A new beginning

Let's give this a whirl, huh? This will just generally be my adventures in weight loss, I guess you could say. I posted my progress on my status and got such a huge response that I figured SOMEONE might find my experiences informational, inspirational, or maybe entertaining. So, i guess let's start at the beginning.

I've been overweight since kids were old enough to start noticing these things. It wasn't like I was exceptionally lazy- I played soccer when most kids were watching cartoons. I was always trying something new; karate, skating, I even took a drill team dance class when I was 10. I just thought it was something someone was, like some kids had freckles or glasses or were tall. As I got older I would try to eat healthier with no real results. Even as a freshman in high school playing soccer every day, 2-5 hours a day, I was STILL incredibly overweight. At some point soon after that I accepted it. Embraced it. I was a curvy Latina, and screw anyone who couldn't handle that. This mentality served me well and I survived high school and college emotionally unscathed.

In my "adult life" this attitude only served me further, and I started working at a clothing store that specialized in plus sized women's cloathing. It was here that I started seeing the many possible futures ahead of me in all the different women coming in the store. The ones that were basically like me, overweight but accepting it and trying to make it work for her; the ones who had lost or gained weight and needed to size down/up; but these aren't the ones that made me think. She was the woman who came in and had to sit after 10 minutes because she was short of breath. The one who could no longer fit into our largest size and had to leave empty handed. This woman terrified me, even if I knew in my heart I could never become her. But above all, the different stories of loss and gain I heard daily made me want to start focusing on my health.

One of the lyrics I love is "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end". Sadly enough, this story of my weight loss begins with a funeral. My friend's mom died in October 2010. Now, in Catholic Mexican families, after someone dies, you gather for 9 nights after that and say the rosary for that person. After that there would be coffee(mostly milk and sugar) and pan dulce(bread covered in sugar). For about 2 weeks straight I was eating an amazingly comforting(read: fattening) meal, followed by sitting, followed by straight inhalation of empty calories. When my friend left to go back to work, I had gained probably 7 pounds in 2 wks. I was the heaviest I had ever been when I stepped on that scale. We challenged each other to lose the weight we had both gained before he returned for homecoming in 2 weeks.

The next day I dusted off a 10 minute Pilates DVD I had never opened and pulled out my sister's mat that neither of us had ever used. For the next 2 wks I did Pilates and made a real effort to eat healthier and was rewarded by actually seeing results on the scale and in the way my clothes were fitting. I managed to lose all the weight I had put on. I was proud, and motivated in a way I had never really been before. Had it been this easy all along and I just didn't know? Surely not. I think a lot of it had to do with being in control of my schedule and my diet. As a student neither of these things were truly under my control....Well, sure I could wake up an hour and a half earlier and work out before class, but that would cut into my sleep. And yeah, I could eat off the dubious salad bar in the caf, but who does that? Skinny people, athletes, vegitarians...Psh.

Suddenly I realized I didnt have ready excuses and I could actually DO something about what size clothes I wore. Genetics, schedule, budget- these were all things that factored in, but they didn't have to dictate who I was anymore. This was the real beginning in what is, as of this moment, a 15-month journey. So this blog is going to be the place I keep track of what has happened, my change in thoughts and lifestyle, and just generally a place for me to keep myself accountable. To remind myself what I've been through and how far I've come.