Day One. Breaking Ground.

What in the world have I gotten myself into?  I've always been a little pudgy with thick cheeks and huge boobs to boot.  Right.  That's what I'm tired of.  Not the boobs, but the pudge.  Please spare me pudge, and get out of my life!

I suppose I walk with a certain confidence and in high school I wouldn't have cared less if I weighed 300 pounds because I exuded confidence (well, at least I think I did).  My situation leading up to now has been a rough one and quite frankly I'm exhausted with being at my current weight.  STAND STILL.  My goal is to add a routine of healthy eating (healthier than ever) and exercise every single day and try not to complain too terribly much.  I would love to say I have a bunch of people to do this with but that's not true.  Unless I started picking people from facebook demanding their contribution to help keep me on track, I'm on my own here (with the exception of you, Jaziya).  It's all about self-motivation here, and that's what I intend to do.

For starters, the smallest I have ever been was when I was 3 1/2 months pregnant at 135 pounds.  Up to that point I had started running every day (I've NEVER been a runner, so this was no easy feat), and once my fiance (now husband) and I found out we were going to have a baby, the dreaded doctor's appointments started coming.  As I found myself in appointment after appointment, I realized I wasn't gaining any weight.  Mainly because my lovely mid-wife kept saying, "you need to gain weight Stacee, seriously.  Running is good for you but you need to increase or decrease something to feed this baby."  I freaked.  I said to myself I was going to take the next 7 months off from running and take up Klondike bars so my baby would feel good.  And I did almost exactly that, plus or minus potato chips and chocolate chip cookies.

My little lady is quickly approaching 16 months and I've done little to rid myself of what I like to call the "all-over-effect" my weight gain has had on me.  My main motivation came when I went into the bedroom looking for a pair of desperately needed black pants.  I found an old, but well conserved pair in the bottom of my drawer and pulled them over my calves, to my thighs, and whammy--two inches between loop and button.  Never mind the disgusting V of the zipper saying, "hey fat-ass! Thanks for finding us too little, too late."  Too fat, too soon, rather.  In all, besides bawling my eyes out at my wedding photos where I look like a cow, I've made a decision to make a difference in my life.  Not only for me, but for my family.  To prove to myself that I can do this I am going to need posters of Brittney Spears (obviously, when her body was rockin') and Jennifer Aniston (because duh, she's totally hot) and place these posters all over my home to say to myself, "that's what I'm working for...hot body hot body hot body (my new mantra)."

I'm giving myself until May 14, 2011 to go from my current weight of 163 pounds to 130 pounds (or less).  That's 14 weeks to lose 33 pounds and here's the kicker...KEEP IT OFF!  If my calculations are correct, that's 2.36 pounds a week.  I didn't want to set an unrealistic goal and feel this is an attainable goal, but I suppose we will find out!

Why May 14 you ask? Not only is today exactly 14 weeks until May 14, the day following I will be going to Boston for a volunteer opportunity with Choice Hotels where it's possible to meet prospective employers in my field of study.  My career is very important and getting in shape will help me obtain the goals I am working so hard for and through this journey I will prove to myself that I can do anything I put my mind to!  Including finding the perfect job after graduation even with a slump economy.

I will blog everyday (hopefully) what I've eaten or plan to eat so you can follow along if you want to.  I will track my weight loss and update you on any injuries, as I have a feeling my emotions will get the best of me here.  I'll post pictures of food I'm making and come up with some really good ideas for vegetarian recipes.  Oh ya, did I mention I'm a vegetarian and the fact that I've decided to take a hiatus from cheese and bread? PS. I love cheese :-(  and bread for that matter.

Out of this, I plan to find balance, and (obviously) a hot body.  As long as I feel good about my progress, I will be satisfied, regardless of what the scale tells me.

Today's ground breaking day went like this:
Breakfast: Smoothie with frozen strawberries (unsweetened), vanilla yogurt, soy milk and ice.  Followed with a gigantic mug of Earl Grey black tea with a tablespoon of organic hazelnut creamer.

Lunch: Sauteed onions with Boca meatless ground beef with a hint of salt and pepper. Washed three romaine leaves and wrapped the Boca as lettuce wraps. Yum!  I used no dressing or condiments, as I think these things will be the death of me.

4:30PM Walked for 5 minutes, ran 26, and cooled down walking for 10.  Also, used the Ab Lounge and did 100 side-swingy's (I suppose that's the technical term).

Dinner: Made tomato basil soup (ate all of it) and ate two polenta cakes I made earlier in the day.

The trouble will be this evening when I get those late night urges for chocolate.  I plan to stay away from the dreaded brownies but we'll see how long that lasts. Hopefully forever. 

I suppose that's my new word.  Hopeful.  Yup, I'll take that and run with it.