Goals, Calculators, and a Challenge

So...here we are, trying to lose weight.  Hopefully this blog will be a tool to help us meet our goals.  I think it is very important to tell others our goals.  For me, that makes it much more real and once I've told someone my goal, it is much harder to change it if I know I'm not going to meet it.  My goal is to lose 15 pounds by the reunion.  I weigh about 155 lbs now, and I was about 140 before I had Ava, so 15 pounds will put me back at my pre-pregnancy weight.  I also think it is important to have a plan of how this goal will be reached.  I plan on incorporating more exercise into my days.  I've slacked off quite a bit lately.  I would like to work out in some way, shape, or form for at least an hour 5 days a week.  The more you exercise, the more you can eat!!

If you are having trouble deciding your goal, a good rule of thumb is to lose one pound a week.  Also, you can find out some things about yourself and your weight.  You can calculate your body mass index, your waist to hip ratio, and many other things at this website:  www.bmi-calculator.net.  Your weight is important, but other things are too.  Such as the amount of fat you have around your belly.  Belly fat is the most dangerous and unhealthy fat to your body.  If you've got a lot, it is important to your health to work to lose it!

Finally, I have a challenge.  I think it would be good for us to post challenges for all of us to do.  They can be daily, weekly, or monthly...whatever you think is good.  The first challenge I would like to implement is a mental/emotional challenge and I'm going to add on to what Andrea would like us to do.  For your challenge today, tell someone, or post on here, your weight loss goals and how you will attain them.  Also, think about what your issues with weight loss are and let someone know.  I will tell you mine.  If you don't care, then just stop reading.

I have always thought of myself as chubby.  When I was in the fifth grade I was a little round.  I had a red and white horizontal striped dress that I hated, but my mom thought was soooo cute. I wore it to school one day and a boy at school told me I was fat, but really good at hiding it most times.  He said that dress didn't hide it well.  If you have doubts about my chubbiness and the red and white dress, just ask Jake.  He'll tell you the same thing.  Through junior high, high school, college, and up to now I continued to think I was chubby.  Today Micah and I were putting up some photo albums in our house and I saw myself in high school and college.  I was skinny and cute!  It makes me so mad to think that I wasted all that time thinking I was fat when I wasn't.  My point behind all that is that I have learned that a healthy lifestyle is a mental thing.  As long as I think I am a fat kid, I will eat and behave like one.  If I change my perception of myself from a junk food junkie to a health conscious person, my behaviors will change also.  I've begun to do this with the Dr. Peppers.  About a month ago, I posted on my blog all the harmful effects of drinking sodas, and I haven't had, or even wanted, a Dr. Pepper since.  For me, this whole thing is mental.  I can't deprive myself or tell myself that I can't have something. Instead, I have to make choices.  I choose not to drink Dr. Pepper because I want my body to be healthy.  Instead of feeling deprived and lacking something, I feel empowered.  I intend over these next several months to continue to change my habits to that of a healthy person.  It is important for me to be healthy for my husband and my daughter and myself.  I don't want Ava to grow up with the same unhealthy habits I have.  Anyways, that's my story.  I may have more to add later.  I challenge to tell someone else your issues with food, exercise, health, weight loss, whatever.  Telling people this stuff helps to hold me more accountable and hopefully it well help you also!