Starting the blog adventure

June 2006

Today is the day that I take a huge leap out of my comfort zone and start blogging my adventures.  Over the last few years I have struggled with gaining and losing the same 40ish pounds.  My weight has been a yo-yo since before John and I got married.  Before our wedding, I was determined to fit into that wedding dress (which was a discontinued style and not able to be ordered, meaning I had to lose some weight just to make it fit!) I did what I needed to and was actually 5 pounds from my goal when we got married.  Fast forward 6 years to last fall.  I had gained almost 50 pounds back and was feeling very frustrated.  Something had to change!

Last October I joined a gym, which got this journey started.  It has been a slow moving 4 month, which I will get to later, but it has all been about moving forward.   A few summers ago, I signed up for an 8 mile walk with a good friend on mine.  Throughout that day we kept telling ourselves that we just had to keep moving forward. As long as we were moving forward, we were 1 step closer to the finish line.  That morning has stuck with me and I find myself using that statement over and over.  Just keep moving forward.

Myself (on left) and Wendy
at Packers PreSeason game -
2 months before I joined
 the gym

When I joined the gym this time, I told myself this was going to be different.  I needed to stay focused and get myself there at least 3 times a week.  It was just a few weeks after I joined that I signed up for 6 months of training session.  Twice a week I was committed to being there and working my butt off (hopefully in the literal sense too!)  My trainer is awesome!  He was exactly what I needed - a sense of humor, makes me work hard and pushes my to my limits and then some!

Today marks the end of 4 months worth of training session at the gym.  I can honestly say this is the longest I stayed committed going to the gym on a regular basis.  I join with great intentions and ambition and go a few several times a week for about the first month.  Slowly, I find that I am going only a few times a week, then once a week and by the time 4 months rolls around, I have a useless gym membership that I virtually never use. I will not say that it has been an easy 4 months.  In fact there has been nothing easy about it!  Frustrating is often the word would come to mind when I think about the last 4 months.

Frustrating for may reasons, but the biggest one is that  the scale have been extremely stubborn.  I never miss a workout.  If my trainer has had to cancel a session for any reason, I am still at the gym, doing what I need to do.  I have become more conscious about what I am eating and making sure that I am making smart choices.  According to the scale, I have only lost about 6 pounds at this point in time.  This just does not seem right, especially since I have started seeing  a loss of inches whenever we do measurements.  In fact, I have lost about the same number of inches as I have pounds!  I have to keep telling myself that I am gaining muscle through my workouts so this could be muscle gain as I am losing the fat.  All I know is that I hope this is the case!

My husband has been extremely supportive in everything that I have been doing.  He knows how important this is for me and does what he can to make sure that I get there- including making sure he leaves work in time for get home before I have to leave to head to the gym, helping shuttle our son around when I have workouts scheduled at the gym and more.  Even when it comes to going out to eat, he is always conscious of where we choose to go so that I can make smart food choices.  A few weekends ago,  he mentioned ordering Chinese takeout, but knows that is a huge red flag for me - between the sodium in the sauces and the carbs in the rice, I have found that I need to steer clear of it whenever I can.  Don't get me wrong, I like going out for Chinese just as much has him.  I just need to limit how often I splurge and enjoy it!  A few days after he mentioned Chinese, his brother happened to be coming into town for a few day.  One of these nights, I had plans with some friends and was not going to be home for dinner.  Instead of going out to eat, they all decided to order pizza and Chinese.  Win for everyone.  They got to enjoy the pizza and Chinese, I had a fun evening out with friends and everyone was happy!

Here is to the continuation of what I started a few months ago, now I am just bringing friends along for the ride!