Never been skinny- taking baby steps and hoping for inspirat

silkensunrise

I've never been skinny a day in my life. I wasn't a chubby child, per se, but I ate almost all the candies and sugar and processed foods I could ever want. Veggies and fruit were hardly ever offered, and if they were offered, I universally rejected them as disgusting. Typical, I know, but I've spent years lamenting that fact.

Back in March or so, I had a bit of a revolution against my unhealthy self. I had steadily gained weight until, in high school, I was one of the chubby girls. I remember being in choir, looking at the mirror at all of us girls singing, and thinking "I am the fatest one here. I am ugly. Disgusting." I'm sure this is not new for many people, but it sums up how I felt about myself until March.

Since then, I have been steadily plugging away at changing how I behave in regards to food and exercise. For awhile, I was using MFP to track calories and it changed the way I thought about food.

I fell off the bandwagon a bit though. I stopped tracking, thinking I knew enough about it. I decided it was just too hard, that I deserved to eat what I wanted because I worked so hard. I stayed half on, half off... not losing any more weight, but not gaining any either.

I found a quote, I'm not sure where now, related to money. Basically, you think you "deserve" to spend your money on fun things, but don't you also "deserve" not to worry about money? It hit me- applied to eating/exercising. I thought I deserved to eat whatever I wanted because I work so hard, and I thought I deserved to relax all night instead of exercise. But don't I really deserve to be healthy, happy, full of energy, able to fit into the cute clothes I sigh over, and just plain feel good about myself?

I do deserve all of that. Everyone does, I think.

So, starting this month, I am going to follow five rules that I'm hoping will help me not only get healthy but stay healthy... and hopefully aren't too hard to follow.

1) Drink twice as much water as anything else. The only problem with this is that I tend not to drink much at all, so as I sub rule I have to take at least a swig of water whenever I think of it.

2) Eat as many fruits/veggies as protein. I've been going at about half, but that is up from this time last year when it was none at all. Or very very little. I do plan to increase this to twice as much, but I think baby steps work best for me.

3) Get eight hours of sleep. This is a hard one, as I only get about 4 hours and 45 minutes at home on weeknights... but I've got to make it a priority. Already I've been going at about 7 or 7 and a half and that has made a big difference!

4) Exercise three times a week for at least 30 minutes. More is fine, but I can't count an hour as two workouts. Mostly I will be playing "Dance Central" on my Kinect, as I find it lots of fun. Not the most strenuous, but I will work up to something else in time.

5) This is where MFP comes in- count calories! I'm pretty good at not beating myself up for not doing so well, but I find that it doesn't matter as much if I come in my calorie count or not, what matters is that I actually think about it and limit at least a little. I also try to increase foods with low calories so I can eat as much as I want while still losing weight.

So, it's a long intro, but I would really love some friends to go on this journey with. I didn't try the social aspect last time, and I wonder if that was my downfall. Please, feel free to friend me and I would love to talk and get to know some people to help keep me accountable and excited!

jenready

It sounds like you have a great plan to start with. There is a great community here to support and encourage you. Good luck!