Starting Weight: 220 // Current Weight: 219 // Goal Weight: 165 // Long-Term Goal Weight: 140 // BMR: 1,772

How much weight do you want to lose? 55 lbs Short-Term, 80 lbs Long Term

What is the timeframe for reaching your target weight? Jan. 8, 2008 my b-day!!, May 2007 for the long term (just in time for swim suit season!)

How do you want to accomplish your goal (what methods do you want to use)? Eat right and work out everyday.

Who or what can support you in reaching your goal? I'm the most important in supporting this goal but my boyfriend and family support me and encourage me too.

How realistic is your goal? I've calculated that I ideally need to lose 2 lbs per week and maybe a couple of weeks lose up to 3 lbs to reach 165 by my birthday. Which I think is completely possible.

When will you start? I started officially on August 1, 2007. Although I've been working out since July 1.

I'm putting more emphasis on the eating right from now on. Before i wasn't focusing too much attention on the food aspect. As a result i wasn't seeing or feeling too many good results expect a feeling of wanting to give up. Then I went on a business trip for 8 days and came back like never before wanting this weight off more than ever. More determined than I've ever been. I went out and got a digital scale, lifting gloves, water, and lots of veggies and some fruit. I took total control! So almost a week later and I've been working out everyday.

I wake up every morning and do 15 minutes of cardio, bike 10 minutes, elliptical 5 minutes. 4 days after work I'm alternating upper body and lower body resistance training, 35 minutes. (lower for 2 days and upper for 2 days) I also add to that 15 extra minutes of cardio and right now I'm working it into the weight training (5 min cardio, then how ever many sets i do for that day, 5 min cardio..etc) So I'm doing 30 min of cardio everyday.

As far as eating it's still a work in progress. At first I was trying to shoot for 1200, then after some research I've decided to bump it up to 1600-1700. Before I would try to shoot for the lowest calorie intake to lose faster but this is different. I want this to stick with this..for life.

Also, I wanna mention that this past week has been a bit of a rollercoaster on the scale. I haven't used a scale in some time now and am not used to seeing the numbers change like they do every day. I started Aug. 1 at 220 (granted after a week of bad business trip food) went down to 217.5 in 2 days and then the following day i was at 216, which I was completely excited about until Sunday morning when i weighed in at 217.5 again. Then this morning I weighed in at 219. I'll also admit that my calories ranged anywhere from 1200-2000 for the week, I also drank a good share of diet drinks over the weekend which i'm cutting completely out, and I drank 3 beers on Friday when I only intended to drink one. I know i shouldn't be obsessing over the numbers on the scale cause i feel better and more focused than i have in over a year and I don't feel like a stuffed turkey or like I'm busting out of my clothes anymore. It's just that I got so happy and excited when I saw that 216.

Anyway, I'm happy to be on this journey no matter what and I am looking forward to posting some pics up on Before, During, & After. Also, I'm very glad to have found this oh-so supportive site.

Hi Rita,

Welcome to the forum! This place is amazing... its full of wonderful, supportive, interesting, informative, caring and funny people. I hope this forum and your diary are as much of a support to you as mine has been to me

You've already made wonderful decisions and choices to start off your journey. I personally battle with the numbers on the scale so I weigh myself on the 15th and the 30th of the month and at no other time in between... otherwise I obssess like crazy.

I don't know if you have but in the nutrition and weightloss through exercise sections there are wonderful stickied threads that provide tons of information.

Good luck with your journey!
~Jenna

This place is wonderful and from i can tell very supportive. I think maybe I'll get to a point to where I'll settle on a similiar weighing system..maybe at the end of every week so I don't obsess over the numbers so much and end up killing my scale.

The scale this morning officially says that i have lost 2.5 lbs in this first week of August. Awesome! And after having a little celebration last night for my bf and I's marraige announcement which included lots of wine, 2 slices of pizza and a Chicago style hot dog. (We met in Chicago) So now I have a new goal to look the hotness by next August for my very first wedding. Who would have thunk it? I always pictured myself becoming the spinster aunt with 2 cats and a parakeet. Ahh..life.

Congratulations on your engagement -that's wonderful news for you..

that made me laugh -- are you planning on one more than one wedding? do introduce your fiance as your first husband

Ack! I didn't even realize how that sounded till you pointed it out . Hopefully it will be my one and only wedding to my FIRST husband...hahaha.

It does sound funny... but I get why you said it! Its exciting... and I'm sure your going to be looking Freaking Hawt at your wedding next August!

~Jenna

Awe, thanks so much for your kind words Jenna! And that is definitely the plan. I have a full year to get down to 135. My original goal was 140 but just for the wedding I'll shoot for 135 and after if I decide I can coast back up to 140 and stay comfortable. I've already chosen colors and style of the dress I want. Watch out world! Hot Bride walking down the aisle!

o0ooo we best stay out of your way because you're coming through like a fireball

With that determination you surely can do it!

So I'm up to 216 this morning. I kinda expected it though. I went a little overboard on the salsa for dinner. Way too much sodium for one day. Also it was paired with Tuna in Sunflower Oil which had some salt in it. I love the taste of the sunflower oil with the tuna but i think i'm only gonna eat that maybe once a week since it's so heavy. Although it only has 1 gram of saturated fat and the rest is all good fats . Anyway, TGIF. It's been a very slow week at work and thus extremely boring. It's okay though cause it gave me a chance to familiarize myself with this kick ass forum.

Don't worry about daily fluctuations in the scale... Pick an official weigh in day to measure your progress over the week... because who knows what the scale is going to decide to say day to day... it really has a mind of its own

So get this. Today in the office we had ourselves a birthday pie (lemon meringue yum!) in the kitchen...of which I avoided all day. Well I had a moment of weakness and convinced myself to get a very small slice of it. Well when i went into the breakroom all I found was an empty box and pan! I guess the Weight Loss Goddesses are trying to tell me something..Stick To Your Guns!! LOL.

Today I upped my cardio in the mornings to 20 minutes. 15 minutes of intervals and 5 minutes warm up and cool down. I feel freakin fantastic! I ate Dickey's BBQ on Friday night but it consisted of turkey, ham, some mashed potatoes (all though I hardly ate it) and a salad. I love dickey's but even though I ate that I still only ended up at 2,000 calories. I love knowing how this calorie deficit works. If I overeat I can always make it up by either exercising more or taking back calories. As easy as it sounds I just wasn't getting it before and would always feel guilty for having a cheat meal, which would just stress me out and then I would end up eating more and giving up.

I've also taken your advice Jenna and am only weighing in every 7 days so i don't have to see that scale fluctuate like I know it will.

Have a great day everyone!

You can't totally restrict yourself. Having a cheat everyonce in awhile as long as you factor it in is perfectly fine

Once every seven days sounds like a good plan!

Keep up the great work girl

Hey there,
This is my first time to your journal and congratulations on your engagement. I think you've set up a wonderful goal for yourself for your wedding!

If you're at all like me and you don't trust yourself with working out, I'd advise that you avoid keeping in mind that you can eat stuff and "make up for it later." I did that for a long time. I knew how the calorie deficit worked and I'd eat what I wanted and tell myself that I'd work it off after I ate it. As it turns out, I was only making life hard for myself in losing weight. It was a wonderful way to stay at a maintenance level, but I wasn't losing a thing!

So now I only have that 'extra smidge of whatever I want' when I'm already in deficit. If I get down to the end of the day and look at what I've eaten, and there's room for more, then either I think of it as more deficit to further my goal or I reward myself with a something a little extra the next day. I'm not leaving myself room for over-eating, and its really helped.

You probably won't have these issues.. I had to learn a lot of discipline in what I was eating. But I thought I'd share that advice when I read what you posted. It sounds like me when I first started losing weight!

Good luck and best wishes. I'll try to visit your journal as often as I can to see how you're doing.

- Sunny