostalgic, and pretty much every other down moment. I turned to comfort food a lot after my youngest son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (an autism spectrum disorder). I turn to comfort food pretty much every October around the anniversary of my mom's death. Heck, I turn to comfort food when it's too sunny, too hot, too cold. Any reason will do. The thing I learned during my last attempt at this healthy thing is this: you can love food and still be healthy. That's what I want.

I'm looking to lose weight, certainly. I don't want to find myself edging into diabetes like my father and honestly, I'd really like to feel better about my shape. I'm not looking to look like a cover model (too skinny). I am curvy and I want to keep my curves dang it - I like them. I just want all that space between the curves to be less pillowy and more firm. You know, hourglass not body pillow.

So - what am I planning to do with this space? I don't want to bore you with calorie counting and number crunching. I may post recipes I find or create that are yummy and healthy. I will likely post great odes to the foods I'm avoiding. I may talk about various exercises or equipment. I may discuss how miserable I am or how much my body hurts. But hopefully, by the time we reach my deadline, I'll have reached my goal.

My goals are easy: drop enough weight so I am completely out of the danger zone, drop my resting heart rate to a far far better number than it is now, feel better. Not feel better about my shape (that's MY issue, not my body's issue). Feel Better. I want to feel better overall. Not feel tired every day at 2pm. Not feel like I'm dragging by the end of the day. Plus, they say exercise helps with mood and I could definitely use that.

So - in a few short days, I'll post my start points and then comes the hard part. I'm hoping that by keeping this daily (hopefully) journal, I can stay on track better than I have in the past. Last year I did make it four months and made huge progress but I've lost all the progress I made in the last five months. Hope you'll come along with me.

~S