After many failed weight loss attempts over the last 12-years I am hoping that the one I am starting today... Leap Day... will be the one! I've done, Atkins, Weight Watchers (a couple times) NutriSystem, my own variation of NutriSystem, and now Atkins again. I always start off gung ho but have never made it past the 2-month mark. I've been most successful with Atkins in the past.
Why am I more optimistic this time? First the hubby is joining me on this journey. I won't be alone in my sometimes agonizing journey. He's not doing it for weight loss but more for long term health reasons. At his annual exam his cholesterol was a little high and his doctor recommended a low carb lifestyle. Hence the word lifestyle. This won't be a diet for my hubby and me, this is going to be our new way of eating. Changing 35-years of habits is going to be rough. 99% of my tried and true recipes for our family contain some sort of carbohydrate. We love pasta, potatoes, bread, chips, you know, the good stuff. So I've been digging through Pintrest to get recipes for mashed garlic cauliflower, zucchini noodles, portobello mushroom buns & spaghetti from squash. All good just not the comfort foods one grows up with. It's going to take some trial and error and work to find new recipes to replace old ones, those good tried and true recipes that you go to in a pinch or fall back on when meal planning and don't need a recipe to know the ingredients. Really I'll be reprogramming. I'm optimistic it won't take too long to adjust.
Second, I spent way too much money on a treadmill. I don't like wasting money and so the hit to the pocketbook will hopefully add to the motivation. I've wanted a treadmill for years. I don't like mornings, I'm not going to get up and walk in the morning, it just ain't happening. Walking in the afternoon is hard, life gets busy and well I live in South Texas, it also gets hot. Evenings are rarely an option with 4-kids all going different ways. I'm also not afraid to admit that I am horribly out of shape and we live in the hills. One trek around my block and I am miserable. I need nice even ground. If I'm miserable the odds of me getting out there several times a week is not good. With the treadmill I can still be lazy but get the exercise. I can control the weather, topography, work on the computer, watch a movie, read, and more while getting my workout in! WooHoo!
My ultimate goal is to lose 90 lbs. My short term goal is to lose 10% of my body weight, rounded up that means 24 lbs. I'm optimistic I can lose that in 6 to 7 weeks. My goal after that is to see the scale under the 200 lb mark. We might be going to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in August, my goal for then is to be 199 lbs or less. That's averaging a loss of 2 lbs a week.
My goal for this blog is to journal my weight loss journey. I enjoy journaling and hope this blog can be one more tool for keeping me accountable. I hope to post on here 5+ times a week, even if it was just the days menu. So ultimately this blog is for me and will be pretty mundane but if anyone wants to follow along that is great too!
