I left a couple of ounces at the Y - I hope

Well, it has been quite a day for me here.  It actually started last night, when I was wide awake until sometime past 3 am, for no apparent reason.  As a result, I missed my alarm and was late getting up for work, and for the first time all year did not get to school before 7 am.  I was still 5 minutes earlier than I have to be here, but for me, it felt REALLY late.  My morning routine of getting a diet coke on the way to work happened with the minor substitution of water instead of diet coke, but it just doesn't taste the same.  I think today has been my hardest of the diet coke free days, and I'm pretty sure it is because of the routine of having one at school all day.  I also had headaches today, worse than the twinges I had been getting off and on.  Oh, and I was supposed to weigh in this morning, but that didn't happen due to waking up late, so I will have to post my results tomorrow.  I hope I at least stayed the same, since the last week wasn't as on target as I would have liked.  I didn't go over in points, but I didn't really "work" the program either, so I am just hoping for at least no gains. 

This week I am committed to being better.  My best friend weighed in today and lost 6.6 pounds after totally kicking it at the gym almost every day last week!  I need to get that kind of motivation about working out.  I love it once I am there, so why is it so hard to get there?  I need to just make myself go until it becomes something I crave, that I have to do no matter what.

The biggest advantage of quitting diet coke is the boost in my water intake.  I remember I used to drink somewhere around 200 ounces a day, and it slimmed my face and just made me feel better.  I need to get back to that.  Today I had 130 ounces so far, and I'm still working on my 44 ounce water I picked up after working out.  My goal is at least 100 ounces a day, with 160 ounces being the ideal.

Back to the diet coke topic, I drank nothing but water on Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday.  Sunday afternoon I purchased some sparkling waters, which I love, and had one on Sunday and one on Monday.  I also had a glass of unsweet tea on Sunday evening at a leadership get together.  I got to thinking about all of this yesterday afternoon/evening, and came to the conclusion that it kind of defeats my purpose if I am still drinking sparkling waters or putting those little stirrer things in my water bottles.  They still contain aspartame, which is part of the main reason I gave up diet coke in the first place.  No, it wasn't the caffeine, but the artificial sweeteners that I am experimenting with.  I am hoping that maybe some of my sluggishness and overall tiredness will be helped by removing artificial sweeteners.  I didn't really think about all of this on Thursday when I decided on a whim to quit diet coke.  All I thought about then was "I wonder if I can do it".  This weekend I have been thinking about the whys behind it.  It's not really about the caffeine, at least not at this point.  It is about the artificial sweetener, and I think I probably need to expand my what I am quitting to include all artificial sweeteners, but I am a little scared to do that, especially with my insulin resistance, and not being able to process regular sugar as well.  Can I go without a sweetened existence, artificial or otherwise?  Do I really want to?  I am still pondering and researching, but for now, I know I am not going to consume beverages with artificial sweeteners.  Yes, I know I have pretty much limited myself to water and unsweetened tea.  I think I am ok with that though as a start on the road to the new me.  Where I go from there, who knows, but I am really looking forward to my transformation, and the journey along the way.

Week One

Ok, so I feel like an update on my progress is in order.

First of all, on Tuesday, my weigh in showed a loss of 1.8 pounds, which puts me at a total of 10.8 pounds gone.  I have 5.2 pounds to go to meet my first 5%, and hopefully that will happen in the next 2 weeks.

Working out: I made 2 out of 3 this week, and hopefully I will get one in tomorrow before the week is over.

In other news, I have quit diet coke.  Anyone who knows me knows I used to drink about a gallon of the stuff a day, so this is a pretty big deal.  My last diet coke was at about 11:30 on Thursday evening, so I have gone 46 hours without a single one, and so far so good.  I haven't had any of the withdrawal headaches I worried about, and hopefully they stay away and I beceome a water drinker almost exclusively.

Well, I guess that is all I need to add right now.  Hopefully my *many* readers thoroughly enjoyed this account.

Getting Started

Well, I have put it off and put it off, and I realized I just need to do it.  So, here is my blog.  Isn't it pretty? 

A Whole New Me.  That is what I am going for.  I mean, I will still be me, but skinnier, happier, more positive, and most of all, more awesome.  I have wandered along aimlessly long enough.  It is time for me to get serious, and I think a blog and some imaginary followers will help me reach that goal.  After all, if you, my readers, are there to cheer me on at each new task I set out to do, I will be more likely to be successful.

So, my goals.  Well, 4 weeks ago, I re-joined Weight Watchers, and have so far lost almost 10 of the 160 pounds I intend to lose.  Tuesdays are my weigh in days, so hopefully I will cross over the 10 pound mark this week. 

I need to start better utilizing my Y membership, so for this week, my new goal is going to be to work out at the Y 3 times in this coming week.

I think those are two good goals to start with in building a whole new me.  Just enough to whet your appetites, and make you want to read more on my progress, right?  ;) 

Yay, the first blog is now complete!! Now I can get down to the business of A Whole New Me.