A New Journey

I started this blog almost ten years ago to create a community of friends and family that participated in a "biggest loser" style of competition in an effort to keep me accountable.  I was 30 years old and tired of feeling out of shape.  My waist line was expanding and I was unhappy with how I looked and felt.

It wasn't long before our challenge ended, life moved on, and much like the goals I set for myself in the beginning of Operation Less Jiggly this blog has sat here neglected and abandoned since then.

Fast forward to today.  I'm now seven months from turning 40.  I look at my "before" picture from 20008 - when I thought I SUPER fat and COMPLETELY unhealthy - and realize that is now what I'm racing after.  At the beginning of 2017 I had reached a weight that was within 10 pounds of my pregnancy weight on the day I went into the hospital to have my daughter.  I hated the way I looked, I hated the way my clothes fit, and I hated the way I felt.  I had never been more uncomfortable in my own body.  My husband and I, along with some friends, started an effort to get fit prior to our spring break trip to Florida.  In three months I ate well and worked out with passion; I lost 22.5 total inches and 15 pounds.  I felt more like myself again, I liked how I looked in pictures, and I felt strong and in control.  After returning from Florida I had big plans to get back to the routine I had going before we left, but a week of vacation eating and drinking woke a sleeping beast and I've been on a downward spiral ever since.

I first heard about Whole30 maybe a year ago.  I looked into it and immediately thought "No way. There is no way I could do that".  Then I talked to more people that had done it with great success.  I did some more research.  I bought the books.  I started reading, and it all made so much sense. Somewhere along the lines the voice stopped saying "You can't" and instead started whispering "You can.  You should.  You need this".  I made a pledge to start May 1st and spent the next several weeks doing as much research as I could.

I've told people that I feel like I've been preparing to go into battle, and in a lot of ways I guess it's a pretty accurate comparison.  I'm fighting against almost 40 years of bad habits especially in terms of meal options.  Food has always been a comfort item for me and often deeply rooted in special or important memories.  For me, this journey is all about taking control over something that I feel has control over me.  I want to break the sugar cravings (eating a chewy spree off the floor mat of my car with little thought as to how it got there in the first place was a definite low point for me), feed my family foods made from real ingredients, wake up in the morning refreshed and get through the day without needing a nap, and give my body the fuel it needs to operate at its best.  If I lose some weight along the way and see improvements in my body composition along the way that will just be the non-compliant icing on the forbidden cake.

I'm excited.  I'm nervous.  I'm hopeful.  I'm scared.  I'm ready for change.

Round 1 Day 1 begins tomorrow.  Let's do this.