That moment when you see yourself on a pic/video and think 'WHAT HAPPENED!?'

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd post this quick message to say hello and outline my current positions and my goals. I'm hoping to get some MFP friends too, so please add me if you think we could support each other.

I'm 5'4" and a few days ago, after being horrified at seeing myself on a video my mum took of me and my dog, I stepped on the scales and weighed in at 165lbs (11st 11). This brought up a lot of negative thoughts about myself that I've had on and off since I was first aware of 'weight issues' as a young teenager, and I've decided to change my ways, to make myself more healthy, and to improve my overall fitness. For some people, their weight isn't connected to their general sense of wellbeing and happiness, but for me it certainly is. So, here I am. On a journey to make myself happier and healthier

There's a lot of reasons swimming around in my head that I want to get healthier. Some of them are the common ones: by getting healthier, I'll lose some weight and enjoy my clothes fitting nicely and will be more confident about my image, yadda yadda. I also have some which are a bit more specific to my situation: I want to get fitter so that I become a better cyclist (I bought a fancy road bike before Christmas and I want to be faster and stronger on that); my partner wants to lose weight and get healthier too, so I want to be a bit of an inspiration and support for her (she lives a long way away, so the next time I'll see her is May!) and finally, I want to see myself commit to something that is good for me and to enjoy the process of learning about healthy lifestyles.

So, my goals. For my cycling, I want to be around 125lbs (8st 13). For my own sense of achievement and happiness, I'll be THRILLED when I hit the 135lbs (9st 9) mark. I think a starting goal of 30-40lbs loss is what I'm looking at...

My approach:
- changing the way I eat so that I'm eating better foods (which usually entail a calorie drop)
- 1600 calories on exercise days (usually burn around 400 on the bike); 1200 on non-exercise days.
- drastically reduce my drinking (used to clock up thousands of calories a week in beer alone..)
- meal plan
- exercise plan
- learning more about health, food and exercise

If you would like to add me, please do so!

Looking forward to getting to know some of you a bit better GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Raff