The Beginning!

Okay.... so this is the beginning of a journey to health! My company is just beginning a competition on Friday called "The Biggest Loser." Its the 2nd year we've done this and last year really was life-style changing for me. The last 3 months, I've struggled to keep up the lifestyle change, and so I'm beginning the journey again on Friday!

How I got here: I don't know how I gained weight. I guess it was ignorance to my own health. I've always been a "bigger" girl, ALWAYS insecure about my weight growing up, but never really being overweight. I played sports and stayed really active through high school. I played college soccer and used that as an excuse to eat whatever I wanted. This mindset caught up with me, as through college I slowly gained about 25 lbs...which was definitely overweight for me. After college, I didn't even weigh myself for 2 years. I was too scared. Last year, I finally faced it and discovered it wasn't as big of a mountain as I had made it. Last summer (2007), I lost just over 30lbs. I've since gained 10 of those pounds back. So I'm here to lose the last chunk, literally, and get rid of the extra I gained over the holidays/winter. My total weight loss goal this year and last year combined is 50 pounds. I still have around 25-30 to go.

More importantly, I have a couple really good friends who are working toward goals of weight loss. I learned last year that losing weight is so much easier with encouragement. So, we're going to do this together!

Here are my HEALTH goals:

Lose 25-30LBS total. I know its going to take me awhile, because it's the last of the weight. The more I lost last year, the slower it came off. If I lost 30lbs, I would be at my IDEAL/GOAL body weight for life.

I'd like to be at 18% body fat.

I'd like to run a half marathon and also complete 2 triathlons this summer. The last 2 years I've done a super sprint triathlon each yr. This year I want to do a regular sprint triathlon.

I want to do 5 FULL pullups by the end of 2008! I can't even do one, or close yet.

I want to fit into a size 8 all the time! I am a size 10 right now and sometimes even a 12. I'd love to wear anything that says size 8 on it :). At my biggest, I BARELY fit into a 14. I've got a large frame. I'm 5'9", and since I remember, I've never been smaller than a size 8. SO thats my size goal. If I fit into a 6, I'd be surprised. But I'm not ruling it out :)

This may be hard to measure, but I want to learn how to balance keeping up exercise WITH nurturing my spiritual life, maintaining healthy friendships/relationships, AND being able to relax all at the same time. Is it possible?