This · is · the · beginning

I'm declaring 1/1/09 Day one even though I didn't know about this until today, just for the sake of simple tracking.

But yeah. I wanna do this. I don't really feel like joining the community so I'm just going to post my list here. It may take a while for me to develop the list... but this will be my list post. :) YAY!

( Follow the cut to the list of TO DO's )
Total Items: 101
Total Completed: 15
Percentage Complete: 14.85%

ET did a segment about SparkPeople.com on their show tonight, and unbeknownst to me, I made an appearance!!!

I'm right at the beginning w/ my big green BEFORE shirt, and also those are my before and after pictures being shown while the girl is speaking later (my friend Jocelyn who as you can see from some of her other parts has lost over 120lbs at LEAST herself so far! - WOLFKITTY on SparkPeople!). :D

Watch it online HERE!

x-posted in the healthystart community

Definitely the change I made that I'm the most proud of is my choice to live a healthy lifestyle.

"I had been overweight my entire life. I was always taller than everyone at school and combining that with overeating, I was just LARGER than everyone - always.
I hated exercising. I was the girl who used to finish that required mile run in middle school walking in tears. I never considered myself to be capable of doing anything athletic. I had a growing dissatisfaction with my body and competing ideas in the back of my mind -- "SOMEDAY I will get healthy... SOMEDAY I will lose weight..." and the scarier "Maybe I'll always be fat...”
As I grew into the 6’2 woman I am today I continued to gain weight. I married my husband and was so happy that the weight kept piling on. I began to be unhappy with how I looked, FELT horrible, was lethargic and even just sitting around FELT uncomfortable. I knew I had to do something, but a visit to the Doctor in December 2006 was a reality check – I weighed 294 pounds!
I was searching online for healthy eating ideas and found SparkPeople.com. I was hooked instantly. SparkPeople gave me EXACTLY the kind of guidance I needed. I devoured the articles and learned that the knowledge I was gaining was indeed the power to make the healthy choices. I had a vague idea of what foods were obviously NOT healthy and what foods WERE, but no concept of how much to eat AT ALL. I became so used to eating frozen food and fast food; I forgot how much I LOVED cooking. Now I cook nearly every day.
I decided to join a gym -- I figured the financial investment would force me into using it. It would be the FIRST TIME I had EVER stepped foot into a gym. I could count on one hand the number of times I had purposefully tried to exercise before. I started slowly by just walking on a treadmill 3 times per week. Throughout my journey I continued to challenge myself by adding different types of workouts and intensity. I gave myself rewards when goals were accomplished and now someday hope to compete in marathons and possibly a triathlon.
I have now had TWO birthdays within a healthy weight range! I have achieved so many of my goals -- it makes me feel confident about achieving other goals that I want to reach in life. This has meant everything to me. I used to look into my future and imagine myself getting more and more obese and my health declining rapidly. I feared not only being an embarrassment to my future children, but also setting a horrible example for them.

Now I look to the future and I'm EXCITED about growing old -- I know that I can maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle and that I can continue to do so as I age. I know how to eat healthy and live healthy and I'm excited that I can pass this on to my children."

So I'm feeling less sore than my last update. ;) HAHAHA. I'm halfway through that whole Making the Cut thing, so pretty soon I'll be able to cross it off my list.

The biggest news is about what I'll be doing at the end of this month! I guess it hadn't been announced when I made my last post, but I'm going to be a featured member at the first ever SparkPeople.com convention!!! :D I'm SOOOOO EXCITED!!! :D There are only 5 members being featured. We're going to do a "Member Discussion Panel". They'll play a video about us, then we'll come out and give a little speech and then open it up to questions.

The best part is that it's in SAN DIEGO. And my BEST FRIEND who I haven't seen in over FIVE YEARS lives in San Diego. SO yeah. I'm stoked.

CONVENTION INFO

And I had to make this VIDEO to submit in preparation as well, so check that out if you like.

I'm also planning and preparing to try to run a Marathon in December. So that's exciting. More recently -- I'm going to run an 8K race (almost 5 miles) while I'm in San Diego and I'm pretty excited for that.

It doesn't look like we're gonna be getting that dog we talked about. Apparently my hubby had kind of a confrontation w/ our management about it, too. He mentioned the dog and that he was a Boxer Mix and apparently Boxers (even mixes) are not allowed because they TOO are considered "VICIOUS BREEDS" by our apartment management. And Chows. Which our neighbor across the hall has. UGH. It's so ridiculous. But now that they've had such a memorable conversation about it, I think it'd be less likely for us to be able to fly under the radar with it so...... maybe it was meant to be.

I guess that's it for now. :)

I don't post here very often so just a little update.

I'm sore.

Been working out hard today and yesterday. Not that I normally DON'T but I started a new more rigorous program and I'm feeling it.

And starving! :D I didn't up my calories yet for the new amount I'm burning and I need it!!! I just pilfered some Samoas cookies from a coworker's drawer. Not the best source of nutrition but I had to have SOMETHING.

Ummmmmm I've been able to cross some things off of my 101 in 1001 list. I made it in a postdated LJ entry so if you go to my LJ you should find it in the top two entries if you ever want to check and see where I'm at with that stuff.

Right now I'm just eager to go HOME. I still have almost 1.5hrs left of work. :P WAH.

Roscoe is still missing. We got another dog for about a week, but he was too much of a puppy for my husband to handle at home by himself while also trying to work on his dissertation. It's been a while since we gave him back, but now a friend of his is looking to rehome his dog and he's 4 years old and house trained and all that good stuff -- so we are considering it. I'm a bit gunshy. I fell in love with our week long housemate and then was totally devastated when we decided ultimately it was needed for hubby's sanity to give him back.

WELL. I think that's it for now.

TA TA!

1. Can you cook?
2. What was your dream growing up?
3. What talent do you wish you had?
4. Favorite place?
5. Favorite vegetable?
6. What was the last book you read?
7. What zodiac sign are you?
8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?
9. Worst Habit?
10. Do we know each other outside of lj?
11. What is your favorite sport?
12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?
13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15. Tell me one weird fact about you:
16. Do you have any pets?
17. Do you know how to do the macarena?
18. What time is it where you are now?
19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22. What color eyes do you have?
23. Ever been arrested?
24. Bottle or Draft?
25. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it?
26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?
27. What's your favorite bar to hang at?
28. Do you believe in ghosts?
29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30. Do you swear a lot?
31. Biggest pet peeve?
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

Bender from Futurama. OF COURSE.

What's the last thing you ate?
Pretzel sticks w/ Naturally More Peanut Butter

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