Okay, here I go!

Okay....I have absolutely no idea what I am doing...but I promised myself that I would start my blog posts before I started my new weight-loss plan. So basically I just signed up as a blogger and haven't really had time to study how to make my blog interesting and/or creative! But I have forty weeks to figure that out....so here goes.......

My name is Janet. I am 43 years old and I have struggled with my weight since I was about 35. I don't feel as if I ever was GINORMOUS, but it has been a struggle. I am 5'5" and I SHOULD weigh somewhere between 125-150, according to the Weight Watchers healthy weight range chart. At one point I remember seeing my scale say 190 and I felt my head spin and thought I was going to pass out. Luckily, that was scary enough for me NEVER to see 190 again. But I hovered around there-188-185-183-186-I kind of resigned myself to the fact I was always going to be a "girl in the 180s." Luckily, I changed careers in 2007 and I am very active every day so now I can call myself "a girl in the 170s!" It feels good to have lost all that weight just by getting out of an office environment, but it's still too much for my frame. I weighed myself this morning and the scale said 170. I am okay with that considering where I used to be, but it IS a gain of about five pounds over the holidays. Forty pounds in forty weeks would be 130 and I would be DELIGHTED with that end result!

A couple reasons I chose to lose my weight this way: I have tried losing weight enough times to know that I MUST have someone to whom I am accountable. For this reason I have been a Weight Watchers member (Lifetime Member, actually) on and off since 2003. Weight Watchers is WONDERFUL but if I fall off the wagon I find it too easy to just stop going to the meetings. I am challenging myself to see if I can do this without spending any money, other than what I spend on healthier eating. People so often get trapped by what they need to "buy" or "spend" to achieve the results they want. I do not plan to join a gym, I do not plan to use any "shakes" or "pills" to get the job done. I'm just going to use what is around me. Granted, I have a kick-butt treadmill, set up in front of the TV, no less...(although it's a little dusty at the moment), a stability ball, pilates cords, excercise TV on demand, a Bean, and tons of workout videos. Oh yeah...we also have a punching bag and a weight bench in the basement-almost forgot about those! So, to be honest, I probably could start my own workout studio if I wanted to! There are so many of us who cannot afford those kind of things, especially with the way things are with our economy. FYI-I hate when people use the line I just did(referring to the economy)...it's so depressing, but it's true. No more economy talk-Yuck! But I just want to see if it can be done! I am going to watch my calories and increase my excercise. I KNOW it's that simple and it won't cost me a dime!
The second reason I chose forty weeks is that my husband has a work conference in Hollywood, Florida in October which is precisely forty weeks from today. Due to the economy(I DID NOT just say that), there will be no Europe or Vegas for us this year, but thank the Lord for a working conference where the hotel room is free and the beach is right across the street! I think we all know what kind of hot bodies reside in Hollywood, Florida. I know myself and I would not even GO if I didn't feel good about how I look in a swimsuit. Being 43, I'm sure I can't totally compete, but I DO want people to look at me and think, "Hey...she looks pretty good for her age!"

And so...my journey begins...

I always got comfort from the phrase, "You didn't put the weight ON overnight, so don't expect it to come OFF overnight!" That's kind of the premise here. If I can just lose one pound a week for the next forty weeks by making small changes in my diet and behavior, I WILL be successful!

If you are a guest on this blog I want to thank you for visiting. If you would like to follow my (hopeful) success, I would be honored. If I can inspire even one person to come on the journey with me, that would bring me great joy! I'm going to try a pretty open and honest approach to what I've done and how it makes me feel each day, including what I eat, how I think and feel, and what behaviors I try to change.

I'll get some pictures up soon. Everybody wants to see pictures. But I've got to go wrap my head around this undertaking and make sure my committment level is 100 percent.

Talk to you later!