I weigh 175lbs.  For the last few months I've joined a gym, learned a new way to eat and watch what I eat, and lost an inch from around my waist.  I started this journey with the goal of losing weight and while that is still a goal, what I really want has changed.  I found I liked being healthy.  The exercise gives me more energy.  The food I eat determines how good I feel.  Unfortunately in the last couple of weeks I've allowed laziness that followed being ill to keep me off track. 

So yesterday (Sunday) I vowed to get back on track.  I knew I was going to eat at Applebees with my family for Mother's Day so I'd planned on going to the gym after the meal.  My mother invited us all back to her house however.  I'm glad I went because for the next two and a half hours I played soccer with my sisters, niece, and nephew.  It was a lot of fun and while i could definitely feel my age, I had a really good time.  I've never been very althletic but I could tell that my workouts in the gym and at home had really been a benefit and that I was running, jumping, and even taking a spill every now and then lol much easier than I could have before.  Needless to say, I was exhausted when I got home and the work out was much better than the one I would have done in the gym.

My point is, that I could see results despite my couple of weeks off track.  It made me all the more determined to get back on track and I want to learn how to run.  At best, I can jog for about 3 minutes (which is better than when I first tried months ago).  So one of my goals is to run a mile straight.  It's a big goal for me but one I think I can accomplish if I stick with it. 

Of course, one of my goals is to get down to 150lbs.  I belong to a group online called MyFitnessPal.com where I can log in my daily food and my exercise.  This helps alot with making sure I'm not overeating and with keeping me motivated to do my exercises.  I'm supposed to take in 1200 calories a day plus additional calories, the amount depending on how much exercise I do in a day.  How this helps is it really makes me start looking what I put into my body and why.

What's really weird is that after several months of really watching what I eat, the things I thought I liked before now don't taste as good as I thought they did.  For instance, pizza.  Don't get me wrong, pizza is good.  But when I'd eliminated it from my diet for three months and finally had my first piece, it wasn't what I thought I remembered it tasting like.  Also, once I cut back on my salt, I found that I really didn't want the salty foods as much anymore when before I actually craved salty meats. 

Shopping was the most difficult thing for me to learn to do differently.  It got easier as my body changed and didn't want or crave the bad foods anymore.  Here are a few things I learned that may make it easier: