Proud of Myself & Ready for the Next Step

I feel like I’m finally making some progress on the weight-loss front! While I admit that I’m not doing everything that I can to lose weight, I have made some positive strides over the last month. I’ve been eating out quite a bit because of the move, but I’ve been trying to make healthy choices (though I do break down and have a vanilla shake once in a while!) and to control my portions by planning ahead to eat only half of my sandwich and to take the other half home for another meal.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve felt a difference in my body, and my mom and a gal from church both commented that it looked as though I was losing weight! It feels so good. This week, I haven’t always made good choices, and I can feel it now. I feel bigger and heavier today, and I don’t like it! Now that’s motivation!

Now that I feel I have a handle on eating out, I am ready to move on to preparing healthy meals at home and to beginning to exercise.

My kitchen is almost in working order again after the move, so now I need to set aside time to plan menus and to actually cook the meals I plan. I think this will be challenging at first, because I’ve never really done this before. In the past, I’ve been on my own and haven’t felt the need to cook for only one person. Even though I’ve been married for over 3 years now, I’ve rarely cooked a meal for my husband. I almost feel ashamed, but it worked for us to just put something in the oven or microwave at the last minute when we got home from work. Now that my son is eating table foods, I really want to start cooking meals. I know that it doesn’t work for me to come home from work and put together a meal then, so I have to put my organizational skills to work and plan ahead!

As far as exercise goes, I think my son may actually help me with that. He loves to be outside, and twice this past week, we’ve gone for a walk in our neighborhood after work/daycare! I hope that I can fit regular walks into my schedule…. Correction: I intend to fit regular walks into my schedule as well as to start exercising every morning.

In looking at the weight-loss goals that I set at the beginning of the year, I’m a little behind. I need to lose about a pound a week until Memorial Day to meet my goal. It’s time that I really focus on losing weight so that I can feel confident in my own skin (and less clothing) this summer!