Finding The New Me Inside

Looking through pictures of myself on Facebook is an interesting experience. I start off looking pretty fine (if I do say so myself) as a high school graduate, but slowly a change starts to creep up on me.

Here I am as a hot little 17 year old.

I gained the Freshman 15.
Except in my case it turned into the College 50.
Swayzie and I lived in the same building together for a year once before we started dating, and we don't have a single memory of each other during that time. I suspect it was because I was overweight and unhappy and lacking in confidence. It wasn't until after I had pneuomonia and moved home for 9 months that I finally made a change. I was almost at the 200 lb mark, and I didn't want to be jumping over that line.

I had participated in lots of fad diets with my Mom in high school, Atkins, etc, and after taking nutrition 101 in college I realized that I didn't want to be harming myself anymore. I decided I wanted to make a lifestyle change. I would be more active, and revolutionize my eating habits.

I started using a calorie tracking program called Fitday, attempting to measure every single calorie that went into my body. My parents live out in the middle of nowhere and so it wasn't hard to avoid eating out. Since the photo above was taken I have lost almost 40 lbs (using Fitday on and off). It has taken over 2 years to do it, but I enjoy doing it the right way. I feel happier, healthier, and have so much more confidence.

Now that my wedding is approaching, I want to hit this weight loss even harder. I would like to get down to the weight I was at when I graduated from high school, which is currently 25 lbs away. I not only want to look thinner, I want to feel stronger.

There are other brides out there doing this same thing, and I would like to join there little network of brides blogging about their fitness and nutrition regime. Now that finals are over and school is out I have time to focus on counting calories once again, and I can't wait to share some of the tips and tricks I have learned along the way. I will be posting about what I do to stay active, the nutrient dense foods I have discovered, etc.

If you have any requests feel free to comment. Or if you yourself have found something that works well for you, please contact me and maybe we can set up a guest post. I would love to feature others who have found succesful ways to get healthy!