The Beginning of Our Weight Loss Adventures!!

A few days ago I was sitting in a luxury cabin in Steamboat Springs with my husband and family enjoying some much needed R&R over the holiday break.  I was watching the movie Julie/Julia (for those of you who have not seen this movie, the general concept is a true story about a woman who sets out to make all of the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and create a blog about her project)  and had a thought that maybe the reason that Julie was able to complete her project was because she created something that kept her accountable and kept her motivated throughout the project, in this case a blog.  


It got me thinking about the new year...my husband and I have been saying for a long time that we need to lose weight (a lot of weight) and have previously tried to start diets, work out on regular basis and all that comes with living a healthy lifestyle, but at some point have made the multiple excuses that people always make to not stick to the regimen.  I have always wondered why we could not just make the commitment to live healthier and stick to it.  As I was pondering this question I came up with several answers, but I think the answer that matters most is motivation and accountability.  I have tried things before that gave me both of these things, i.e. Weight Watchers, dieting with a friend or family member, personal training and countless others, yet it never works for me.  Why do these things not work for me you ask?  I think if I really had to answer that question truthfully, it would be that I don't like putting limitations in my life and I also don't like one thing to consume my life.  So to avoid these things, I just put the dieting and gym regimen out of my mind so I didn't have to always think about the next thing I put in my mouth or the next time I had to get my ass on a treadmill.  There was always a reason for me to just keep on eating poorly...I'm on vacation, it's the holidays, it's my birthday, it's the summer, it's the winter, spring, fall etc.  But in thinking about all of this, I realized that by not thinking about it and not sticking to it I am in fact putting limitations on my life and letting my weight consume me.  This is a very hard pill to swallow for a person who has previously not been willing to see this fact.   


So now that the New Year of 2012 is upon us, and without trying to sound trite, my husband and I vow to make not a New Year's Resolution but a New Life Resolution because we all now that this is a lifestyle change not just a diet (and for all of you worried in Colorado Springs, no this does not mean I will be going to church). HaHa!!  This brings me to my original movie reference, I told my husband that I was thinking about starting a blog to keep me motivated throughout my weight loss adventure.  To my surprise, he had actually been thinking about the same thing (hmmm great minds do think alike) so there you go our blog was born.  We are not of the generation of bloggers (in fact, I only had a diary that you had to actually write in when I was a kid) and have no expectations with this blog, no pipe dreams of getting book deals, it's just a way to keep us motivated, accountable and to have a little fun along the way, however, if we do inspire or motivate just one person to follow in our footsteps and make their own life change we would consider ourselves blessed!!


THE DETAILS:
If you want to follow us and our progress I will give you a little info!! Our names are Teresa & Rich and we live in Colorado.  My husband is also a contributing author on this blog so he will be posting his own details and such.  I am 34 and my starting weight is 301.8 pounds (omg I can't believe I am actually letting everyone in on that fact but I think it will be good for me).  We will be posting recipes we try, awesome workouts we do, challenges, successes, and any other bumps and bruises along the way.  We have no end date as this is a lifestyle change (I have to keep saying it to get used to it :-)) but I do have some goals I can share with you.  My first weight loss goal is to lose 25 lbs by 2/29/12 so that would mean my weight would then be 276.8. My  first gym goal is to do my weights circuit (set up by a trainer) 3x per week and cardio 1x per week.  I also love to do Yin Yoga so I am going to try to fit that in 2x per week but if I get one class in a week I will be happy.  My first food goal is to cut out all soda, extra sugar and fast food.  I am also going to try to get the 64 oz of water in my body every day.  As you can see my posts will be in pink (my amazing fav color) and my husband will post in either blue or black.  We will try to post our "before" pics or find a way to let everyone see our progress.  


We look forward to sharing our adventures with everyone!!