Starting from scratch

I thought since I decided to start using my blog as a kind of journal I'd make it separate from my regular blog. So here's the new site. I feel kind of silly doing all of this for pretty much just me but it's kind of fun at the same time.

So what am I trying to accomplish with this blog? No really much of anything, really. It will be a place for me to share:
Food
    What recipes worked and didn't work
     What my family liked and didn't like
     If it was budget friendly or not

Exercise
     What has worked
      How things are going
      Weekly schedules
      New things I've tried (and how that turned out)

Family
     They're a part of everything I do!

It will be a place for me to share my experiences as I go through my life of trying to maintain my weight loss. If there's one thing I've figured out during all of this it's that keeping the weight off is as much of a battle as loosing it...if not more. It's an every day struggle, something I will have to work at the rest of my life. Writing things down kind of makes me more accountable. At least with Weight Watchers it did.

A little background. In 2011 I started on my weight lose journey with Weight Watchers and a work program called Waist Aweigh. Each month I had to check in and be accountable for my weight loss. And each month I had to loose 3 lbs. More than do-able if I was eating right and exercising like I learned I should. But because of my HUGE love for food I had many months were my weight stayed the same. It really was a struggle to get it into my head, some months, what I was trying to accomplish. But finally after 2 years (22 months to be exact) I hit my goal with both Weight Watchers and Waist Aweigh. I was actually featured in my work program's newsletter for hitting my goal.

Exercise is something I have to do to loose weight and when I started loosing weight this last time I found out that I love to exercise. It's not just something I HAVE to do it's something I WANT to do. One thing I discovered was CrossFit. Not the crazy stuff you see on ESPN but still hard, sweaty, want to die workouts. I love it and get up at 4:40 a.m. to get it in before my day starts. Some people say I'm crazy to get up that early and I probably am. But with as crazy as my life can be it's the only time in my day that going to the gym doesn't impact everyone else's schedule.

I also found my love for running. I actually can say I love to go on runs. I did a few 5k's and loved the feeling of finishing a race. Loved the feeling of the crowd and all the runners. And I love the feeling when you crossed the finish line! Man, it's a great feeling. You know you've accomplished something, whether you're happy with your time or not. It doesn't matter. You finished. My time on my first 5k (Aug 2012) was 43:40. I loved it. I did a fun 6k with a friend in October and then took the winter off just focusing on CrossFit.

My second 5k (May 2013) time was 33:30. I'd knocked 10 minutes off my time in 8 months. I was hooked. I did another one in June with my youngest sister and knew I wanted to do more. I signed up for a September half marathon. It would happen the same week I was set to meet my Waist Aweigh and WW goal. I thought it was a good way to wrap up the whole weight loss thing. My time was 2 hrs 18 mins. A great time for my 1st half marathon and 10 minutes less that what I was shooting for! That run was amazing in two ways: it was harder than I ever thought but it was better than I ever thought. When I finished someone asked me if I'd ever do one again. I told them NO WAY. But as time went on I knew I would. I knew I had to. There were things I'd done wrong; things I could have done better. I kept thinking if I changed those things or did those things would that help my time? Would it make my experience even better?

I'm set to run my 2nd half at the end of June and I think I've talked my youngest sister into doing it with me. I'm interested to see how training goes, how the half itself goes, how it all goes. Interested and excited.

I know. I'm sick in the head. I've been told that many times and I tend to agree. :-)