The Plan, For Now..

The answer to yesterday’s first question is easy. I’m tired of being fat. Some people will say “oh your not fat.” or “you’re really not that big.” But let’s put this into perspective: I’m 24 years old, 5’ 4”, and currently 168 lbs. This is not my starting weight either. Diabetes runs in my family, and so does obesity. More on that later. My chances of falling into both of these categories are very high. In fact, according to every BMI calculator I've tried I’m already overweight. I should be between 110-130 lbs. but just two weeks ago I was almost at 180 lbs. This is not good. I couldn't believe I was almost back up at my "highest weight" from before Emery.

My second reason for wanting to make this change is so I can keep up with my daughter. I also want to set an example for her. I want her to grow up in a healthy environment. I want to be able to teach her to make healthy choices when it comes to what she puts into her body. And I can’t very well do that if I’m stuffing myself with candy, pizza, and fries all the time, right? I also want her to have an active lifestyle. When I was younger, my dad would motivate me to keep running. To keep pushing myself. He would always make time to play sports with me. I feel that because he was so encouraging, and as involved as he could be, I stayed active. And because I stayed active I always maintained a good weight. Unfortunately, the minute I moved away, and didn't have that motivation anymore, I let myself go. I want Emery to have what I had. I want her to be confident with her abilities and I want to be as involved as I can be. When she wants to go out to play or run, I want to be able to keep up. If she picks a sport to play when she's older, I want to be right there with her. Encouraging, and motivating. My way of showing her that if her "old mom" can do it, so can she.

The answer to the second question is a bit more complicated. When it comes to exercise I like running. Before I had hoped to be able to run a half marathon, but quickly realized I just don’t have the patience for that. It’s such a LONG time to be running. And I’m sorry but I’ve got stuff to do. Still, running is something that I love. That’s why I want to be able to run a good distance within the hour I allow myself for fitness. So, I’ve decided to take on Jeff Galloway’s method, with a few tweaks of course, to get myself up to speed. But this workout program requires me to cross-train. This is where the complication comes in.

For now, I’m sticking to some simple floor exercises like crunches, planks, and push-ups along with walking at least 1.5 miles in between my running days. This mileage will increase as the weeks go by. But at some point I’ll have to up my game. I'm going to have to do weights, and some good amounts of cardio if I want to see physical changes. Now, I can’t afford a gym membership so instead I’ll be alternating work-out videos with some of the P90X videos. I'm also really interested in doing yoga or Pilates, and I found a few workout videos that are for beginners on Netflix. Once I get more "advanced" I'll fork over the cash for something more challenging.

So far this is my plan. I've been trying to get myself up early, but have realized that's not going to work. I don't know why, but my body is just useless before 6 am. So, I'm trying to get as much done between 8-9 pm. This might change once my schedule become more familiar but for now, it works. I really need to get my act together and finally get back down to a good size. So here's to sticking with it! Wish me luck.