Recently, one of my best friends saw a picture of me from my junior prom. We were having a talk about dresses, so I showed her the picture and said, “look at how skinny I was then.” To which she replied “you’re face is just different, you look like Anne Hathaway.” Someone else upon seeing a recent picture of me said I looked like Pam from “The Office.” I don’t see these resemblances at all and I’m happy to look either woman, but given the choice I’d rather look like Anne Hathaway.
I always gain and lose weight in my face first, which is my friend noticed the biggest difference there. My stomach follows, then my arms and my thighs. Never the areas I’d like to gain weight in – my butt or boobs would be wonderful.
Over the past seven months, I’ve seen everything just get a little bigger. Partly due to some stomach issues, partly due to stress and a lot due to pure laziness. While I’m not a freshmen, and didn’t gain the “Freshmen 15″ during my freshmen year the stereotype has finally hit my in my junior year. Honestly, it’s really not that I’m fat or overweight in the normal sense of the word. In fact, I’m still technically in the weight area considered healthy for my height (5’7”). The problem is that I’m bigger than I usually am, which pretty much makes me think I’m fat even if no one else does. It’s a problem that needs to be taken care of. There are few legitimate excuses for people to be overweight in my opinion. Just like most things in our lives, we are in control of how we maintain our own weight. I lost sight of that for a while, but it’s crystal clear now because if you don’t like the way you look why should anyone else?
Exercise programs and specific diet plans have never really be my forte – I don’t particularly like people telling me what I can and can’t do, and often rebel at such rules. However, if I make the rules for myself I’m thinking I can make this work. My exercise plan is to hit the gym when I can, doing lots and lots of cardio. Some mornings this is going to mean a 6 a.m. spin class, some evenings this will mean an hour on the elliptical, and some brave late nights it will me a few laps around the track.
I say a “brave night” because on Sunday I tired to run for the first time in a long time and my shins – and really my everything – just weren’t having it. Apparently I’m going to have to ease back into running, which is my favorite type of workout.
For strength training, I’m just going to do one area a day (legs, arms, back, abs, etc.) of normal, easy weight training. My original plan was to just workout in the weight room, but because I’m apparently the only out of shape person who wants to use the weight room I’m thinking I’m going to try some classes. Here’s to hoping I humiliate myself less in classes because they whole time I was in the weight room I just kept thing “why am I the only fat person who is trying to get skinny right now?” It was awful. Now people say losing weight Is 30% working out, 70% diet. Which means I’m definitely going to have to change my eating. I love pizza, mac and cheese and sugary beverages just a little too much.
With food I plan to cut out caffeine, and the sugary drinks it comes in, completely. So far, I’ve completely failed at this because my caffeine withdraw pounding headache just kept screaming “CAFFEINE” all day and eventually I gave in. I’m think this is going to have to be a slower process of working my way off the caffeine. I’m only going to drink it in no calories disgusting soft drinks though, so I guess that’s something (it’s really not – those are awful for you too). I also plan to stop eating Moe’s more than once a week, no I’m not exaggerating I really do love Moe’s that much. I plan on cutting out fried foods completely, goodbye my beloved Chik-fil-a. Finally, I plan on eating smaller portions because I’ve been known to seriously pig out and I plan on eating at home more where I can actually control my calorie count.
These are small changes, and they may prove to be somewhat ineffective but at least it’s an attempt at something. I’m trying to take baby steps to fix what has slowly become a big problem for me.
According to a lecture my mother has given me a million times, it takes about 21 days for something to become a habit. I’m hoping that by dedicating myself to these small baby steps for those 3 weeks they will slowly become burned into my brain and second nature.
My goal isn’t to get to some particular weight or some particular amount of muscle. I just want to be healthy and look healthy. Really, if I’m being honest, the goal is to lose about 30 pounds in about 3 months, so I can look great on the beach when I go to The Hangout Festival in May. Because lets be honest, if looking great on a beach for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dave Matthews isn’t incentive enough to lose weight nothing is.