Ready, Steady, Go! Getting started with your weight loss journey...

Motivation is defined, according to m-w.com, as "a motivating force, stimulus, or influence : INCENTIVE, DRIVE." We also know it as ambition, inspiration, encouragement, desire, or even the catalyst to our goals. I'm going to be talking a lot about motivation, as it happens to be one of the most key words in weight loss, whether you have a few pounds to lose or a hundred (the latter being my case).

Now, think hard - what is your motivation? Are you doing this mainly for the health benefits? Do you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or do you just want to feel better? Is it because you're unhappy with how you look?

I know what my own motivation is: I'm borderline diabetic, I'm tired of not fitting into the clothes I like, and I really want to do some sexy cosplays. I've been overweight since I was a youngling and I've had self image issues for most of my life. Some motivation isn't as healthy for you, psychologically (and sometimes physically), as other motivation can be. Keep this in mind, because I've found it to be a very important factor. I think the difference between my motivation in high school and my motivation now is that I finally realized all of my problems won't be solved when I drop my weight.

If you want to lose weight because your boyfriend told you that you're fat, then alarms should be going off. It's important to feel secure about your motivation before beginning and to perhaps consult a doctor or a personal trainer. Don't do this for anyone else; this is something you do for yourself and not some jerk who thinks you're not worth their time because they can't wrap their hands around your waist. The same thing goes for guys, too. Not all girls find muscle heads attractive and you don't need to work out to be more macho. If you let other people - girlfriends, boyfriends, family members, friends - tell you how to live your life, then you're going to be unhappy even if you lose the weight. Don't starve yourself for someone's approval, because in the end, self-confidence begins in you... not in anyone else. So begin with your motivation; find a reason to do it for yourself and you'll find that you're feeling more confident already, even if it's just a little.

Now that we have our motivation, let's move on...

Getting a "before" picture is a great way to motivate yourself. Dig up a recent picture of yourself or take one with your camera phone, web cam, or camera. Put it somewhere easily accessible - maybe even somewhere visible. Weigh yourself. Take your measurements (chest, waist, hips, arms, neck, legs, and whatever else you want). Write this all down somewhere, along with your dress size, shirt size, pants size, etc. Make a journal out of this, if you'd like, and make sure you keep track of all of this throughout your weight loss. This is a wonderful way to encourage yourself to start and if you keep track of it, it will help push you forward.

Here's my "before" pictures:

I will definitely be updating pictures from time to time, along with my measurements (which I will give everyone next time when I get around a scale and tape measure). I know two weeks ago when I weighed myself I weighed 261lbs. More to come on that.

Motivating yourself to actually get up and go is one of the hardest parts of anything - term papers, small businesses, cleaning your room - but the most essential part of the process (obviously). Many people seem to sweep the importance of motivating yourself under the rug. Personal experience has taught me that telling yourself "I'll start tomorrow" or "this is my last fatty meal" is only going to hurt you in the long run. Why not start now? Just take baby steps! I'll give you a three-step method to moving into a diet.

1. Stop drinking so much soda!

Soda is one of the most major causes of obesity in the U. S. It has so much sodium and carbs that your body can't help but retain weight. I'm not saying never drink it again, but if you start holding back on the sodas, you'll immediately start to notice a difference. Trust me. If you're an avid soda drinker, or even juice (because a lot of juices are just as bad for you as soda is), say, drinking it with every meal... start cutting it back to once a day for the first week. Reduce it little by little every week. If you have it down to once a day, try once every other day. I would say a good goal is to work up to maybe two or three times a week. You're welcome to cut it out completely right now if you'd like, but if that doesn't sound appealing, then try it slowly. Also, while I don't recommend diet sodas, they're a decent alternative. They don't taste quite as good as the real thing, but it'll help stave off your cravings. If you're a juice drinker, invest in some Crystal Light. It's only five calories for a glass and most of the flavors are really delicious. They've come a long way in some diet foods since I started dieting back in high school. This leads me to my next dieting jump start...

2. Drink plenty of water.

The last thing you want to make sure you do is to drink plenty of water. I will stress again, DRINK WATER. I know so many people who "hate" water. How can you hate water? You need it to live. Most Americans don't drink enough water these days. Did you know that doctors recommend drinking eight 8oz glasses of water a day? That's for a healthy human being. If you're overweight and dieting they recommend drinking more like nine or ten glasses. People like to argue and say that if you drink a lot of water, you'll retain "water weight," but if you're eating a healthy diet, you won't retain that water weight. Water helps flush sodium out of your system. Too much sodium in your system will actually hold what little water you do drink in your body and also help hold on to fat. Also, if you're exercising a lot, you need to replenish the water that you've been losing through sweat.

3. Start moving more.

Even if you don't join a gym immediately, you need to get up and start moving. Americans are so used to instant gratification and driving themselves everywhere; this is another one of the main reasons I believe obesity rates in the U. S. have skyrocketed. If it's nice outside, go for a thirty minute walk. Do you enjoy bike riding? Get yourself a bike and take it out at least five times a week. Do you have Netflix? Search up exercise videos in the watch instantly section and you'll be surprised what you find: zumba, belly dancing, yoga... It's pretty much a goldmine for exercise videos. You need to get your heart rate up for thirty whole minutes if you're going to start burning fat. The very best method for exercise is coupling weight training and cardio, but for now, just get yourself moving for thirty minutes, three to five times a week or more.

So that's about it for now. Next week I'll be talking about finding a diet plan, food journals, good recipes to start out with, and my own measurements.

Ciao,
Steph

A little introduction, before setting off...

So here I am, twenty-three years of age, lost in a world of plummeting economy, technological advances, increasing media pressure, and reality television. It's really no surprise that the obesity rates for the United States have dramatically increased. By 2009, only Colorado and the District of Columbia retained obesity rates of less than 20% (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html).

Our rapidly advancing society makes it all too easy to expend less energy and eat foods that eventually lead to serious health complications, and yet we gather arms so vigilantly against obesity and idolize models who wear clothes that should fit a twelve year old. Depression rates in the United States have become more and more prevalent over the years as the media has become a prominent presence in our lives - depression itself affects more than 21 million Americans and is the cause of 30,000 deaths a year (http://www.nmha.org/go/state-ranking). Studies have linked much of this depression to body image issues, specifically in teens and young adults (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060606224541.htm).

What's the point of this exercise, you ask? Call me motivated, age twenty two, borderline diabetic, two-hundred and sixty one pounds, size twenty, and I have fallen into this trap. This is my journey to break free, seek truth behind the media's influence, beyond the diet fads and pills, and into a realm where living healthy doesn't mean sacrificing my identity and becoming a slave to the image that the media has imposed on me.

My self image issues stem far back into my childhood. A combination of discovering the glories of the internet, wandering into the world of piano performance, and eating quick and easy meals has affected my health negatively. I remember, at the age of eight, looking at a picture of myself standing outside of my best friend's house, bearing an arm-cast from a Halloween accident, and thinking, "Wow, I'm fat." People close to me have constantly barraged me with little comments like "You shouldn't eat that, put it back" or "You're a fat, ugly, jerk, and you'll never be loved." These comments, coupled with the constant flashes of beautiful women on TV and in advertisements has slowly chipped away at my self-confidence. I tried so many diets, all of which failed miserably because my motivation slips away the moment someone accuses me of "cheating on the diet," and realizing that I would have to stick to celery and water until the day I died, or else gain the weight back.

Now, I'm not trying to point the blame all at the media and external influences. I am a firm believer that the power to your own confidence lies completely within yourself, but I also think that too many Americans as a whole need to get up and move. The media likes to emphasize eating healthy and dieting; how many fad diets have you tried, yourself? While Americans need to start eating healthier, I don't necessarily agree they should eat less. Too many people try to starve themselves and resign to depressing meals of salad day and night, week after week. Food is there to enjoy, and how can anyone do that when you feel guilty every time you crave a potato with sour cream?

As I said before, Americans need to get up and move. They think that losing weight means diet pills and two weeks of Slim Fasts. What they don't realize is that their entire lifestyles are in serious need of change and that keeping your body clean and healthy is a task you have to dedicate yourself to. This truth is something that I have come to realize through my weight loss journey, and I am finally ready to commit and help others like me along the way.

So here I am, standing at the beginning of the longest part of my weight loss journey, yearning to break free of media-imposed images of beauty, ready to cast off the burden of my health complications, and discover the person that I was meant to become. My highest hope is that my journey through weight loss will be a guide to others like me, whether they find help in the recipes I share, the tips I post, or the support that my words may give them.

Over and out,
Steph