I want my fat back.....ok, not really.

            Yup, I’m cold. I’m freezing. It makes me want my fat back. I don’t know how all you skinny people deal with this cold weather. I had my heat on by October this year. I usually never use heat until November. I used to like my bedroom to be nice and cold too. That way I could snuggle under a pile of blankets. Now my bedroom is the warmest room in my apartment and I still have to snuggle under tons of blankets.

            That’s really all I have to say about this situation. I’m sure I will get used to it. I’m just trying to survive for the rest of the winter. I’ve had to start wearing knee high socks, but now I’ve noticed that my knees are cold. No joke. My knees get cold. I guess I’m going to have to wear thigh high socks, or maybe buy some long underwear. 

You mean there are calories in alcohol?

Yup, it’s true. Alcohol is chalk full of calories. I was in denial and that’s why it was so hard to adjust. I begged, I pleaded, I tried to bargain with Zach and Janelle and they weren’t having it. If I wanted to drink, I had to count the calories as part of my meal and I had to wait until it was time to have a meal! I told them that I just didn’t know if I could do that. What would I do if someone called and wanted to get a beer? What would I do if I had a bad day and wanted to have some cocktails to make myself feel better? I even told them that they didn’t understand because they don’t drink. Yea, none of that had any effect on them. They stuck to their guns, if I wanted to drink, I HAD TO COUNT THE CALORIES AND I HAD TO MAKE IT PART OF MY MEALS! I think I pouted like a 4 year old and told them something like, “well, I’ll try, but I’m not making any promises.” They just smiled and told me that it would be fine. Looking back, I probably made myself look like a raging drunk by having that hissy fit about alcohol, but that was nothing compared to the hissy fit I had at my apartment when I realized I was going to have leave the cream out of my coffee. I mean, I can adjust to the alcohol thing, but now my coffee? I thought I was going to cry. For the record, I’ve been ok with the whole counting alcohol calories and black coffee is pretty damn good. 

What the eff is a meal plan?

I had been working out with Janelle and Ashley for the better part of a year and was really not losing much weight. Janelle was relentless with this meal plan idea and I was just not having it. Eventually Janelle wore me down and I accepted the offer, but I needed a lot of information to make me feel better about making this choice.

Before I could even start this whole thing I had to go get a “bod pod” which of course led me to my next question, “what the eff is a bod pod?” According to the website of the place I go, “it’s the most accurate body composition measurement tool”. I translated that as me sitting in this thing that looks like an egg and when I’m done this nice lady, Dawn, tells me how many pounds of me is pure fat and how many pounds of me is lean mass. When I saw those numbers for the first time, I decided that the meal plan was the way to go, because those numbers were out of control. Someday I’ll scan them and put them up for everyone to see, but I’m just not ready for that yet!

After that Zach took the info and figured out how many calories I should be eating per day. Then those calories were divided into 5 meals spaced three hours apart. Basically, as the day goes on, I eat fewer calories and it’s designed specifically for me. Also, based on the amount of calories I eat I typically lose 1 pound per week. Pretty awesome, I know. Combined with my workouts, I can lose around 2 pounds per week. That is even more awesome. My meal plan has changed three times now, and I’m sure is going to change again. I have moved from only counting calories to counting calories, saturated fat, and trans fats. Don’t get me wrong, it was hard to adjust to this and I was really reluctant at first.

Motivation

I've noticed that everyone seems to have a blog. I’ve also noticed that everyone seems to blog about weight loss or their desire to make healthy changes in their lives. So I've decided that it’s my turn to do the same. I am going to write about my experiences losing weight, but I have some rules for this blog.

1. I will not refer to this as my “journey” and I will not ask you to “follow” me anywhere, even though there is button that asks you to “follow” my blog. I’m not really a fan of this blogging jargon. So, besides right here in this sentence, you will not see “follow me on my journey through weight loss.”
2. This blog is not a forum for me to tell you all my deep, dark secrets and try to find some reason for years of over eating and lack of exercise, so don’t expect to read anything like that. It’s really for me to talk about the funny and not so funny things that have happened since I’ve gotten serious about losing weight.

So, here’s the background information that you need. Pretty much my whole life I’ve been overweight. I was in denial for a long time. I would convince myself that I carried my weight well. I would also look at other overweight people and then say to my friends, “If I ever look like that or get that big, tell me.” So for the record, my friends suck, because I did look like that and none of them told me. Thanks guys. (A sarcasm font would be nice, I’m not really mad at all of you.)

Sometime during college I met Janelle, and she was all sorts of skinny and fit. She would tell me about working out, eating right, and a bunch of other crazy, health conscience things. These were all foreign ideas to me, since I liked to drink A LOT, eat A LOT, and A LOT of other unhealthy things. Anyway, Janelle tried to get me to go to the gym with her. I only went like 2 times. After the first time my arms and upper body were so sore that I couldn’t even lift my beer to my mouth. I had to switch to mixed drinks with a straw for the rest of the night. Besides, it was really hard to workout on 3 hours of sleep and a hangover.

A few years later, I ran into Janelle again in a graduate class. Out of no where she was all, “hey, you should come to the gym with me.” I was thinking, “Geeze, this girl is all about the gym.” I told her that I should be able to do that, but I was going to have to rejoin, since I let my membership expire. Anyway, I started going to the gym with her again and we picked up another girl, Ashley, from our class to join our little group. The three of us have now been working out together for nearly 2 years.

After a few months of working out together, Janelle got another bright idea. Again, she was all, “hey, you should let Zach (her husband) put you on a meal plan.” My response was, “how does booze fit into this meal plan?” After some reluctance, I agreed, and here I am today. One year ago today, I started following a meal plan, which I will explain more at a later time. This is really why I decided to start a blog now. I’ve been sticking to this meal plan for year now, and I’ve lost 71 pounds and 31.75 inches between the meal plan and working out. I figure after one year I must be pretty serious about this.

           

I hope that everyone that reads this finds it entertaining, inspiring, or informative. I really just plan on writing about my observations over the past year and my own opinions about all of this. So, thanks for reading.