Day 1 - Taking Inventory

Today I weigh 147 pounds. I am 5"5 with black hair. I am 28 years old. Ten years ago I was 18 years old. I was 5"5 with pink hair. I weighed 130 pounds.

For the most part things are much better now than 10 years ago. I have a wonderful husband, a cute dog, I'm done with school and I've done some pretty cool things. Life would be otherwise perfect, if it weren't for the significant wardrobe malfunction I had a few weeks ago that included a suit jacket and the mortification that followed when I realized that I was unable to button it. Major bummer.

I still don't understand what I did wrong to get to this point. I was convinced that I was doing things right. I went to the gym! I didn't eat ice cream! But as my jacket proved, something was clearly amiss.

Time for an honest inventory and quasi-scientific analysis of my habits.

I obsessively logged my food intake via My Plate from LiveStrong and slowly discovered some not so healthy habits. Since I'm a creature of habit much of my daily diet went something like this:

Breakfast:
Large coffee w/ cream @ Dunkin Donuts
Maybe a muffin or a bagel with cream cheese.

Lunch:
Spinah wrap w/ salami, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onions & mayo

Snack:
Chocolate chip cooke from the cafeteria. Possibly two.They are damn good. And maybe whatever goodies our clients have sent us recently.

Dinner:
Generally something with chicken breast, brown rice and a vegetable. Or pasta and protein and vegetable. Sounds healthy but to be honest many of the recipes I was using were calibrated to serve 4 when I in reality I am cooking for 2. Balls.

Dessert:
Yes please. Usually Veggi Booty Chips or whatever the annoyingly skinny husband was eating.

After a week of logging it became clear that carbohydrates, sugar and caffeine were clearly my favorite food groups. Not exactly the neighborhood of HealthyVille that I thought I was living in. Whoops.

But what about the gym? I was going right? Yes. But probably not as consistently as I made myself to believe. We'd go about 2 maybe 3 times a week. I had a routine of 30 - 45 minutes on the elliptical machine plus some light weight training on my own. According to the readout on the machine I was burning 250 calories per session. What I knew with my brain but refused to believe with my rose tinted goggles was those workout machines notoriously exaggerate your output. So my gym workouts probably amounted to something more like 100 - 150 calories per hour. Not exactly high output exercise.

It wasn't until I attended a kickboxing class at my gym that I realized the extent of my gross overestimation of my fitness level. After 1 hour of kicking, punching, burpees and squat thrusts I literally wanted to die.

So I guess I really wasn't as healthy as I was leading myself to believe. Yes, I was going to the gym but I was mostly putzing around doing a mediocre workout while I dicked around on my iPod. Yes, I was attempting  to eat healthy but I was also conveniently forgetting about all those snacks I was piling in throughout the day.

 Looks like all those extra snacks finally caught up with me...darn it! Clearly I am going to have to swap the decks to tighten up this little ship...

I'm a Terrible Blogger - I'm also Fat

I'm sorry if I've been missing lately - somehow in this midst of this fluffy newlywed haze I seem to have forgotton about this little blog of mine.

So many things have happened that I'm not quite sure where to start. Since catching up will take forever and a half I'll just bring you up to date on what has been on the forefront of my brain recently.

Since we've gotten married in August I've made the mistake of stepping on a scale. Not only was this a terrible idea, but it was also a startling reality check when the scale confirmed what my skinny jeans and button down tops had already suggested. I had really put on 15 pounds in a few years. Gag.

I like to think of myself as a fairly active person. While I've never been 'skinny' - my frame has always tended to be on the more athletic side - I've always been generally happy with my body. I have a gym membership which I attempt to use on a regular basis. In fact, I actually enjoy physical activity - hiking, swimming, long walks with the puppy are all right up there on my favorite things to do list.

I've also been a fairly healthy eater. I actually like my fruits and veggies and would generally prefer a grilled chicken wrap to a double cheeseburger on most days. I try to be good, I really do. But as the scale clearly shows - the numbers don't lie.

So why am I fat?

I blame my husband for several reasons and I will list them here, below. Because pointing fingers (especially at him) is also high on my favorite things to do list.

1. He is one of the exceptionally annoying people who struggles to gain weight. Dammit. Whatever he's loses, I find apparently.

2. I learned how to cook. Nay, learned how to bake. Which I love to do, feeding my man makes him happy which in turn makes me happy. This is all good in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately it is making my ass a grand vista.

3. I work in an office sitting at a desk all day. This still falls under the category of his fault because he has not yet produced the winning Powerball ticket like I asked him to several years ago. Honey? Can we put this one back on your to do list?

I know I need to change something to get my health back on track. I've started a little health and fitness experiment to see if I can get some of my eating habits and subsequently my weight under control. I figure if I put it out onto the websphere maybe I'll feel a bit more accountable. Stayed tuned!