I am really excited about joining this board...
I've got a good opportunity now to lose weight and I hope I can take full advantage of it.
I am originally from the midwest but I moved to Texas in January for a job. The job didn't work out, it was at a horse farm and the owner of the farm ended up being a very negative person and pretty much drove me crazy for 8 months until I quit.
I had NO plans NO money, etc. etc.
Anyway, I managed to fall into a job as the live-in manager of a small motel for 4-5 months. Sounds like a weight GAIN situation, right? Haha, I hope not.
The owners have asked me to keep their kitchen vegetarian, so that's a boost and there is a treadmill here in the living room that I would feel pretty guilty about just sitting there.
I lost about 10lbs in the 2 weeks after I quit my job just from stress and relief. My old boss was a very controlling woman and she harassed me about my weight constantly (which of course made me EAT like no other and sleep all the time I wasn't working from the depression) (the funny thing is that some pictures of us were taken right before I left and standing next to each other, we are pretty much the same size, I just have narrow hips so I teld to carry my weight in my belly rather than around my hips like she does). So yeah, once all that was off of me, I didn't really want to eat. I gained about 5 lbs back when I started feeling comfortable again, but starting a couple days ago I'm in this for real. I also gained weight because, mmm, admitting this, I stopped drinking pop in December of 2007 and I started again after I quit my job. Dang it! There are pop machines here at the motel so it's going to be really tough to stay away from the soda...
The nice thing about this message board is that I literally do nothing all day except do some basic work (clean rooms, do laundry) and sit on the computer and watch TV (and play on the treadmill, lol). So yeah, I can be around here a lot and feel guilt if I'm not doing good! I also discovered today that I actually have time to cook, which is wonderful! If I eat one more Lean Cuisine.... (
)
I am not planning on doing anything super drastic with my diet except going veggie and cooking rather than pre-packaged. I have a limited budget so I have to stick to pretty 'normal foods' and the local grocery store has... limited supplies. Besides that, I have never been a super-bad eater except in terms of quanitity. Mainly I'm interested in activity.... because I have never been much of an athlete (except horse back riding) this is the kind of lifestyle change I am most interested in meeting - becoming an athlete and supporting it with a reasonable diet!
I plan on moving back home in Feburary or March and my goals are thus:
-My dad is a casual runner and I would like to run with him. I am doing the Couch to 5k and I would like to do a 5k with him when I get home.
-My friend is starting to get into road biking and is training to do RAGBRI next year (it's this insane bike ride across the state of Iowa in the middle of summer). I would like to do 1 day of RAGBRI with her (I have no intention of doing the entire thing, RAGBRI is kind of scary!)
(And my
goal would be to make the fat guy who doesn't like me because he doesn't think I'm pretty enough for him, feel like a moron. Did I say that? Hmmm? LoL. That's not a healthy goal, we'll ignore it for now.)
I am 5'1" and I weighed 180lbs when I left my job. I got down to 170lbs and I expect I am about 175lbs right now. I don't own a scale right now, which might be a good thing. I am planning on getting one when I get paid on the 15th and hopefully then I will be far enough along that it will be kind of encouraging to have
Other than weight...
I am 26 years old and a college graduate who picked the wrong degree! I am considering joining the Peace Corps next year but I haven't made a final decision on that yet.
I have always worked with horses and I ran a thoroughbred racing farm for two years up North before moving down here to work with sporthorses. I do love horses, but I don't think I can ever work in the horse industry again (it's just been too much of a rollarcoaster and I feel like I've never *lived* my life.. I hadn't had more than a token weekend off for 4 years!!!!). I did have to sell my own horse a couple weeks ago
because I couldn't afford to keep her properly and save to move her and I home.
I live here alone with my cat (see avatar) she's the next one on the weight-loss train! My dad started to feed a stray who promptly had kittens who prompty all became (spayed) members of the family, so she's not just any cat, she's my little home-grown treasure. Her two littermates and mom live with my parents.
Mmm... I am a voracious reader and spend waaayyy too much time laying around on the couch reading and I spend waaayy too much money on books. Thankfully, there is no decent bookstore within 60 miles of here, so that helps, haha.
And that's me in a long rambling statement
Using my chance, taking a break from real life :)
