Beginning Again

So it’s confession time again and I’m going to get a bit personal. Although these last two months in the new house have been great they have been very, very hectic. There has just been so much to do and, being the over achiever I am, I have been trying to cram about 6 months worth of painting, yard work, house repairs, etc. into about two months. Because I have been so busy trying to make things perfect I haven’t even had the opportunity to enjoy the house or more importantly to take care of myself. Note to new homeowners:  late nights painting, making repairs, and taking multiple trips to Lowe’s do not leave much time for going to the gym or cooking healthy meals unless you make it a priority which I did not.

The fact that I haven’t been able to work out regularly has been very difficult for me. Many of the people close to me know that last year I was a member of a women’s Tae Kwon Do team at my previous gym here in Atlanta. For those who don’t know, this was no recreational team. We trained and fought hard to win gold medals at National competitions. When I was in training I was working out 2 hours a day at least 5-6 days a week (on top of working 40 hours at my job). During part of this time I was also teaching kickboxing classes. Needless to say I was in fantastic shape. However, once I decided to buy my house I knew that I would need to cut back on training for financial reasons  (membership costs were $250/month if you were on the team) which was very difficult because I LOVED kicking and I loved my team. My plan was to drop down to a regular kickboxing membership while continuing to teach and train and fight occasionally when I could afford it. Unfortunately due to some miscommunication and some highly unprofessional and immature behavior on the part of my coach and his girlfriend I never had that opportunity. I was forced to leave the team and the gym because I refused to continue giving money to people who couldn’t act their age and run a business in a professional manner. End of story.

Admittedly it wasn't an ideal time for me to be leaving my gym and trying to look for a new one with all that was going on in my life at the time (getting the house painted, closing, moving, etc) but I did. I tried to keep myself motivated in my gym search by trying out gyms my friends went to but I found I just didn't want to commit to anything. I became really involved in fixing up my house and eventually I gave up trying to fit it all in and quit the gym search altogether.

Needless to say I felt terrible. I knew I wasn’t eating right and I was drinking way too much. Add to that no exercise and boom—a 10 pound weight gain in 4 months. Talk about depressing!

But all of this guilt and depression I've been feeling about my body and my gym-less-ness is about to be gone. With my sister’s shower behind me and the house is in a semi-decent state I feel like I can finally get back to normal. Awhile back I bought a deal through Living Social for a month long pass to a gym near my office called Adrenaline Fitness and I have cashed that in beginning this week. I am also sticking to a 1500 calorie/day diet with the help of the Lose It App for the iPhone. The goal is to lose 20 pounds by 4^th of July.

 So far, so good--although 3 days can hardly count for much but we all have to start somewhere. Erik is being super supportive (as he should be--he is pretty much getting a designated driver for the next 2 months since alcohol is too much of a diet buster to fit into my new plan) and has agreed to eat whatever low cal concoctions I decide to cook up (with advance warning that they may not taste very awesome).

So we’ll see how all of this goes. I feel pretty motivated and maybe blogging about it will help me stay motivated. After all, I have pretty much just announced to the world my attempts to lose 20 pounds in the next 12 weeks (that’s approx. 1.7 pounds per week for all you math folks). Eek. I guess it’s Onward and upward as they say—or should I say downward? Yes, definitely onward and downward!