The Beginning

Ok...I'm joining the blogging world to see if it can help me on my journey to lose weight and get healthy.  At the beginning of this year, I decided to start making some changes and really get serious about losing weight.  It started with some occasional exercise and a vegan diet.  In the first few months I managed to lose 15 lbs. mostly due to the changes in my diet.  Unfortunately, in May I moved from Hawaii (where veganism is pretty popular and easier to do) back to my home state of Texas (where veganism is almost completely unheard of).  After moving I did increase my workouts, but my diet suffered greatly.  I managed to lose about 5 more lbs. though so at least that's something.  Lately I've been noticing that I'm falling back into my old habits pretty quickly.  Sodas, fast food, skipping workouts, etc. I started reading through some other blogs of people who have lost a lot of weight and maintained it so I'm hoping to get inspiration/motivation from them.  I also thought the blogging might help me too, so here we go!

I'm not quite sure yet what my plan is as far as diet and exercise.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!  I did go out for a 30 minute walk this morning, and I'm planning to do that at least three days a week as a start.  I would also like to stop eating out as much and start having more whole foods in my diet.  I know I need to give up sodas again, but to be honest I'm not sure I'm ready to do that.  I guess I could really use some encouragement in that area.  Really, I could use encouragement in a lot of areas.  I really want to lose weight, but I don't think I really want to make the changes.  Most of these other bloggers have this big moment that really changed their way of thinking about their bodies or their diets or their health.  I feel like I need one of those moments, but I don't really want it because they're not always good moments.  Does that make sense?  I just need to start making the changes before I gain more weight or have a health scare or anything like that.  I need to make my own "moment."  This weekend will be my 10th wedding anniversary.  At my current weight, I am 57 lbs. heavier than I was on my wedding day.  Let's just round that to an even 60 lbs. and make that my weight loss goal.  My husband and I were young when we got married, and we had kids right away.  Literally...we were married in October and our son was born the following June.  We now have two beautiful children and love them so much, but we're also looking forward to the day they move out so that we can begin our second chance at a "newlywed" phase.  Because we were so young when we were married and had kids, we'll still be fairly young when they are grown.  But that doesn't mean we'll be healthy and energetic enough to enjoy that time together.  That's my motivation.  I want to lose weight, get healthy, and maintain that so that I can have the energy to be a good parent, a good wife, and to have a lot of fun with my husband when it's just the two of us again!  :)  If anyone is reading this, I hope that you will pray for me during this journey, encourage me along the way, and feel free to send me any suggestions or advice any time.  Thanks!