THE BEGINNING...

 

 

Strive for progress, not perfection.

 

 

Well...where to begin? I guess a little background wouldn't hurt anything. You're probably reading this blog because you're some kind of health fanatic or at least hoping to make your way there (like what I'm trying to do). Okay, maybe fanatic is a bit harsh. I don't necessarily want to be fanatical...more like health conscious--yeah, that's a nice way to put it, right? Health conscious.

 

Right, I was going to give you a bit of background on me. Let's not get sidetracked. So I'm 26 years old and the last time I weighed myself I was 145lbs (that might have changed because it's been 4ish months since I last weighed myself, but I still fit fine in all my clothes so we're going to stick with that). I don't want to focus on just weight becuase as we've been shown time and time again, weight isn't what's important. A girl could weigh just as much as me but be super fit (taking into account muscle weighs more than fat, and she could be taller than me as well...not too difficult to be that...). I'm 5'2"...okay, okay 5'1  1/2" but I'm rounding up :) One major aspect of my life that affects my health that you will see pop up often in the blog is that I am type 1 diabetic. (completely different than type 2...if you don't know the difference and want to, just google it). I was diagnosed a decade ago (almost to the day actually) which was when I gained the extra weight. Before my diagnosis I was a healthy 125lbs. I was diagnosed in June and by the end of the year, I was up to 145lbs despite the fact that my diet and exercise didn't change. Since then, I haven't been able to get the weight off (partly because I haven't tried that hard, if I'm being brutally honest with myself).

 

Now to talk about some things that have been holding me back from losing the weight. First and foremost, I am absolutely terrible when it comes to food. I have very little self discipline. If there is something yummy in the kitchen, it's gone within a day or two (which means I have to be very careful when I shop). You know how you go out and buy a nice bag of chips and tell yourself it will last you the whole week but then it's gone after a couple episodes of Supernatural, or Merlin, or Dr. Who (or whatever other fandoms you may belong to)? That's me every time. I've heard again and again that food is the most important factor in losing weight. It can be the best medicine or the slowest poison. If you're eating healthy, you lose the weight much faster, not to mention you feel better and have so much more energy and you sleep better, blah, blah, blah, we all know how this goes. So food is on my list of things to work on.

 

To go along with food: I hate counting calories. As a diabetic, I already have to count carbs and counting calories is 1. so much more complicated (especially when you cook a lot and not from a nice recipe that tells you what the calories per serving will be), 2. it's just a bunch of extra work for me that I don't have time for (I'm a teacher at a very small school so I eat lunch with my 5 year olds--not condusive to counting calories), and 3. I'm currently living in Korea (I've been here for 4 months) which makes the whole reading the nutrition label a bit difficult not to mention they have dozens of foods I've never heard of or don't even know the names of.

 

And the last (kind of obvious, I know): exercise. I wouldn't say I love to exercise, but I don't mind it. More than anything, I love to see my progress--how much better I am today than I was yesterday, this week than I was last week, and so on. I don't know why I have such a hard time keeping up with exercise seeing as I'm not one of those exercise haters. I don't even mind the sweating as some people might. I would say the only thing I don't like is people watching me exercise. I'm a very self-conscious person (even if it doesn't always show). And despite everyone saying differently, I do care what people think of me (to a point at least), especially those people I see as important in my life. The rest I have to chalk up to the whole self-discipline issue again and just plain laziness. I mean who wants to go out and sweat when it's already hot and humid out? And when there are so many good books and TV series and movies to read and watch? I'm a big nerd (if you hadn't guessed that already from the blog title), so I much prefer to sit down and read a good book to sweating up a storm and aching for days after.

 

Yet, despite all that, I want to get fit. I want to be healthy. I want to do this for a few different reasons. The first is because I'm diabetic, and diabetics tend to have a lot more health issues and a shorter life span if they don't keep up with their health. Second, I want to be able to look and feel healthy (not much more explanation needed on that front). Third, I want to do it for my future family. I plan on getting married and having kids one day, and I want to be able to raise my children to be healthy as well. I want to start them off on the right path instead of them realizing they need to change all of their habits later on if they want to lead a healthy life (and habits are hard to change, which I'm sure all of you know).

 

That being said, I plan on this blog being something like a health/fitness journal for me (and hopefully a few of you out there can help keep me motivated). I don't currently have a scale so I don't plan on keeping track of my weight. I also don't have a measuring tape, nor do I know what my measurements are, but I do take my measurements with just a basic string so I can compare one month's measurements to the next. That might change in the future, but that's what I have right now, so that's what I'm working with. I'll be uploading progress pictures, good recipes I find, good workouts, and anything I find motivational be it quotes, stories, photos, etc.

 

I will apologize in advance because some of the posts might be repetitive or downright dull (though I will try my best to be somewhat entertaining), but as I mentioned before, this is mostly for me. So you can skip what you want and read what you want, it doesn't matter to me. Well...I think that's about it for the first blog post. I'm planning on posting almost everyday with exercise and meal plans for the day (and I won't skip over all the bad things either). Complete honesty. I'll be posting the good and bad things I ate, how I was feeling that day whether it was amazing or dismal, if I exercised, etc. Plus I'll be adding in a few nerdy tidbits here and there like updates on anything good I've been reading or writing or watching. So...see you tomorrow!

 

 

Dark and difficult

times lie ahead.

Soon we must

all face the choice

between what is right

and what is easy.

 

-Albus Dumbledore