Screen Name: tammay
Age/Age Range: Early 40's
Family Life: single, but lots of relatives around!
Occupation: English teacher
Hobbies and Interests: reading the classics, fiction writing, watching classic movies, cooking
Favorite Music: classic rock, classical, and 80's music
Favorite Color(s): green!
Favorite Exercise/Workouts: walking, yoga (stress-relieving type, not power yoga)
What are your fitness/health goals? My health goals are to lost the 65 pounds I have gained over the last 5 years as well as stick to a vegan whole foods eating plan. My fitness goals are to continue walking 5-7 days a week and to eventually get back to doing yoga. I also want to make my chronic migraines go away and avoid some of the health issues that run in my family (especially osteoporosis and Alzheimer's)
What was the "trigger" or incident that made you decide it was time to lose weight and become more fit? I've been trying for years and years but the trigger this time was my decision to stay in Israel (where I am originally from, but spent lots of time in the States, so I consider myself an American first) to be near my aging parents rather than go back to the States. I have been basically been moving around for the last 5 years and now I have a more stable environment, so it's a good time to start to focus on my health goals. I also just started a new teaching job with Berlitz where I will be teaching students face-to-face for the first time in 4 years after having taught exclusively online. So suddenly my appearance is more important to me, since online, students don't see me
. I hate the idea of standing in front of a class teaching when I am less than 15 pounds shy of 200 at a 5'1" height.
What do you struggle with the most on this journey to health? I am a binge eater who turns to junk food when I am stressed and when I want to reward myself. So learning new ways to deal with these two situations rather than turn to food is going to be tough. Also, temptations will be a big issue. When I lived in the States, I lived far away from my family, so family gatherings weren't an issue, but now that I am close by and part of those gatherings, food is a temptation. Also, I am living near my parents and my dad LOVES to eat out! They try to persuade me to come with them and it's hard to say "no" sometimes.
What are three things in the area of diet/exercise you need to improve? I need to make better decisions at restaurants when I go out; I need to be flexible with my eating plan, since there are times when I will be teaching and will not be able to eat right at the time I usually do; and I need to get back into yoga, once I feel comfortable enough with my body to do that (i.e., when I can say, "oh, it's hard to get out of child's pose" rather than "yikes! I can't get out of child's pose!")
(Evil motivation ) Who do you want to look better than? I want to mainly look better than I do right now, so myself, I guess
. However, if I have to choose someone outside of myself, I would say one of my cousins, who is one of these who flaunts her weight loss - and my brother's girlfriend, who also lost quite a bit of weight and thinks she knows everything about dieting.
What can you not wait to wear when you are at goal weight or size? I know this is going to sound very silly, since this doesn't really have much to do with actually losing weight, but I'd like to wear accessories, especially flowy scarves. I know I can technically wear them now at my weight, but because I gained so much, I just don't have the motivation to really look nice and I've always wanted to accessorize but just never had the nerve. I think when I get to my goal weight and start to feel more confident about the way I look, I will also feel more daring about putting on scarves and pins and other accessories.
Tam
then put my old photo on my desktop.
Joking- I just want to look as good as I can. I'm only in competition with myself.
