Greetings

mcroix

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening!

My name is Maurice and I am as of this moment twenty-five years old. I currently live in the amazing "can't make up its mind on winter" state of Georgia down here in the old south of the United States. I am originally from across the vast pond but have lived most of my life here in the states. I currently work in the retail grocery business and actively seeking new employment in the my studied field of biology. I also volunteer at the local aquarium which so far has been an amazing experience.

So now you know a little about myself, how about yourself? I would love to learn some interesting facts about your journey through life. I could read all the introductions (which I am doing while writing this) but I am sure I can not get through them all and retain all the information.

Ok! Onward to the weight journey of this introduction! My highest (or lowest self-esteem wise) weight point of my life was just recently hit at 252 pounds. It might have been 255, but I recently had two episodes of stomach bugs that have kept my weight fluctuating. Nasty case of those viruses/bacteria that always cause trouble around the holidays. Now my goal weight would like to be 185 pounds. Why? I am not even completely sure, it sounds like a good number and it is the lowest I can ever remember being during my teenager years. Now I am about six feet tall, so please tell me if that is a ridiculousness goal or not. I know it puts me right on the border of Normal and Overweight on the BMI chart. Yet, my faith in the BMI chart is not very high.

This will not be my first attempt for losing weight. I have tried this before and it has worked, until the stress kicked in. You see the problem is, from what I can gather, that I love to eat unhealthy food when I become stressed. It is my coping resolution to all my problems. It sounds really stupid when I type it out here, but I know a lot of people have the same problem. Also another problem is that I love being relaxed. Ok, scratch that. Might as well be honest here. I am plain out lazy when it comes doing something healthy for myself. The crazy thing is that once I do start, I absolutely love it. I have walked / sprinted the Peachtree Road Race (10k) twice and the Firefly (5k) once and had the time of my life. I just need to find that motivation to get myself going and keep on going once I get the ball rolling. Any advice would be helpful! I currently got myself the fitbit zip and have a daily competition with other family members. It has been helping me walk more often and use certain task as an excuse to go out and walk.

This is why I also decided to join this community. Counting calories is once of the hardest things I have ever undertaken. Especially because I never really payed attention to what I put into my body and it is quite scary to see how I could easily go over my budget for the day. So, if you decide to be my friend and you see that message pop up that I went over, you better kick me down to the ground and make me do the walk of shame.

Ok ok, now that we got that out of the way. I guess I wanted to put out there why I really want to lose this weight.

Number One! The obvious one! I want to be more healthy!
Number Two! I want to be able to sleep better again. I know there is a huge link between being overweight and not sleeping as well.
Number Three! I want to start a family in the next ~5 years, and that requires my obligation to be healthy!
Number Four! There are some possible genetic fears that might arrive in the near future. Not too comfortable talking about it, but I want to be healthy so I can avoid or decrease the risk.
Number Five! I want to be able to concentrate again like I used to. I know it is not as good as it used to be and that scares me.
Number Six! I want to look good for once. I mean I know I am not hideous, but we guys have secret dream looks too!
Number Seven! I want to be able to run a 10k in the future!
Number Eight! I have a bad knee and I want to reduce the pressure on it and maybe even grow stronger muscles around it to help support it.

I think that is it! How about yours?

Sorry for the novel! If you read the whole thing, you are truly awesome and thank you.

Stay healthy!