Day 1

So, here I am.

I really never thought I'd get here. I've been so thin all my life - a rather perfect blend of genetics and athletics that kept me looking like a super-model throughout high school. And then college hit; a wave of stress and inactivity that lasted four years and added almost 20 pounds to my frame. All the while I would get on mini exercise kicks, telling myself that this was definitely the time that I was going to get back into shape. That I was in perfect shape all through high school, and I should easily be able to get back to that place if I put just a little effort into it. But those kicks never lasted. I always gave up on the treadmills and the little dieting tricks. "I'll get back to it," I thought, "just as soon as I'm done with ________ and I have a little more time."

No, I'm still not "fat." I'm technically still within my "healthy weight range," whatever that means, but it's really not about a number on a scale. I don't feel right. I'm supposed to have more energy than this. I don't look right. I'm not supposed to have these extra folds and curves. This just isn't me.

So what, after 4 years of stop-and-go weight loss, has finally gotten me on a "go" kick again?

Florida.

After spending years in the horrible frigid wasteland that is Upstate New York, I decided to attend a graduate school program near Orlando, FL. I've never actually been there, coming from a hometown in California myself, but I've heard the climate is actually warm there. People are discouraged from wearing gigantic, heavy layers that cover the nice build-up of fat they have accumulated during the gorging that goes on between Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. So I'm going there. I'm starting something new, and I want to look and feel my best for this upcoming stage in my life.

And what perfect timing. With the economy in the crapper, I have found myself unemployed for the time being. It's not the end of the world. I think of it as "taking a semester off" before going away, getting my MBA, and doing something amazing with my life. So I have this wonderful chunk of time until I begin the cross-country drive to whatever comes next, where I'm really not doing anything. I might as well take the time to do something nice for my body, which has been so kind in supporting me during all of the crap I've put it through.


So here's where I am today:

I am a 21-year-old female standing 5 feet, 5 inches tall, with a slender to medium frame. At the end of my last semester in December '08, I weighed an unacceptable 140 pounds.

That's when I got a Wii Fit for the holidays, and started playing with it at irregular intervals. That's also when the last of my going-to-school-full-time-while-working-three-jobs stress ended. So, with the help of those two factors, I lost 5 pounds as of yesterday. My weigh-in yesterday morning had me at 135 pounds. It wasn't great, but I was feeling pretty good about my odds of getting the extra college-weight off.

So good, in fact, that I felt it was somehow acceptable to go to the pasta-party being held for my younger sister's high school swim team last night, and eat my freaking body-weight in German chocolate cupcakes.

This morning's weigh-in? 138 pounds.


And that's why I'm starting a blog.

I leave for Florida on August 18th, 140 days from today. In that time, I am going to lose 18 pounds, and get back the the 120 pound me that I left back in the high school swimming pool.

Isn't that an awful lot of time? Yeah, probably. But as you might have been able to tell, I've never been on a diet before. I haven't the first idea how to do this, and I'm expecting slip-ups along the way. I want to take it slow. I may reach my goal before then, but then I'll have to find ways to keep the weight off during what is sure to be a stressful time in grad school. And it's just as likely that I'll have a really hard time losing 18 pounds by August. My mother tells me that those last 10 pounds are not to be underestimated.

So here's where I keep track of everything. This blog will be my exercise log, my food log, and my thought process log as I see what I can do about looking my best for two long, hot years in Florida.

Here goes nothing.