How I Got Started

     After making the decision to lose the weight instead of the spinal tap my next step was figuring out how I wanted to lose weight. I headed to the Borders book store at the mall in the town next to mine. Do you realize just how many diets are out there?!? Low carb, liquid, vegetarian, flexitarian, low calorie, Weight Watchers, South Beach, Atkins the list goes on and on and on.

     Amongst all of these get slim quick schemes there was a food journal. The first few pages described how the book worked, how to determine how many calories you need based on your build and height, and there were even a few tips on how to cut back on calories. For $3.99 why not try it?

     I started tracking every  bite I took religiously. I had my notebook, ink pen, and calculator on my kitchen counter to figure up the calories in my recipes every night. Inside of this food journal they had a fitness section as well. I started buying fitness equipment and turned our spare bedroom into my own personal gym. I bought hand weights, a kettlebell, a medicine ball, a balance ball, a mini trampoline, my sister gave me her treadmill, and I was also given a Nordic Track Leg Shaper. With all these new tools I got to work. Within the first two months I'd lost a little over 20 pounds. And then came the holiday season.

     Every diet I have ever been on has been ruined by the holiday season. I just cannot say no to all of the yummy food! Needless to say my diet went straight out the door. Once the new year rolled around I had gained back half of the weight I worked so hard to lose. I spent all of January and most of February trying to come up with a plan to get back on track.

     Around the middle of February 2010 I received the best gift in the world! A brand new laptop computer and wireless Internet. As soon as the Internet was turned on I googled diet websites and came up with one I thought looked cool calorieking.com. I emailed my sister to see if she'd ever used this site and if she liked it. She said she'd never used that one but there was a website she'd used in the past that she really liked. It was called sparkpeople.com. As soon as I read her email I immediately went the the site. Hallelujah!!! I finally found the plan that was going to work for me. I felt like I was at home. Not even ten minutes after joining I was receiving Goodies and welcome messages from total strangers.

     SparkPeople.com was/is my answer! A couple of weeks after joining I bought the best selling book by Chris Downie called The Spark. That was hands down the best $20.00 I've EVER spent. I read the entire book the day I bought it. Within the first two chapters everything suddenly made sense. Healthy weight loss isn't about food, exercise, and especially not fad diets. Healthy weight loss is about fixing what's broken inside before you can start on the outside.

     There are questions in this book for you to answer like "If you could take yourself anywhere right now where would you go", and "what would your body look like, what activities would your day include"? Then it moves onto goal setting techniques and your core values and beliefs. I know you're probably thinking "how in the Hell do these things have anything to do with weight loss"?!? Well my response is EVERYTHING! I really don't know how to explain it. You'd have to read the book yourself to fully understand the power it has.

     After reading the book I started my goal lists, my fastbreak week, and meeting new people. Things just took off from there. I am now seven months in and I've lost 42 pounds so far. It should have been a lot more than 42 pounds but I've hit a few bumps here and there. In the past my little slip ups would have totally derailed everything for me, but since I've joined SparkPeople I now realize that it's okay to fuck up. It happens to everyone. In the end the only thing that really matters is that you get back up and keep going.