One goal day one is the first day of this blog about my journey to lose 110 lbs and keep it off. Before the journey begins here's my disclaimer. I'm not a writer and my grammar is horrible. I just want to tell my story in my own words. Regardless of the poor writing skills. The purpose is to give back what I have gained, confidence.

My journey started with weighing in at 263 lbs over 2 years ago. My life at that time was a mess and on a road that I did not want to be on. I had sleep apnea, along with sleep issues and depression. My body, heart and mind ached everyday until I decided no medication, weight program, or anyone else could fix this for me. It was all up to only one person, ME. How can I do this on my own? The answer....One day at a time.

I had tried Weight Watchers for 6 months and lost 25 lbs. I was able to get off all medications. My sleep apnea was gone along with my sleeping issues. I felt really good about myself. Specially when people would notice me in a positive way. I never had people notice me in such a positive way before. Unfortunately this feeling was short lived. I hit a plateau and did not know how to deal with it. So what did I do? I gave up and gained back all but 6 lbs back. Now my weight was 257 lbs. I was use to giving up. I had done it many times in my life. Now I was giving up on getting healthy and happy.

Six months later I was able to gain back some determination to try again but I knew I had to be smarter this time. I got help from a counselor for my emotional issues. I was also finally ready to rethink about how to lose the weight and be successful. If I could not control my food even with a program as easy as Weight Watchers then I need to tackle this another way. So I tried exercise, it was something I really did not like to do but after I did it I felt great. I talked myself into walking on the treadmill for 15 minutes. I thought it was a start and it gave me some confidence to do more. I got bored with the treadmill very quickly. I thought I wonder if I could jog? I had never in my life jogged before but I felt I could at least try it. So I remember a friend that's was a personal trainer tell me to try to walk/jog. Humm, walk/jog? walk one minute and jog one minute for as long as you can. December 2007, I started walk/jogging for 20 minutes, 1-2 days a week. I knew I need some additional help and encouragement. So I called my friend and ask if she could come to my house one day a week and train me. That's really when I started to feel I could possibly do this.

I trained 1-2 days a week slowly increasing my speed and time jogging. I was now walking at 3.2 speed and jogging at 4.0 speed for 20 minutes. I had lost about 10-15 lbs in 6 months. I thought that was good but wanted to be better. It was July 13, 2008 and I had hit a plateau and I still could not get my food under control. My friend taught me that when this happens not to get discouraged but to change my route. I've learned that the true definition of plateau is change. So I changed my walk/jog to 2-3 days a week and increase the time to 30 minutes. I started to walk one minute and jog 2-3 minutes. It was also easier for me to wake up early to get my cardo in and lift weight with my friend one day a week after work. The change worked the pounds starting melting off. I was losing 5-7 lbs a month.

Then here came the holidays. I had built confidence in myself that I had never had before. I was determined not to gain the common 5 pounds during the holidays like the average person does. Nope I was not going to gain weight and I was determined to continue to lose it. I joined a competition at work to help employees not again weight over the holidays. If you did not gain weight over the holidays your name would get in a drawing for a Wii and Wii fit.

People really started to notice my weight loss again. I can't explain what encouragement it gave me to keep going. I made it through the holidays and lost almost 15 lbs. I was weighing in around 240-238 lbs. I thought "Hey, I can really do this." But the challenges were not over.

One Goal Day Two

The challenges were both emotional and physical. January 2009, I had been working hard at work, at home with my family and on my weight loss all fall. I was tired and stressed from home and work life. I wasn't losing weight like I had in the last several months I knew it was time to face the food issue. I had made some changes but not enough to make a total life change. I looking at what Weight Watcher had taught me just a year ago, portion control. Ok, let's put this to the test for real this time. I also started a pilot program at work. It was basically teaching how naturally slim people eat and how they control their food. Like all weight loss plans you have to adjust to what results work for you, in my option. With the pilot program I had to write down everything I ate and how much I ate. But I also learned how to read labels and how to really taste my food. Can we truly say as Americans that we taste our food?

I know having a family and all the kid activities after work it's hard to do everything. So we have adapted to eating on the run. I'm so guilty for rushing my kids to eat. I've even made them eat everything on their plate. Why because we are busy and that's how I was taught to eat. I had to slow down and read labels. I really learned to taste my food. I did not know that dorito chips really did not taste as good as I thought. Funny thing is that the food that I thought tasted so good, it really isn't. I don't have cravings like I did before. I also learned over the next few weeks that sugar is evil. Just kidding, it's all good in moderation. I know you've heard that before. But it's true! I started look at portion size and sugar. I lost 3-4lbs a month up until the end of March.

March 2009, I had a goal by the end of the month I wanted to lose 3 lbs to make a total of 50 lbs and my weight 213 lbs. That goal was also a promise I had made to my trainer who was getting married the end of March. I had to stop training with her back in October because my husband had gotten laid off work for the second time in 2008. I knew she had taught me enough to do it on my own but I had to prove it to her and myself. The wedding day I weighed in and I had done it. I was so excited about the wedding. I knew she was going to be so proud of me. I was proud of myself. My husband was noticing me and really excited as well. This new confidence and pride was like a new high. My exercise continued and I changed it up every 6-8 weeks.

I was still wearing my old clothes. It wasn't pretty! I had no idea what size I was now. I had someone give me a gift card to go buy a new pair of pants. That was embarrassing to say the least. I went though and I'm glad I did. I went from a size 22-24 women's to a 18-20 women's.

Then April, May and June came and went with no weight loss. I didn't gain any weight but I didn't lose it either. What was going on? Maybe it was my sugar or sodium? What was I doing wrong? What did I change from when I was losing 5-7 lbs a month. Then it hit me...eating out. My husband had gotten a job a Luby's and been out of town for training in the fall. He's now back home and loves for us to come up there to eat. Even though I was eating fish and good veggies. It was the sodium and fat that they use in the restaurant that was hurting me. So I tried an experiment to see if that was my problem. I quit going for two weeks in July and I lost 5lbs the first week and another 3 in week two. I wan't to be under 200 lbs by the end of August 2009. Can I do it?