Creating a Masterpiece

I had three whole paragraphs of an entry written here when I realized that I was writing about substantial topics but not giving them substantial time. Sure, I can knock out a blog entry in five minutes that might be decent, but it will not be great. Too often I rush into things looking for the quick fix, the quick answer. My goal in this blog and this life transformation is to take it slow and do it right the first time.

So I will be back with an entry that has substance as soon as I give it time to be crafted. The beauty of social media is the wealth of awesome quotes at my fingertips. Today an author I admire, Donald Miller, happened to tweet a quote that relates to this topic perfectly:

"Pixar takes three years to plan their stories. How much time have you spent planning your life?"

Boredom

I am writing a new blog entry because I am bored. This boredom very nearly convinced me to drive to the store and buy/consume a six pack of cupcakes.

Writing this while daydreaming about those delicious cupcakes is not an easy thing to do. Does this mean I'm "dieting" and "restricting" foods I love? Not at all. Because here's the thing:

I don't actually want the cupcakes. I think they will fulfill me and occupy my time. In reality it will only take me about 15 minutes to consume the whole package. At which point I will still be bored, but now with an added stomach ache and a side of guilt.

I wanted to craft and compose a great entry, but to be honest when I get this bored, I get restless. Not just my body, but my mind. I have about ten different things vying for my attention in my brain right now, and this is where I get impulsive and dash to the store for a sugar high. Instead, I chose to use this blog as my journal, my outlet. Only a few minutes into the process and my brain is slowing down, focusing in on my grammar, sentence structure, and choice of words. Is this post going to be perfect? Not a chance. It will, however, distract me from those cupcakes long enough to realize that I'm not even hungry. I'm bored, and here's what I am doing about it.

This, and searching for delicious cupcake recipes so that when I do have a genuine cupcake craving, I will have a wonderful homemade treat to enjoy. :)

Cheers to New Beginnings!

Sometimes I want to just erase all of the old entries on this blog and start over from scratch. It's embarrassing to look back at my last post in September of 2011 and read about how I was busy, but I'm getting back on track. Because, let's be honest. I clearly did not get back on track. In fact, I went down a whole different road and ended up lost and ten pounds heavier.

I'm pretty sure that qualifies as a fail. Mmhmm.

It occurs to me though, that if I delete these posts, I will be deleting a fairly large (no pun intended) part of the whole picture in my struggle to overcome obesity. When I ultimately lose the weight(and believe you me, I WILL lose the weight), this blog should represent every stage of the journey, not just the part where I finally start dropping the pounds. So the posts will stay, and I will move forward from today.

I have a ton of new resources and insight, and even a new accountability partner(Hi, Cassie!), so I am looking forward to this next step in my life. One in which I not only lose the weight, but I will ultimately face my emotional eating and learn how to take the best care of myself, in all aspects of life.

I will make it a goal to post at least one new entry a week. Here we go!

So, I'd like to blame my sister's wedding for failing the month of September. Good news: I fit into my dress for the wedding. Bad news: that means I weigh the same as I did two months ago when I got the dress. Better luck next month.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post is that I lost a filling in my tooth over the weekend and my appointment to get it fixed isn't until tomorrow morning. This has made eating and drinking things rather difficult yet it hasn't stopped me. I did eat a lot less than normal though so I know I stayed within my calories yesterday.

The reason I bring this up is that the scale read 213.6 this morning. Given what I've just said, I know for a fact i did not gain 1.8 pounds in one day. I post this to remind myself that the scale is not always the most accurate and best interpretation of my success. I know what I ate and how I feel and that's the most important thing.

Something else that has become a result of this ordeal is that I care much more about my teeth. It has been too painful to brush my teeth or use mouthwash for the past few days. I'm not very good at maintaining oral health to begin with but I hope this will serve as a wake up call because my mouth and teeth have never felt so gross. I actually want to brush my teeth! Lol.

Setbacks

Setbacks are a natural occurrence of life. Two weeks ago, I lost my aunt to a heart attack. Though there is a family history, this came as a shock. That whole week became a blur of family visits, organizing pictures, and finally attending the wake and funeral.

Knowing my family has a history of heart problems as well as obesity should be one of the motivating factors for my weight loss. I don't want to have a heart attack and die at 48 years old if I can prevent it by eating healthy, exercising, and losing this extra weight I've been carrying around for far too long now.

Today I weigh 211.8lbs. My goal weight is 135-140, and I would like to be there no later than this time next year.

A for effort!

This week has actually been fairly decent for me. This surprises me because I started a new job recently and I have been overwhelmed by the amount of trainings I have gone to in the past few weeks. This new job also happens to be 3rd shift which means my sleeping pattern is all sorts of messed up.

Part of me also fears that with working nights(thankfully only part time) and sleeping during the day, I will actually become even less active than I am now. It's not really a far fetched fear because the job doesn't require much movement.

All of this said, I go back to my comment that this week has been fairly decent. I went to the gym twice! 33 minute program on the elliptical both times. Also I did a few minutes of weights at home as well as my silly little jog in the house for a few minutes. The best thing about all of this was I actually wanted to do it. None of it was forced, I had the desire to be more active this week so that's a pretty big baby step for me!

This weekend is a family vacation for me so now we have to hope that I don't destroy my little victories for the week.