03/03/2013 00:50
Céad Míle Fáilte :) [Welcome]
Hey there,
Welcome to my blog :) I may as well start by introducing myself;
My name is Sarah, I'm 20 years old and living in Dublin. Currently in my 3rd year of uni studying nursing and loving it! :)
Now for the weight related stuff. I'm 5'0 and 69kgs, defo one of my highest weights to date! I'm UK dress size 10-12. Target weight is 50kg. Have to lose approx. 3 stone for all those not using the metric system - yikes! Aiming to be UK dress size 6-8 & yes I'm aware that's tiny, but remember I am tiny in height too ;) My sister is a UK dress size 4-6 and is 4'10 and is perfectly healthy according to her BMI and our GP :)
My motivation? Well I have a few things motivationg me at the moment:
*Summer 2013: I'm going on a J1 visa to the USA this summer! Although we're not going anywhere coastal which means no beaches, it's still gonna be pretty hot which does mean skimpy clothing. Don't get me wrong I'm not a prude, but I'm shy about flaunting the flab :/ I know I probably won't have reached my target weight going over, but I should be close to it by the time we're going which means yay to skimpy stuff - well some anyway! ;)
*Recovery: I'm recovering from an eating disorder. I have Binge Eating Disorder(Only newly established as an eating disorder, but there is plenty about it when you google it if you want to research it :) ), however occasionally I have made myself sick before too. I'm in recovery now as I attend councelling and a regular therapy group. However another part of my recovery is losing the weight I've accumulated from it, I see weight loss as a way of putting the whole thing behind me :) I just want to be happy, fit and healthy :)
*My Self-Esteem/Confidence: I definitely don't feel as outgoing as I did before in my teens. I feel quite shy when I meet new people socially. I think some of that comes down to feeling so self conscious 'cause I'm generally never happy with how I look body-wise. But I believe if I lose the wight that will break the cycle. I accept that weight loss is a journey or a process, not something that can be fixed with a fad diet and spanx! :P So that's why I feel ready more than ever to make this change :)
*My Career: I am a nurse. I love my career :) However a big part of it, of course, is to promote health. So by being grossly overweight I'm kinda being hypocritical aren't I? Now I'm not trying to go down the beating myself up road either, but I'm just saying logically it would make more sense for me to be fit and healthy. Sure they say you can't look after anyone else til you look after yourself :)
So as you can see I have plenty of reasons why now is the time to change :) As for the game plan? Well I've tried and tested nearly every diet out there, and have also done a lot of research on nutrition and weight loss recently but didn't need this to tell me it comes down to the basic two things; diet and exercise, of course.
*Diet: Well, I'm a big believer in blood sugar control thatnks to all of Dr. Patrick Holford's material (I will blog about his work another time, but basically its about stabilising your blood sugars). I also believe in "clean eating" (absoloutely no chemicals in food or drink whatsoever) so I'm going to combine the two. In other words three square meals with two healthy snacks (all "clean", but keeping them regular keeps my blood sugar in check) and lots of water or juice. I don't drink hot drinks, but I'm addicted to diet coke so gonna ween myself off that gradually. Have done so before, can do again :)
*Exercise: I'm a member of the uni gym and aim to go four days a week mininum. I usally spend 1.5-2hours doing a variety of mostly cardio (treadmill, crosstrainer,bike) and a little bit of weights. Trying to get some more in if I can to mix it up and wanna start aqua aerobics soon too :)
So I'll be posting as regualrly as I can with updates about my day, calorie intake and exercise count, aswell as my thoughts going through this journey.
Please feel free to share any comments or ask any questions, I do love talking to new people :)
Til next day my pretties :)
Sarah