START, not stop!

[Defrock]

Hey everyone!

Time to stop looking and start doing. I'm Jessica, 23 years old, and tired of making excuses for why I can't do something. I graduated with a BA in Political Science last year in May. I've always been a bulky kid, even when I was younger and participated in softball and basketball. I've made some pretty bad life choices regarding my health, and it's time to reverse them.

When I was living with my parents they hardly ever cooked food. It was always take-out or delivery, and that sets you up for pretty bad habits for life. While going through college, my life was hectic, and having a dinning hall where food was prepared for you and you could eat all you wanted really helped instill that habit, and set me up for the heaviest weight gain of my life. Halfway through my junior year I ballooned up to 283lbs. I made some changes then and joined Sparkpeople.com and made some progress and from the beginning of January 2010 to April 2010 down to 240lbs. Since then I've gone up and down. I made changes I couldn't stick with because they involved stopping doing things.

I'm now 252lbs at around 5'8". I'm tired of looking in a mirror and seeing someone I don't want to see. I'm tired of shaming myself and being reclusive because I'm afraid of how other perceive me.

I'm ready to start!

I've already made a few changes that I am proud of and know I can stick with:

Since November 2nd, I've started exercising 3 times a week ~ 45 min during my lunch break at work (benefits of having a gym at work). I've only missed a few days, one being I needed to meet a really important deadline for the JET Program, and holidays, but I took my Mom's dogs out for a walk. When I'm at work I haven't let myself make an excuse for why I can't get in that gym and get something done. Now it feels weird when I'm not in the gym on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, and I love it!

At first I was doing an 18 minute mile, and had to split the two miles apart from each other with some other activity that was less physically extensive (I have bad asthma, and my lungs hate life from having pneumonia 4 times). Then I was able to get one mile down to just short of 14 minutes, but I couldn't do my second mile that fast. Last week I was able to walk/jog 3 miles consecutively in 44:22. Yesterday I was able to pump out 2 miles continuously in 28 minutes.

I've started learning to think about everything I put in my mouth. I have a huge sugar addiction. My best friend says that every tooth in my mouth is a sweet tooth =( When asked what my favorite food was, for part of a prank, he put down cake because sugar wasn't an option... I need to learn that sugar can be part of my life, but that it needs to be very small, and not huge like it has been.

I've started eating more vegetables, especially the raw variety. I'm a pretty picky eater, and raw vegetables were just not part of my diet. I want to go mostly paleo, with beans, corn, and some milk products used occasionally. I consider those pretty healthy, and while I can give up bread and processed foods, legumes are going to save me from wanting those all the time. They're my favorite in soups.

Goals:

By February 28th

Run ONE 12 minute mile

Weigh 220 (30 pound loss)

Reward: I've been wanting to get a Mass Effect Renegade and Paragon symbol tattoo on my shoulder blades for a while now. If I can't reach those two goals I can't get it until I can.

End of August

Run 4 miles ~45 minutes

Weigh 180

Reward: I haven't decided yet. It will have to depend on where I am. My plans are up in the air ATM. I'm hoping to be in Japan teaching English, but this is the third year I've applied for JET... I'm also looking at grad school in San Francisco if those plans fall through.

End of December

Run 5 miles in ~45 minutes

Weigh ~140 (tentative). I'd really like to get down to about this weight, but I'm not sure if 160 is more realistic.

Reward: Even more yet unknown. Most likely a trip somewhere I've never been, depending on financial and work situation.

I want to add some weightlifting and other body weight fitness goals in there at some point, but my heart and lungs need some tender loving care, and I do consider myself pretty strong at the moment. I used to stock for a cafe on campus and I can toss boxes of paper reams around like no ones business. Okay, so now that I've made a TL;DR post, I think I'm done for now.

[JessOfAllTrades]

Welcome to the forums! First off - Woo FemShep love!

Ahem. It sounds like you already have some great fitness and life goals established, which is awesome. I think breaking them down into increments through the challenges will be a big help. However, you've already started some good habits - I think I could learn a thing or two from your example! As for going Paleo, my boyfriend and I are gearing up to do that starting the 1st. We're always looking for buddies/people to trade secrets with, especially since we're actually leaning more towards primal so we can keep some forms of dairy.

Best of luck, and welcome again!

[moknitro]

Good to see you've gotten started! I look forward to seeing how you go with your journey!

[Lydieboo]

I've started learning to think about everything I put in my mouth. I have a huge sugar addiction. My best friend says that every tooth in my mouth is a sweet tooth =( When asked what my favorite food was, for part of a prank, he put down cake because sugar wasn't an option... I need to learn that sugar can be part of my life, but that it needs to be very small, and not huge like it has been.

Wow, you have some awesome/tough goals, but I'm confident you can do it!

I just want to offer a suggestion about sugar. Most people don't realize how much high fructose corn syrup they eat on a daily basis. If you can cut that out of your diet first and make sure you're only eating things that have cane sugar (no corn syrup or...well...pretty much anything that says "syrup" because it's usually a corn syrup derivative), it will make the next steps MUCH easier for you. The tough part is there is HFCS in about 60% of what Americans usually eat on a daily basis.

If you can train your body to crave a better sugar, especially fruit instead of processed sugar, you'll be a long way toward your goal. It takes some intentional retraining of your taste buds, but is definitely achievable!

Good luck, and we'll be cheering you on!

[Defrock]

Thanks!

Yeah, today's goal is to up my 2 minute jogging intervals up to 2.5 minutes, and see how fast I can get through three consecutive miles.

If you find some awesome recipes, let me know. I'll share some, too! I've started off with making sure at least one meal a day is pure paleo, or as close to.

Awesome idea! I'm definitely going to go for that. Make it a goal to not eat HFCS for the whole month of January.

[Lydieboo]

Thanks!

Yeah, today's goal is to up my 2 minute jogging intervals up to 2.5 minutes, and see how fast I can get through three consecutive miles.

If you find some awesome recipes, let me know. I'll share some, too! I've started off with making sure at least one meal a day is pure paleo, or as close to.

Awesome idea! I'm definitely going to go for that. Make it a goal to not eat HFCS for the whole month of January.

Woo-hoo! I'm sort of on a crusade against HFCS. Especially because I don't trust the government or industrial science (aka big business) to have my best interests at heart. That was the first step I took and now I'm full Paleo (about 95%). I feel better than I have in years and am starting to get to a healthy weight.

To be honest, my cooking style is KISS. I have a bottle of seasoning that has no sugar in it that I use on just about all my meat, and usually just do my veg with a little salt and pepper. For snacks I'm a big fan of the Granny Smith and almond butter (though I'm doing Whole30 for this next 6-week challenge, so switching to cashew butter instead), and eat a lot of raw trail mix. (You should be aware that they sugar most dried fruits and almost all trail mix. Yeah...I'm a little obsessed with keeping my sugars natural.)

I am a BIG fan of the grass-fed buffalo. Love it way more than beef. So I'd say start there with some fresh spinach and hit the road running.

[Laureleye]

You've already made some great changes. If you haven't already found it, here is a good website on primal lifestyle. I would recommend some strength training too, such as the beginners body weight or the hotel room workouts. Glad you found your way here and good luck on your goals.

[missrackl]

Nice to meet you.  Good goals!  Also, this:

 

My best friend says that every tooth in my mouth is a sweet tooth 

 

is completely true for me too.  A couple of years ago, my new year's resolution was to "only eat chocolate or ice cream once a day".  This was a huge down-grade in what I was previously eating.  It wasn't as tough as I thought it would be, and I've pretty much stuck with it ever since.  

 

All that to say... if I can do it, you can do it too!