The start of 2011

My first post gave a brief bio and ended with me talking about Dec 2010. "The end of 2010 brought me to the mindset that I can be healthier and that I deserve to be healthy."

With the start of 2011 I decided to really work on my resolution which was the same as last year..

To be more active!

This is a general goal/resolution. It is for all aspects of my life and not just health. I want to be more active emotionally, spiritually, socially, physically and educationally.  This blog will help me because I hope to meet more people and be accountable for my activities.

On January 2nd I started my food diary. It is the one thing that has worked in all the years I have been trying to lose weight. I decided to start slow and each month add something new. For January it was working on my eating. I pretty much cut out fast food and started to measure and account for everything I ate. I also started talking about my plans to be healthier and get off my meds. I have reawakened my love of veggies. Spinach has become a snack at times instead of chips. I realized that frozen veggies are much easier for me than fresh. I have a problem with fresh veggies going bad. I buy them with all good intentions and the forget they are in the drawer. With the frozen I can steam some up anytime. In being more accountable certain foods that I would eat on a regular basis are now more for a treat like cereal and chips. Each week I have been searching the grocery to find something new to try. One week it was brussell sprouts. I am still not sure about those.

For February I started to exercise. I joined the Y and also signed up to do the activity challenge at work. I committed to walking up the stairs at work. February was all about the cardio workouts. I went to water aerobics. I used the treadmill and the elliptical machines. I of course also kept up my food diary and more defined what my goals are. I worked out my mini-goals to get me to 250 by my 40th birthday. I am hoping that by then I will be off most if not all of my meds.

March was suppose to be about adding weight training. I have not been as active on this as I would like. I believe this will be more of a 2 month process. I get so overwhelmed with weight training. I am also apprehensive about doing strength training at the Y. I know it is my own fears. Noone at the north Lexington Y has given me any reason to feel that it would be a problem. I just am so petrified about the machines at times. I use to love some strength training and want to get that back. At home I have a bench as well as dumbbells in various weights. (1/2/3/4/8/10 lbs) I also got a book the other day at Jo-Beth.

I am hoping it will help me to set up a routine that I can do at home. The problem I have is that I keep thinking I am not going to be doing the right exercises. This fear keeps me from doing anything. I am working on getting over the fear. I have also printed out some of the programs on spark people for strength training. I did do 5 upper body exercises at 2 sets of 12 reps for about 2 weeks.

The quick glance I have been able to do of the book gives me hope. It has some routines and gives a good/easy way to set up a routine depending on fitness level.

For April the goal will be to get a dumbbell routine for a full body workout. I also plan to sign up the Tai Chi class. I took it once before years ago and enjoyed it.

And So the blog begins

And as most blogs begin I will start off with talking alittle bit about myself. My name is Denise and I have been fat all my life. I can not remember a time that I have not been overweight and my photo albums pretty much confirm that I have always been pudgy. I remember going with my mom to a weight loss place and I had to be under 10 years old since it was before we moved to Kentucky. I can not remember the name of the place but it had equipment to work out on and we had to keep a food diary. I think they had me on 1000 calories. This would have been in the late 70's. I sometimes wish I could remember the name of the place. I think my mom might even have some of the paperwork packed away in the attic. I believe this was my first commercial diet. I found looking in my baby book that the doctor at one time gave my mom a low-carb diet food list for me. It also has in the notes about that I should not be more than 63lbs before I was 6. On 10/20/77 (7 days before my 6th b-day) I was at 64.5lbs. Whoops. So the records in my baby book support that I have been overweight all my life. The picture below is when I was 7 1/2 years old. The summer of  '79.

Fast forward to high school/college and the teasing. I was the big girl and turned to food. I have blocked out much of my school years. With facebook I have been reminded about things and people even have some pictures of me from that time. I was in band and was active because of marching band. I do not know how much I weighed but I know I was shopping in the plus sized section.

I still have a dress from my senior year and if I wanted I could go upstairs and check out the size but not really interested. In college I swam each year since we had to take PE at least 1 semester. I loved the fact that it was something I could do by myself and not have to be in a group sport. I so did not want to have to do a group activity like in high school. That fear of being the slowest or last to be picked. With swimming I would go to the pool 2-3 times a week and get my laps in and be done. Well that was for 3 of the semesters. 1 semester there was a new teacher and he wanted to make it more group. We had relays and other things. I hated that semester.

Now I am almost 40 and over 300. I remember years ago saying to myself that I never wanted to see 300. I have been over 300 for over a year now. The biggest tipping point happened alittle over 2 years ago when my boyfriend moved out. I know I went into a depression and just did not care. Fast food became my friend and eating became almost everything in my life.

In Sept 2010 the scale at the doctor was 339lbs. Also at this appointment I was officially diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Something clicked in my brain and I started to make small changes. Instead of having fast food for lunch I was bringing my lunch. I figured out that the back stairs at work were easier to go up and down than the front so I started using the stairs instead of the elevator. My work has a health program that does challenges and in Nov/Dec they had a maintain dont gain challenge. I did the challenge and started to think about joining a gym and other things I wanted to do. The end of 2010 brought me to the mindset that I can be healthier and that I deserve to be healthy.

I think the end of 2010 is a good end to this post. Next will be about the first quarter of 2011 and the changes that I have had.