New Beginning

Well, it took a few months, but I finally got my ass up and decided it's time to start over.

The beginning of January, I decided that this year had to be my year to get this weight off. I'm just over a year away from getting my teaching license, and I just don't want to be a fat teacher.

This time around, I've decided to ask for help - and follow through with it. I'm also using a little "helper". I decided that I was going to try Alli. I did a lot of research about the pill before jumping into it. I don't even take medicine when I'm sick - so I really wasn't thrilled about using a pill to lose weight. I really didn't want one of those "get thin quick" offers, and Alli was so much different from the other weight loss suppliments I studied. Alli is FDA approved, which is a good start, plus it doesn't advertise that it will help people lose weight fast without doing any work. From day one, I knew that I had to change my eating habits and my exercise habits or I would be wasting money taking the pills.

The pills are just a suppliment to help stop some of the fat I eat from being stored into my body. The pills actually block 25% of consumed fat from being absorbed. There's no increase in heart rate, no crap about "eat whatever you like" - the information book is honest and realistic - either eat healthy while taking the pills or end up shitting all over yourself basically sums it up the best..LOL The pills do come with side effects, that the company prefers to call "treatment effects". The easy way to describe this is: if you eat more fat than you should, you're going to end up with anal leakage...EWWW!! If that doesn't motivate you to watch what you eat, I don't know what else will.

I decided I wanted to really get in control of things before I came back to my blog. My life is very different than it was a few months ago. I have been on the Alli plan since the middle of January - about 4 weeks. In that time, I've lost 17lbs!! I realized I have to have a scale in my life - and I don't know what I was thinking by not using one.

Every day is a challenge, but I want to report my accomplishments and what I'm up to these days to get things to work for me:

So, like I said - I've lost 17lbs since starting all of this. On January 24th, I stood on the scale to see a nasty 263lbs!! As of Tuesday, February 16th, I weighed in at 245lbs. That's a huge accomplishment for me. So, what am I doing?

I eat 3 meals a day, and one snack. I am eating 1200-1400 calories a day, and my target fat intake is 17-20 grams. I eat basically anything I want - but the fat free or low fat options. All of the dairy I eat is fat-free or 1%, the meat is super lean or fat-free, lots of fish, fresh veggies, fruit, and low calorie bread. I have converted my whole household to eating healthy, so there's no hassle in cooking seperately. I also plan my meals out every Sunday for the next week and then make a shopping list - this has been my favorite tool to staying on target. I do my grocery shopping every Sunday afternoon, and I only buy what is on my list. One thing I have also learned - it's ok to cheat. Because I want to change my lifestyle, I'm now realistic to the fact that I can't go through the rest of my life without eating out or enjoying the occasional slice of pizza - I enjoy my "treat" and then just pick up the next day. I limit myself, though, and try not to indulge more than once every couple of weeks.

As far as exercising goes - I'm LOVING IT!! I bought the Biggest Loser game for my Wii, and it's the BOMB DIGGATY! I weigh in each week, do challenges, and work out 3x's a week. I use the game Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. On Wednesday's, Friday's and Sunday's I work out using a work out DVD (Jillian Michael's 30-day shred, Biggest Loser Cardio Max, or Leslie Sansone's Walk Off the Pounds), or I walk for 45 minutes on the treadmill. Monday nights is my night off. This schedule is working really well for me, and I'm burning a lot more calories with the extra workouts than I would by just working out 3x's a week.

So, that's how my life is doing - I'm really happy with everything...and hopefully I can now continue with positive updates of how things are going with me. Also, I will get around to posting some new pics of me to track my progress.

Till next time. :)