Sunday, April 22, 2012

Losing It!

This week marks the start of TurningPoint Church's Biggest Loser Contest.  We have tons of people signed up to compete over the next 8 weeks... just in time to get in shape for the summertime.  Just like on the show, the Biggest Loser is the person who loses the largest percentage of their starting weight, so it is anyone's game to win.  I've decided not only to jump on the band wagon, but to blog about it over these next few weeks, too, for a little more accountability.  We did this same contest as a family from January through March, and I must admit that I started out pretty strong, but pretty much gave up halfway through.  While I did up my exercise over the course of the contest, my eating habits stayed about the same and that is what I want to focus on during round two.  My sister, on the other hand, publicly blogged about her journey through the contest and dropped lots of weight... she already looked great before and now she looks fantastic!  I'm so proud of her and really think there is something helpful about logging the progress somewhere, probably even more so when you are logging it where people can read it.  How embarrassing (or pathetic maybe?) would it be to go through eight weeks of this and continually tell you all that nothing has changed.  That would probably just mean that I wasn't trying, and I'm not the type of person who doesn't try.  Plus, I know a few of my readers are participating, too, so hopefully I can help motivate them to keep up their hard work, too.  So here it goes...

Let me just state for the record that this is going to be really hard for me.  I am very fortunate to have a "happy weight" (you know, the place your scale just kind of stays without much effort) that I am pretty satisfied with.  Satisfied- yes, but not really thrilled about.  I actually weigh the same now as I did before kids, but it is all distributed differently and I know it consist of a lot less muscle tone than it used to.  My family's competition was a great way to lose the baby weight, but now I want to tone up and really get in shape. This mama is going to the beach in July and she wants to look better than ever!

Friday I did my official first weigh-in.  I'm not going to report my numbers every week, but I will post my overall loss or gain, in pounds and percentage.  I feel like I'm in fairly decent shape since I started running again a few months ago, but I definitely need to kick it up a notch, particularly if I choose to run a marathon in the fall, which is something I've been considering.  I haven't run one since having kids, and it's a huge time commitment, so I would really have to get disciplined.  Losing weight (well, really just changing your diet and exercise habits) is all about discipline, and it's completely mind over matter.  When my mind faces Girl Scout Cookies, I have to admit that my mind usually loses.  And these love handles (or Lilly handles as I like to call them) are not going to go anywhere with just exercise alone.  Like I said, it will be hard for me... I seriously LOVE food.  I LOVE dining out.  And, more than anything, I LOVE dessert.  To an unhealthy level... as in, I will eat leftover birthday cake for breakfast.  And then possibly for lunch, too.  I had once given up sodas for a whole year, and for some reason, picked up that habit again and crave them constantly.  I know it won't happen overnight, but my goal over these next eight weeks is to ditch the soda habit, cut down (but not cut out... I'm all about moderation) on sweets, put myself on a more regular exercise schedule, and eat smaller portions.

Wish me luck, because I'm going to need it.  The battle against the bulge is officially underway!

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