Thursday, May 6, 2010

Trying Out This Blogging Thing

So I used to blog in high school and college on Xanga.com (it used to be all the rage back when I was 17). It was more an outlet for ranting about my supposedly dramatic life, but once I sorted myself out Junior year of college, I didn't need it any more.
Now I'm gonna try blogging for a new reason. No rants (well, depends, I won't be emo), just sharing another big change in my life. My whole life I've been the overweight one, genetics wasn't good to me I thought. Now I'm realizing that it couldn't be farther from the truth. My sister is a size 2. My mom was able to lose 50+ pounds (she gained it back but I won't go there). The only reason I'm not like that is because I was lazy and busy.
First off, I'm an engineer. An aerospace engineer to be exact. Therefore since I was about 12, my main focus has been school. I played a little softball, I was on a bowling team, but mainly all my activites had to go on my college application. Once I got to college, it became a matter of surviving 4 years at an Ivy league school in an insanely crazy engineering major. Cornell had a really hilly campus... but the 3rd best food at a college in the country. Between that and alcohol. I added about 40 pounds to my already overweight self between freshman and junior year. After a rough few months junior year, I got my head on straight, figurd out what I wanted in life and set about doing anything to get it.
Fast forward 2 years. I graduated, twice (bachelors and masters), and I'm happily employed in Northern Virginia at a satellite manufacturing company (we build rockets too, but not my location). I've never been happier, but I thought that I've never looked worse. All the eating in college took a toll and I really felt like I hated how I looked. Somehow I managed to lose 15 pounds in my final semester this past fall. It really just amounted to eating less (since I only had a mini fridge and no kitchen) and walking more (I lived at the bottom of the hugeeeeeee hill on campus). Work clothes shopping was an eye opening when I couldn't find work pants that fit in the "normal store" and I flipped out. Even with that 15 pounds gone. I decided that my first day of work would also be the first day of throwing my bad habits out the window.
 It almost went as planned, it took 2 weeks since I moved to VA during the big blizzards and had to stay with relatives until my apartment was ready. But the day after Presidents Day weekend, I came home, got off my couch and did my EA Sports Active Workout, Day 1. The next day I decided to use my office's free gym. And then it just kept going. I found if I could make it a habit, it bit by bit became less of a chore.
 It's been 2 1/2 months since then. I found MFP a few weeks into the new me, and I think the support on here helps more than anything else. I've lost 15 pounds. I even managed to go on a cruise for a week and take a few weekend trips without really gaining anything (a pound or two of water weight from the cruise but that's it). And guess what... I LIKE to workout! Go figure! I've never worked out in my life! Now I look forward to it coming home. It's a nice way to destress and have some time to myself. And my whole way of thinking about food has changed. I'll still eat food I liked before, in MUCH smaller quanities. Portion control... what a concept! I can still eat out, I just pick what my head tells me to, not my stomach. It's such a radical revolution for me. I still have a ways to go before my first goal of hitting the "overweight" mark at 170 pounds. Long term, I don't know what my goal is. I want a sustainable weight and one that looks good on me. I'm petite and 5'3" so losing 25 pounds since August has made a HUGE difference. Once I'm around 150, i'll take it a pound at a time. Until then, I'm keeping at this, no more going back. 
 Now that you have my background, I'll update this with my little thoughts and challenges... and definitely progress. I really can't wait to be a before and after picture...

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