Day 1: Uphill Climb

I was shopping the other day, trying to have some successful retail therapy. Unfortunately, everything I tried on looked horrible. For some reason, I had the idea to start looking for a swim suit because summer will be here before I know it and because I'll be in Florida in less than a month. BAD.DECISION. I am horrified at how awful I looked. Now, I've never been a skinny-mini, but for a bit of time I was in shape and down to a size 10. Not so much anymore. So basically, I am returning to the blogosphere to write about any and everything about getting myself into a health routine, etc. For many reasons, I hope to be successful, but here are my top reasons:

(1) I can't stand the way I look; Come on, we all know that feeling where nothing in our closet fits right, nothing makes you feel pretty, etc. I'm sick of feeling that way.

(2) More importantly, I need to take care of my body. You only get one and I want to live a long and healthy life, have children of my own some day, etc...all of which is hard to do when you're out of shape and not taking care of yourself physically, emotionally, etc

(3) I just want to be hot. Don't care how superficial that sou

nds...at some point, I want to look at myself and know that my hard work at the gym has paid off and I'm causing people to do double takes and go "daaaamn girl" :)

(4) Aside from anything physical, I want to feel 'alive' again. School caused me to put aside any passions and interests I had, so I hope to rediscover them and inject some excitement back into my life.

Oprah did an entire series about living your best life; the one on exercise and physical health suggested setting reasonable goals for yourself so you are working towards something and to also reward yourself with non-food rewards. Here's my list:

Goals:

#1: April 8th--this is the day I leave for Florida for my family's annual Easter vacation to the Keys. My body is NOWHERE near bathing suit ready. 

#2: May 8th--This is the last day of the Spring semester and also marks 8 weeks from today, which is when I will have finished my first leg of "training" so to speak. 

#3: June 27th--This is Aubrey's wedding. Quite simply, I refuse to be the fat cow at a wedding full of beautiful californians. end of story. plus who doesn't want to look good in wedding photos--She'll have them for life!

#4: August 24th--Start of the fall semester. By this time, I will be interviewing for employment and as much as I don't want to admit it, appearance and presentation counts

#5: November 13th--Ryan's birthday...who doesn't want to look sexy for their man?

#6: December 24-December 31st: The span between Christmas and New Year's is one long goal to not gain a ton of weight from the holidays. Also, it will be the end of 2009. 

Overall, I hope to lose 70 lbs by December 31, 2009. It averages out to about 1.5-2lbs per week which is totally healthy, I checked. And I plan on rewarding myself with massages, mani/pedis, maybe a designer splurge, and ultimately, I want a pair of Christian Louboutin's..but only if I'm fit enough that walking in them doesn't (a) destroy my body and (b) destroy the shoes.

In order to give myself some motivation, I bought a new pair of kicks. Check'em out: 

My Nike+ Livestrong Sneaks. Then, I bought this cool little device that goes inside the shoe:

Then there's a receptor that plugs into your iPod and it tracks your run for you and you can load it onto Nikeplus.com and see your progress. Pretty nifty, if I do say so myself :) You all will be able to see my progress with the little "mini me" in my post below. It updates every time I run and update my information online. My first training is the Walk/Run Method. It's an 8-week ordeal that basically as you build your stamina and endurance to run for 30 minutes straight. I'm starting with zero ability to run, so hopefully by the end of the 8 weeks, I'll be running strong and ready to start the next training program. 

So for week one of the walk/run method, you warm up for 5-10 minutes walking and then you start briskly walking for 6 minutes, jog at an easy pace for 1 minute and repeat 3 times. I successfully completed day one of week one :) We'll see what happens tomorrow...