Celeste Takes Back: taking back your life

Friday, June 12, 2009

In the beginning....

Here it is, my first post in my brand new squeaky clean blog!

In it I am going to share my journey on the road to better health.

One reason that I am doing this is that I think better on paper, or the screen, or out loud. Anything to get my thoughts outside of my head and look at them a bit. I am hoping that this will help me in the making of decisions, and also in motivating me to follow through. If I am writing about what I am doing where anyone can read about it I had better make darned sure I am following through!!

Another reason is that I am hoping that my journey is successful and perhaps even beneficial to others. I want a chronicle of what it took for me to get to where I hope to end up- healthier and with a better quality of life. If I make it I don't want to EVER forget how much work it was. If I forget then I might allow myself to fall into it all over again. I am striving for a life long change in how I look at food and exercise, something that will stay with me no matter what.

I have a few plans for the near future, but for now I'll keep things simple. I need to learn my way around blogger and figure out what I can and can't do before I get complicated. Eventually I want have separate areas to share recipes that I enjoy, write reviews (unsolicited) of products that I find useful, and answer questions from those that will hopefully read this. For now it will simply be a general record of my progress and what I am doing to work towards my goals. Feedback will always be welcome and appreciated. I want the opportunity to learn from others, and the accountability to learn and share the truth.

So for now, I will leave you with the thought process that started it all off for me-

I have one body to live this life in. I can make decisions that are destructive and harmful or I can make choices that lead to vitality, health and a better quality of living. It's up to me to take control of what I put into my body and what I do with it. I can continue to let it all go, or I can take back control over my life.

Statistics and game plan (updated 7-16-11)

I have embarked on a journey towards a healthier life style through dietary changes, increased activity and positive attitude.

I began this journey at 288 pounds in the spring of 2009.

Currently I weigh 212 pounds.

My game plan is as follows:

I am following a lower carb higher protein and healthy fat diet. It's working well for me, carbs were making me crazy and jittery so they had to get cut. I feel much more balanced and healthy now. I mostly drink water and unsweetened iced tea- no more artificial sweeteners, or at least a lot less. Stevia is my sweetener of choice with occasional sucralose, xylitol or erythritol. I tend to avoid aspartame and saccharine like the plague- they're really not good for anyone and particularly not good for the love of my life- he bloats and gets so sick if he has any.

I am progressively becoming more active. I enjoy hula hooping, swimming, cycling, walking, dancing and my job has me on my feet and active for 8 hours a day. I've also started to take up horse back riding. I love it so far- it seems to work my most problematic areas better than anything else I've found (my rear and thighs, lol!)

Ideally I wanted to loose a total of 100 pounds. I'm down 76 so far, only 24 more to go before I evaluate where I am and where I want to be. I can do this!