(what in the world am i talking about?)
for years i've been notably heavier than i should be. i know it, everyone knows it. sproadically i've tried to lose weight, but not seeing results quick enough give up after a month or so and don't try again for awhile... in the meantime, whenever life gets stressful, i tend to pack on even more pounds.
after my written qualifying exam in january, i made a goal though, and here it is june, and i'm *still* sticking to it -- this is amazing for me! without naming numbers, in january i weighed 90 pounds more than i did at the start of high school. for as tall as i am, and for as broad and german of a build as i have, probably just 10 pounds less than what i weighed then would be a healthy weight for me. so, in january, my mission became: lose 100 pounds, in a safe and reasonable way, doing stuff i intend to keep doing no matter what (none of this yo-yo dieting, and whatever... no killing myself with working so hard that after a couple weeks i want/need to give it up).
and you know what? from january through the start of may, it worked for once! i cut out caffeine from my diet by switching from frequent starbucks runs to tea and from tea to caffeine free tea and from caffeine free tea to water 95% of the time (i still need my cup of chamomile mint tea once a month or so ;-) )... i started exercising every morning before i get myself ready, and have kept it up... between my written qual in january and the end of the semester in may, i lost 20 freakin pounds (i've never been able to pull that off before!)
while that's just 1/5 of the goal, it's still fantastic to see progress. i mean not that it's tons noticable yet, but like look at these two pictures of me and my g-ma, the left is may 2004, and right is may 2005... i'm practically wearing the same outfit in both:
for the first time, i don't have my dad in the way more than once every six months to make random snide remarks about my weight (he thinks he's encouraging me, and i think he means well, but he's NOT helpful in the least)... now that i'm in jersey, i'm solely responsible for what i eat -- not my family, not the university meal plan... me. finally, i have friends who have gradually taken notice and are turning into some of my biggest cheerleaders to keep me going... all this together makes now the perfect time to keep going at it.
all that's fantastic, until for the whole month of may i maintained the same weight. that's not a bad thing... it's not like it was going up instead... i realize that when you're trying to lose weight that you plateau from time to time and need to adjust your food/exercise/something habits to jumpstart your body into losing instead of flatlining.
when i came back after memorial day i had the revelation that i live in the perfect neighborhood for walking and since then i've made good use of it. 30 miles intentionally walked around my neighborhood in the past less than 2 weeks... eric's come with me twice... ben's come with me a bunch more times.
and finally, today i got my payoff... down 3 more pounds in the past week... 23 down, 77 to go. it may take a couple years, but darn certain i'm going to make myself pull this off this time... i've made it too far to give up. :-P
so in conclusion, yay for walking :-)
the end.
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