The Why

Have you ever read a "diet success story" where the dieter said, "One day I just looked in the mirror and thought to myself, how did I get here?" Yeah, that's not me. My "oh my gosh I'm fat" moment didn't happen during one horrendous mirror moment. It happened over more like 10,000 horrendous mirror moments. Everyday I would look into the mirror and hate what I saw, but I never did anything about it. I ignored it. I put the issue on the back shelf. I gave up on countless attempts to get in shape. Worst of all, I made excuses.

I did have my bursts of energy here and there, and at one point, I was pretty successful at losing some weight, but I gained it all back (and then some) in a series of very stressful months. If I were to pintpoint what my problem is, I would say that I'm a stress eater. No, correct that, I'm a stress binge eater. Ok, maybe I'm not that bad, but I do love food. And when I'm stressed, I love food even more! My situation isn't completely hopeless, thankfully. I also enjoy to workout and for that, I am so happy! I always cringe when I here those who want to lose weight by diet alone. Obviously, being overweight, I'm no health finatic genius, but even I know you need to get your booty movin to become fit!

So, what inspired me to make a change in myself? There are a ton of reasons, but the top are: improve my health & quality of life, get my body into baby shape (mom, if you're reading this, don't get excited, I'm just preparing :), improve my self image, and let's face it, I am a girl, and to some extent vain (aren't we all?) and I would really like to fit into that elusive bikini and I want to look HOT!

In roughly 10 months, my new husband and I hope to take a honeymoon to Hawaii. When I first thought of going to Hawaii, it wasn't the beaches & bikinis that made me cringe (I'm deathly afraid of water and wouldn't mind at all avoiding the beaches). What made me cringe, and sad to an extent, was all the hiking I would love to do and enjoy while doing. And let's face it, hiking up hill is hard enough, hiking up hill lugging around a bunch of extra weight is no fun at all! Not to mention, my hubby is 6'6" with legs almost as long as I am tall...well, not quite, but you get the point! So, what am I getting at? I want to be able to get out in nature and enjoy it! And if I'm huffing and puffing, I want it to be because I'm having to run to keep up with his long legs, not because I'm horrendously out of shape!