Hi!
I've been lurking here for a few days and decided to formally introduce myself. I'm Robin!
A bit about me... I'm 25 years old. I've been married to my high school sweetheart for 3 years. He's literally seen me through thick and thin! Right now, we're living in Belgium (about 15 minutes west of Brussels) because he's on an international assignment through his job. We've been here since the end of April. Sometime in October, we're scheduled to move to Budapest, Hungary for about 10 months. We were both born and raised in Maine, and we moved to Cincinnati right after our wedding, so we consider Ohio "home" as well! We have no kids, but two adorable cats.
And about my weight... let's see. I've pretty much always thought I was too big, although looking back on pictures from when I was a kid, I can see there were times when I looked quite good. When I was a young teenager, I ran track and played lacrosse and soccer and I was actually in excellent shape. I could run 5 or 6 miles without a problem. I was always very muscular, and at that point, I wore a size 10 and looked hot in it. When I was 16, I tore my ACL. Under doctor's orders, I couldn't run for 9 months and I had to miss soccer season. Around that time is when I got together with my (now) husband... and pretty much became fat and happy. I also developed mild asthma at that time too. I remember realizing that I weighed 160 lbs and thinking that I really needed to watch myself. But by spring, when lacrosse season rolled around, I was in the worst shape of my life and I just didn't feel like working on it anymore.
Fast forward a couple years... my husband (boyfriend at the time) and I went off to college, and I spent some time at the gym but even more time at the cafeteria. I've always had an easy time building muscle and getting in shape, but a hard time passing up food! So all the late night pizza and beer caught up to me, and when I graduated I probably weighed 220 lbs. Yuck.
After graduation, we got married and moved to Cincinnati. I started working a high pressure job... I'd leave the house at 7:15 am and get home around 9 pm. I ate whatever the vending machine had to offer and didn't exercise at all. Bad combo! I gained about 10 lbs per year and maxed out right around 250 lbs. So I promised myself that once we moved to Europe, and I had a bit more than a year to do whatever I wanted, I'd lose weight and get in shape.
So here I am. I'm currently on Day 8 of Phase 1, and I've been swimming, jogging (just a teeny tiny bit), and using some free weights. I'm a bit embarassed to say that 8 days is practically the longest I've ever been on a "diet." (I did do WW for a few months, but my version of that was basically just starving myself during the day to fit in the pizza and beer at night -- NOT healthy at all!) In the past, I just knew I wasn't ready to commit to changing my eating habits so I didn't even try. It's different now. It feels good to get back to some physical activity, and I'm surprised how EASY this way of eating is. I've been sleeping in less and wanting to drink more water and less Diet Coke. And I don't have a scale here (I plan to buy one soon!), but I can already tell my jeans are getting a bit looser in the waist!
I guess that's it for me... I look forward to getting to know you all!
Introducing Myself...
