After our first day at Sweat

So I joined Sweat* again. I actually emailed the owner and told him I was interested in doing it again because obviously I didn’t get anywhere in losing weight. Obviously I had a mid-year crisis – I can’t believe it’s almost July already!? Anyways, he was determined to help me out and had Tyler and I come in to meet with him. He gave us a big discount so we could afford it and stick to it. That was really nice of him! The catch was that he wanted Tyler to do it too because he believes it’s important for us both to do the same thing and have the same goals so we can help each other out.

So we signed up and did the depressing stuff – taking our measurements & weighing in. Then we went over the diet stuff. He expects me to lose 20 pounds in 3 weeks!!! It’s possible but dang… I BETTER lose 20 pounds!

Our first day in the gym was no joke. We didn’t even warm up. He had Tyler do the Jacob’s ladder for 15 minutes while I was on the elliptical bike then switched over to the stairmaster. We were literally sweaty at the end of the hour.

It feels good and I can tell I feel so much better but I’ve been having a few headaches….probably due to the fact that I haven’t had Diet Coke in a while. Overall, I’m looking forward to seeing the results and making lifestyle changes!

*Sweat is the name of the gym. It definitely lives up to its name for sure! People can’t just use the gym anytime. There are many different programs: weight loss, sweat cheer/wrestling, toning, personal training, etc. The way it works is you sign up for the hour you want to go for small group training and there will be a personal trainer working with you individually with about 7 other people. Everyone has different goals. There are also personal training for 1 on 1 but of course those sessions are way too expensive!

I applied to be on the show, Heavy, on A&E last month. I didn’t think much into it and didn’t think it’d go anywhere. Well, a week later the casting director contacted me and told me they were interested and asked me to fill out a questionnaire. The typical questions were like,

• What is your biggest regret that is a consequence of your weight?
• How has your weight affected your health?
• What are your three most important reasons for losing weight?

…and lots of describing myself and telling my story. I answered the questions and sent the questionnaire back to her. She asked me not to tell anyone of our conversation because you know they do that with all TV shows anyways. She even called Tyler to make sure we were aware of that. Meanwhile I asked my boss if it would be okay to take a month (or more) off if I got picked and she was totally supportive of it and said I’d still have my job.

A few days later, she emailed me back and told me I made it to the next round. They were interested in my story and now wanted me to do a videotape. They were asking for a lot….

• Eating bad food
• Cooking
• Show the inside of my fridge
• My closet and clothes
• Old pictures of me
• Things that are hard to do physically
• Show my work place

I got overwhelmed by reading all the things they wanted me to do. I’ll be honest here…..I chickened out!! Actually…Tyler and I talked about it because we didn’t even discuss anything before I randomly applied because I seriously didn’t think they would contact me. After our discussion, we both agreed we didn’t feel financially comfortable with me leaving for a month. And honestly….I don’t think I could go for a month being isolated at a resort without my iPhone UNLESS I was on The Biggest Loser which is my favorite show! I even dreamed that I went through the last chance work out with Bob & Jillian. It felt so real and so I’d like to pretend I did.

Anyways….so yep, it sucks because now I’ll have to live with that regret of not knowing what would have happened if I sent in a videotape. But honestly… I’m not going to dwell on it because I am still working on myself by going to boot camp and doing a 5K run/walk next Saturday. At least I’m not giving up!

So that was my secret. Sorry you won’t see me on TV revealing my rolls of fat & how much I weigh.

Okay, I knew I had to win this! I asked everyone on Facebook to do this for me. My parents and husband rarely use Facebook so I had to login on their accounts to cast their votes. My greatest supporter with this was my sister. She asked her friends to vote and went crazy on liking everyone’s votes! I say this because she even accidentally liking other votes that weren’t for me. I even sent out an email to some close friends, bloggers, relatives and sorority sisters. It was amazing to see how many people took the time to vote for me. If you voted for me, thank you again!!

The next morning I received some comments and text messages from friends  saying they just announced the winner on Facebook and that I won! I was contacted by the trainer to set up an appointment for an evaluation. My mom really wanted to do the boot camp with me so I was more than happy to give her the “free friend pass” so she can do the boot camp with me.

We went in for our appointment and really liked the trainer! So now I’m really looking forward to boot camp that starts next Monday. I even considered the 5:30AM boot camp but knew I would never get out of bed that early so we signed up for the 6:00PM boot camp (4 days a week).

I’m using this opportunity to kick me in the butt and get a head start gaining will power to do this and lose weight. I have so much to look forward to even a 5K walk/run that I signed up for on April 9th!

September 2008 – taken by Jason Gervase

I’m behind with Google Reader and my TV shows. I really don’t want to know what I have been doing instead. I think it has to do with being way too addicted to Super Mario Bros. I can now say we finally finished it so I’m done with video games for a while! I don’t know how Tyler can play video games all the time and not get sick of it. I guess it’s something I’ll never understand…

Recently I have been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life right now. Tyler and I need to take advantage of it now while we are still young and do not have children. We do want to have children some day but right now we still have things we want to do for ourselves. I do not want to have children until I lose weight first anyways. When we do start a family we want to be able to say we accomplished things we wanted to before becoming full-time parents.

I recently discovered that they have a boxing club in the area. Their website and FAQ page has me convinced to join. I’m going to check it out on Monday anyways. Trust me I’m not joining to become a professional boxer…that’s not my goal. I love their insight of how you can lose weight and become fit with punching bags, exercising with kettlebells, jump roping, drills and conditioning. Both my parents are interested too but I’m not sure which one of them is going to join me. On the other hand, Tyler loves dodgeball and unfortunately they don’t have a team here at our community center. He is going to look into trying to set one up though and I hope it works out since I want to see him do something he loves.

I’m excited to see what this month and upcoming months will bring for us especially becoming more involved in our community.

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” – Harvey MacKay

I just created a new blog where I’ll be documenting my weight loss journey. Check it out at luxe skinny and don’t forget to subscribe too. I would love to still receive your amazing support & comments over at luxe skinny.

Playing in a tournament in Washington DC in 2002

I can’t believe I let myself get to how much I weigh now. I can’t even accept the number that the scale reads.

I was very active when growing up – I played peewee soccer then volleyball in middle school. In high school I played volleyball & basketball. I remember being so busy and coming home from practice or a game and doing my homework until bed time… same routine every day! It was crazy – I didn’t have time to actually think about the food I craved for or wanted. Also because of the sports I was playing, I had high metabolism so I could eat whatever I wanted and not really gain weight.

The day my mom left me at college I remember thinking, “Wow, I can do whatever I want now!!” Instead of eating 3 meals a day, I could eat whenever and whatever I wanted anytime with friends. I felt so comfortable with myself and didn’t really care about my appearance at the time. I didn’t look into playing sports. College was very different – different routine every day and so many different friends & clubs with little time left to do anything else. Living in the dorms was challenging since we didn’t have kitchens so we couldn’t cook meals. It was always pizza or grilled cheese sandwiches at the cafeteria. Or those damn Cadbury’s mini eggs from the mini-store on campus. We’d go see movies at the movie theater and stash king sized candies in our purses. Even if I wanted to go to the gym at 7AM I couldn’t… I couldn’t even wake up for my 8AM class. Sure enough I gained weight.

The summer of 2006, I went home… signed up for Weight Watchers and worked out every day since I had nothing to do. I was addicted and craving for more…so Dad and I started running at the high school track field when it was 110 degrees outside. I remember feeling amazing and losing 30 pounds before going back to school. My weight slowly crept back on after all those get together events, holiday parties, pot lucks, and sorority events. I hated myself for allowing this to happen after working my butt off to lose 30 pounds in the first place.

Now here I am tired of this story and want it to stop here and someday there will be a happy ending to it. Not only I want to lose weight but I want to make sure that I adapt to these new changes for good and not gain weight again like I did before. I am glad I finally opened up about this and made my weight problems known on my blog so now I have all these amazing comments from you all to keep pushing me to succeed.

Last night I met my Dad at my favorite gym inside the country club and since I don’t live there anymore I can’t work out there. I convinced my Dad to pretend I’m my 16 year old teenage sister and just keep his mouth shut when signing in since he’s a man who doesn’t lie. I’m proud of him because I finally got to work out there last night with him. We did the elliptical bike and I came home not feeling satisfied so I did the Biggest Loser video game on Wii. I had to choose between Bob & Jillian for my program… it was a difficult decision since I love them both. I chose Jillian and it was a long 37-minute sweaty work out! I’m getting the hang of this and dealing with it one day at a time.

My old skinny photo that I’ll be using for motivation

It’s not too early to make New Year’s Resolutions and start it now instead of waiting for January 1st to begin. Mine is always the same since I never had accomplished mine. This year will be different because I WILL accomplish my goal of losing weight!

I realized I’m not going to lose weight magically and by not losing weight now will only make it more difficult for me later if I continue to gain weight. Believe me… I love working out! It’s just hard to get the motivation to work out and go to the gym. I need to remind myself how awesome I feel after a good work out to encourage me to go to the gym. Eating is the problem for me. I’m really picky when it comes to food. Everyone who knows me will know this is very true.

I was inspired by Tricia to start this with a small goal of eating right & exercising for 21 days straight. She did it after hearing that it takes 21 days to make a habit and fortunately for her it worked! I will work out for 21 days straight from Monday, December 28th to Monday, January 18th. When January 18th comes I won’t give up but I’m not going to worry about that right now since it’s easier to focus on the small goals right now.

Tyler and I did our grocery shopping yesterday and I came across a lot of Lean Cuisine meals I’ve never seen before and bought enough to take to work for lunch this week. I’m anxious and excited to do this! I updated my weight loss page and will be weighing in weekly. Tyler bought me The Biggest Loser game for Wii so I’ll definitely be doing that video too and hoping someday while I’m doing it Bob will come knocking on my door!

Here’s to the beginning of my journey with the amazing support & help from my parents & Tyler who always will go to the gym with me in a heartbeat.

“Stop being a moron and start getting skinny! If you can’t take one more day of self-loathing, your ready to hear the truth: You cannot keep shoveling the same crap into your mouth every day and expect to lose weight.” – Skinny Bitch