Let's Try This Again

Alright, here it is a new year, and I'm right back where I started (almost). I'm starting the year off at 194, I did manage to get down to 178 in the summer, but a month long road trip eating in restaurants every day followed by the holiday season has put me right back up.

I'm really determined this time though. I'm going to use healthy eating and exercise to lose the weight. I've committed to going to LA Weight Loss 3x a week (more for the accountability factor than anything else) and I've signed on with a personal trainer. I'll go to see him once a week (that's all I can afford) and work out at the gym on my own twice more a week. I also plan on getting up a half an hour earlier every morning (except Sunday, my designated 'day of rest') to start my day off with a workout video. I have a ton of these, and never find the time to do them with life being so busy (not with anything particularly interesting mind you, just work and family responsibilities). Anyway, the morning is really the only time that makes sense. I'm going to find this very difficult though as I'm not a morning person and it's extremely hard to discipline myself to get up out of my cozy bed on a cold winter morning. I've also signed up for 2 dance classes a week. The first one is tonight and that's bellydance, the other class (Burlesque!) starts on Friday, both at my local community centre. I've taken bellydance before and I really enjoy it, but I've never taken burlesque and I'm not exactly sure what it will entail, but I'm very excited about it. I might even take one of those pole-dancing classes once I have a little less weight to have to hoist. I'm not interested in doing it professionally or anything (I can't imaging taking my kit off for a bunch of strangers even if I was in awesome shape), but I think a class would be fun.

Anyway, so far today, I've been doing okay, but not great. I skipped my morning workout, electing to exercise only 1 arm by hitting the snooze button a dozen times instead. I've eaten well so far... oatmeal for breakfast, chicken and salad for lunch. At lunch time I went for long brisk walk (it's a non-gym day today). I'm aiming for 4 small meals a day and I'll try to keep my intake around 1500 calories a day. This should enable me to lose about 2 pounds a week.

Here's a nifty calculation if you're trying to lose weight... To maintain your current weight, multiply it by 12 and this is the number of calories you need to consume per day. 3500 calories equals 1 pound, so to lose 1 pound a week, reduce that amount by 500 calories, to lose 2 pounds a week, reduce that amount by 1000 calories, etc. Keep in mind though that women shouldn't go below 1200 calories a day and men shouldn't go below 1500, it's not healthy.