I come from the land of Spark People!

Hey, my name is Hillary, I'm 21 years old, married and currently living in the Wahiawa area of Oahu, Hawaii. I met my husband in the Army before I got out due to injury related fitness issues (just in time for the economy crash!) and now we're very happily married and stationed in paradise. I rarely have any problems with the injury that nabbed me that honorable discharge, but occasionally I'll have a twinge of pain while walking or carrying heavy items. I'm very grateful that it doesn't disrupt my daily life.

However, since leaving the Army, I have fallen to a very low level of fitness and have gained about 25 pounds in two years. It's not the heaviest I've ever been, but very close. Actually, this only started once my husband got home from deployment and started driving me everywhere. I used to walk, run, or bike to places, which allowed me to keep the weight off for the most part. Once cars came into play, I gained an atrocious amount of weight.

Yesterday, we went grocery shopping, and also picked up some doodads, including some dumbbells. We bought a ton of fresh produce, a lot of seafood, and barely any processed foods. I was determined to get us back in a healthy lifestyle. I've been cranking the dumbbells all day, and made sure to eat breakfast (which we often forget to do). It made me feel very happy that I was finally paying attention to my health again.

In December 2010, I found the website sparkpeople.com, which is essentially MFP except orange and slightly more cluttered. The exercise plans were extensive, and the food database and planning system was excellent. But for some reason, I had a hard time caring. Maybe it was the orange. Regardless, I knew I couldn't lean on a website to motivate me, so I tried to motivate myself. Four months later, my friend in Pennsylvania has been using this site to track her progress. I saw her posts on facebook and decided to check this out. To my delight, it wasn't orange. It's simple, not exhaustive, and it feels open. There's a level of community, but not to the point where it beats you over the head. I love sparkpeople for many unique reasons, but I think I'm starting to love MFP for many more.

I'm going to begin my lifestyle transformation (and committment) but trying to CARE. Monitoring my eating and exercising habits is the first step, and so I'm going to make it my goal to check in here every day. I failed with that goal four months ago with spark people, but it's not about my mistakes, it's about having the motivation to keep going despite them. The next goal is to reinstate my mental drill sergeant (I spent 5 weeks in basic training after I was injured just having people scream at me to do stuff and ohhh man, was I in the best shape of my life) and have that self-motivation to move mountains. And then, one day, I will WANT to do all this. Not just to lose weight, but because I like it. I can only hope I get to that level of masochism soon. I jest.

If you've read this wall of text, then you now know me well, and - guess what - I want to be your friend! I'm talkative as all get out, but maybe that just makes me a good candidate for blogging? I hope to get to know many of you guys and travel through the world of weight loss with you. My husband is about to start a crazy 45 day weight loss/bulk up/run fast routine because he has to get a better score on his physical fitness tests, and I just can't do all the things he's doing. I need some sane friends!

Oh yeah, I did all that talking and didn't even state my goals!

I'm 21 years old, 5'8" and 175 lbs. Thank goodness I'm tall-ish cause it all fills out for the most part.
My goal weight is 135 lbs because that's pretty much the healthiest weight I should aim for, and at this point I just want to lose these 40 lbs by Christmas. It's bikini season here all year, I've got until we get stationed somewhere else :P