The Starting Line! (again!)

Well today is the first day of my program. I'm pretty excited about it (see previous post for information). I splurged  quite a bit this last week, so I gained three pounds, but I was just trying to get a few specific meals in before I couldn't eat them anymore. So I start off at 188.1 and hopefully in about a month I'll be 178; that's the plan anyways. This morning I don't feel super great, but mostly because I stayed up pretty late reading my book and the cat is really bothering my allergies lately. So I guess it's a low point, but that means it'll only go up from there.

I think the hardest thing is going to be drinking the amount of water I'm supposed to. The guideline is half of your body weight in ounces of water. So since I'm 188 I should drink at least 94 oz. of water. The program suggests 100 to start out, which should also help with the hunger since I'll be all full of water. For those of you that know me well, usually 16 oz of water is about the top of my usual consumption. I'm going to miss drinking milk, I love that stuff! I'm usually not to crazy about the taste, or lack thereof, of water, but I'm just going to have to get used to it. It's probably one of those things that I've never done and it's partially how I've gotten to my weight. My poor digestive track has probably never gotten the water it needs to run properly. So hopefully just drinking that amount of water will make a big difference with everything, even before you factor in all the good nutrients I'll get from the food.

So I'll keep posting about stuff along the way, 150 here we come!
Here are my before pictures. could I look anymore depressing? haha

Reboot and a Fresh Start

Okay so I haven't updated this in forever, I know. But I went back in and put all the info on the chart, and did a new chart format so that's fun. Notice the nice little increase from May until now. That, my friends, is what they call stress weight. My job was making my body hold onto weight because I was stressing it out, and it also made me eat WAY too many carbs. So we're back to the dreaded low 180s where I cannot seem to get past. Enter super-cousin to save the day! My cousin Meghan is a coach for Take Shape for Life and has used the program to lose her pregnancy fat, so I figure if it worked for her, it can work for me! I always curse my genetics on my mom's side for giving me massive thighs that like to store fat for winter, except they seem to think I live in the arctic and winter lasts for 12 months. But Meghan has those same genes, so I'm confident about how this can work. Here's her website. Check it out! My doctor says if I'm a good girl and really stick to the program, I could lose 20 lbs by my next appointment in two months. So if that's true, I'll be about the same weight I was when I was 16. (BTW, I was about 165 when I got my driver's license, and I lied and put 160. No 16 year old girl should have to lie about her weight on her driver's license, that's just sad.)

At my doctor's appointment he said everything looked good. My blood pressure has come down a bit, so that's good. We were watching that since it's been a little higher than he'd like. He said my thyroid levels by the one measurement are where other doctors might start tapering my meds down, but then looking at my other count, the one that measure how much thyroid I actually have in my body or something, I'm about right where I need to be. So moving ahead, since I did gain weight, we talked about what we should do differently and I mentioned that my cousin did this program, and he said he thinks it's a great idea. I'm most excited about how everything is made by doctors to be exactly what I need because Jake and I are terrible about eat well balanced meals. We forget to get enough protein and calorie-wise we're probably okay, but they're calories that are not really helping us do anything. My face has been continuing to clear up, just a few break outs at my time of the month, but pretty good. The proactiv has really made my skin feel so great. I've been using the dark spot corrector they have to try and lighten my acne scaring, but I'm not satisfied with the improvement yet. I'll give it a little more time, but it's really the only thing left that bugs me about my skin.

So hopefully my program materials and food will get here soon and I can get going on shedding these last 30 lbs or so. In two months it will be right before the holidays, new clothes for Christmas, here I come!