Something's Familiar....

Damn it! I shouldn't have to start all the way back at the start line again! Yet here I am, flailing again, here I am, starting over.

Why?
That's a question for another post.

What?
You know this road, too. It's the road to "a healthier, fitter, thinner, better lifestyle!" AKA - The Weight Loss Highway

For as long as I can remember, I remember being a big girl. Throughout school, college, marriage, divorce, children - - - I plugged along, sometimes maintaining the pound, sometimes adding them, but never really decreasing them.

Well, there was the couple of months after my son was about a year old. I started a walking group with some ladies in the neighborhood. I dropped about 40 pounds, quickly, but since I was still closer to the 300 mark than the 200 mark, it didn't make much of a difference in my head, and pfft, gained it all back and then some.

So, why the road less traveled, again? Here's why. It wasn't until 2 years ago that I actually went down the road for the first time. Little visits, such as the walking group, were simply crossroads to the big highway, but I really did traverse the trails two summers ago.

I started out with 2 simple changes - - - no sodas, and walking. I lived next to freaking walking trails, so, I might as well use the community amenities that I pay for, right? My dog, my iPod, and I would walk faithfully 4-5 times a week, every week. I remembered that I lived water aerobics, so I started that up, too. I was going to class sometime 2 times a day. It gave my sona chance to swim and splash around, and me a chance to work out.

I added in healthier eating, more fish, veggies, and fresh fruit, less fast food and prepared meals. My lifestyle change truly was just that, a lifestyle change. I continued when school started back up in the fall (yes, you guessed it, I am a teacher). I even signed up for a walked a 10 k, and amazingly was not the last person to walk across the finish line.

Spring semester hit, and simply maintaining the current weight was a struggle. By this point, I had lost close to 100 pounds, and it was noticable. By the time summer hit, I was mentally, emotionally, and physically drained from the stresses of work and life, and I just gave up on myself. The road was abandoned.

So, here I sit, after a year's worth of reflection time. Is this somehow a "better time" to deal with the weight issue? Not really, I have more stress now than I did then. New job, new life challenges, caring for unhealthy parental units, etc...

Why start again now? For all the cliched reasons and more. I deserve better from myself than this. Fast food, sodas, little to no exercise, crap sleep schedule, body aches and pains from inactivity and added weight. Enough.

This time, I still have the information, I still have the walking trails, I still have the gym membership (need to dust off the ID badge), and now, I'm back on the road again.