I broke down this past Thursday and joined.. Are you ready? Are you sure? Ok. I joined a GYM! Woo Whoo!! Yeah me! I know I am tooting my own horn but this is something I never thought I would do. I even hired a personal trainer one day a week. My first personal training episode was this past Friday. My legs have just stopped screaming at me. It has been a chore walking up and down the stairs and even doing some of the normal things that a person does during the day. Let me just say I became quite fond of the handicap bar in the restrooms at work. I have pretty much gotten my diet down. Well, not DIET DIET but Diet as in way of eating. I have become very good at calorie counting and food measuring. It has been a month that I have been doing this and it really has gotten much easier. I do allow myself one day where counting calories is a no no. I have not eating at a fast food "joint" in a month. I don't miss it at all. I feel amazing. Well, I do need to get off the computer. 6 am comes pretty early and I need to be at the gym.

I really need to get better at this..

Well, I have been slowly changing the way I eat and my exercise level. In 3 weeks I lost 6 pounds. Tomorrow will be week 4 weigh in. I am using a program that a friend showed me called My Fitness Pal. It is an app on my phone so it is always with me. I love that I can scan bar codes for calories and such for the foods I eat and can track them. It feels good to be accountable. I am able to use another app- Runtastic- to gauge my walks and then the calories burned are automatically transferred over to My Fitness Pal. I have increased my exercise. I have a sedentary job and that helped me pack on the extra weight. Back in 2009 I worked hard to lose almost 80 pounds. This was achieved my walking to and from work 5 days a week (1.5 miles each way) or riding a bicycle. Then being on my feet for my whole shift and up and down ladders. So now that I drive to work and sit for my job in the past 2.5 years I have gained almost 50 pounds ( a total weight gain of 98 pounds in 4 years. GASP!) So, it has hit me that this is not acceptable. I don't want to be the girl with the pretty face and the fat body. I am tired of squeezing myself into chairs and not having pretty clothes to fit. For some reason it seems that manufacturers think that fat people = ugly clothes. My goal is a total of 164 pounds to lose. I am hoping for a loss of 1.5 pounds a week. I have recently taken up walking again. I was walking during my 15 minute breaks. Half mile each break. Today I started using my lunch break for the full mile walk and then split my lunch between my two breaks. I will be joining a gym this weekend coming. I have to wait until a day off so I can go there during office hours to join. I have changed my thoughts on food. I am learning that I don't need to eat that last cupcake. It can go to the trash. I don't need to overfill my plate. I don't need to eat junk food all the time. I don't need the chips from the vending machines at work. I have not eaten at the cafeteria at work in almost 3 weeks. This was my favorite place to eat during the week days. I have been bringing my lunch. A sample of my lunch is a flat bread with 2T mayo with olive oil, 2 chicken tenders (not breaded. boneless. skinless) cooked with Mrs. Dash seasoning, some baby spinach leaves and my new favorite guacamole. I drink just about a gallon of water a day. To achieve this I carry a gallon jug at work and that is all I drink. I do allow myself diet soda when I am home. One or two. I know GASP but I have to have this vice right now. I have also become very adept in measuring my food. I do allow myself a sweet. I take 1/4C (a serving) of M&Ms to work. I snack on these all through out the day. When that 1/4C is gone I am done with my sweet. I do have one sometimes two cheat days. Always on Friday and sometimes on Thursday too (not often). Friday is my day not to worry about calories. I can't say when my last trip to a fast food joint was. At least a month ago and it was Wendy's. I am setting mini goals for myself. My first mini goal is 50 pounds and I will get a new tattoo. :-) As of right now I have 44 pounds to go!