Weight Loss Challenge

Well, this is embarrassing and depressing.

My dad celebrated his birthday this past weekend, one of his gifts was a new scale to weigh himself. He’s a larger guy and is working on loosing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. So he was happy for the new scale. The moment I step through the door he asks me to go try it out. I have not stepped on a scale in close to two or three years. I know how bad it’s going to be, but in the end I still tried it and the result was worse than I thought. The only funny side out of this was my dad was the only one in the house happy when he stepped on the scale.

It’s to the point where I’m back to the heaviest I’ve been my whole life. In the past I’ve worked with weight watchers and doctors to help lose weight successfully. I think I’ve lost up to 30 pounds once on one of their programs. It works, and I do know what I’ve been doing wrong these past few years.

My attempt this time will be to lose 40 lbs on my own. It will be difficult and challenging. I’ll keep a diary of food I’ve eaten, as well as activities I’ve completed. I hope just by writing down everything and going out for walks, or doing zumba in my home will be enough over the next few months to shed a few pounds off me.

One of my short comings, whenever I’m loosing weight, is lack of activity. Ever since I’ve moved in with my boyfriend my daily walks to work have been eliminated. For four months, that was a lot of damage against myself. Winter is no help either. The days have been super cold and difficult to get out and walk without freezing.  By spring I hope to be outside for longer walks and even setting up a few hikes. There’s still a desire in me to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain, though it looks like it may be further in the future. I need to get myself healthy and fit first before I can set my sights on a challenge like that.

My second major challenge with weight loss is my own mental state. At times, I have a lot of negative thoughts in my mind, especially when things aren’t going my way. Currently I’m unemployed and trying to work out my novel to be in decent condition for an editor or an agent to look at. There’s  a lot of crappy thoughts in my mind just dealing with that alone! Loosing weight is just as bad – especially when I look at myself in the mirror. My challenge will be to keep a positive attitude towards all this. I’ve lost the weight before, I know I can do it again.

Any advice and support along the way is welcomed. I’ve recently mentioned this to my boyfriend and we’ve been working hard on preparing and cooking more food at home. I hope together we can support each other and maybe the both of us can lose some excess weight during this period for me.