Pulling back the mask...just a little bit

I have been pretty secretive about my identity on this blog {still can't believe I posted pictures..even if they were faceless!} and am still hesitant to go all out with my identity.

I am not sure what is holding me back from sharing everything, but if figure a little here and a little there is the way to go. So, moving slowly but surely I decided to throw my name out there.

So...hi blog world, you can call me Jan. Nice to meet you!

Doing dotFit

My gym had an awesome deal for the month of February for dotFit, so just had to take advantage of it.

Any dotFit users out there? I usually use MyFoodDiary, but at this great discount ($30 up front and then it's free as long as I have a Gold's Gym membership), I couldn't pass it up.

I am supposed to meet with one of their trainers this week to get everything set up.

Wish me luck!

I have returned.

I took a hiatus from blogging for a bit. Okay, it was more of an extended vacation, but I am back...I hope for the long haul, and I plan to stick with it.

I know that going at this weight loss thing on my own just doesn't work for me. I've been overwhelmed with work, school, and just life in general and I am barely keeping my head above water. I've realized that I need to have outside support and influences to keep my motivation going...at least for now.

I've recommitted myself to following my exercise/eating/supplement guidelines in hopes of seeing a better result. Now I've just GOT to stick to it. I might need some support...help me, won't you? ☺

Hi, I am a major procrasinator

This was SO my workout yesterday!!! I've been working every day in my time between work and school, but yesterday was a school holiday so I kept going back and forth as to whether or not it should constitute a work out day as well.

Slacker, I know!

After putting it off for as long as I could, I finally gave in and went to the gym. It was pretty late and I was quite the tired, so I did only 20 minutes of cardio and spent about the same on weights and then I was out of there.

Yes, it could have been a more intense workout, but I am just concentrating on the fact that I showed up and put in a little effort. Right now, I get points for that...I won't be too hard on myself in the beginning. It's just important that I am developing a schedule for right now...I will concentrate on the details once I have the schedule down.

So far, so good

I've stuck to working out at the gym all week long! I know that this doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but it kind of is...I typically start strong and then begin to taper off until I quit working out all together. Not anymore though!

I just need to make sure that I keep up the momentum in the weeks to come...and I can't slack on the weekends! Weather permitting we'll probably take our dog on a couple of long walks with plenty of hills involved.

It's on!

My gym bag is all packed and ready for me to hit the gym right after work.

I've found that it's much easier for me to go straight to the gym after work versus going home first and then to the gym. Once I go home I find all sorts of reasons not to head back out to the gym.

I've got everything planned around this workout, so there are absolutely NO EXCUSES.

I have GOT to get into the habit of stopping at the gym at least three days a week. I have a little bit of time between work and school that needs to be filled with some type of physical activity and the gym is located right between the two.

Let's see how long I can keep it up...

Back to school

Tonight I head back to school. Ugh. I have quite the busy schedule. I work M-F 6:30-3:30 and then I go to night school M-Th from 5:00-10:00. This leaves little time for exercise and leads me to make some less than stellar choices when it comes to eating. You know...the whole convenient over healthy thing. Thus, my super slow weight loss progress.

I plan and plan and plan healthy ways to eat and exercise that fit into my school/work/barely there social life schedule, but plans don't always work out as hoped. I've decided that I need to make more realistic plans and have them be smaller plans that can be added to as progress allows.

To start out, I've decided on a healthy, filling dinner that I can eat before or during school. Wendy's chili. We're coming up on cold weather, so a warm, hearty chili seemed like a good idea. It's cheap ($1!), filling, full of protein and I actually like it. It's one of the healthier, smarter choices as far as fast food goes.

Anyone else have any great on-the-go (code: no refrigeration/microwave required) meals that work well for them? I figure that as much as I like this chili, I will get bored eating it every day!

Bad Bander

I had such high hopes for my future when I got my band. I thought that within a matter of months I would be a whole new person. Then...reality set in. I knew that everyone said the band wasn't a fix-all, but I didn't really, really think I would have a problem with it.

Here I am, over a year later, and hardly made any progress. I am not exercising the way I should and I am certainly not following the band guidelines like I should. I've kept the existence of my band a secret from all but a few select people, so I don't have a lot of support set up, or a feel of anyone that I am accountable to but myself...and let's face it, I am way too easy on myself!

I hope that through documenting my experience through this blog I will be able to find a bit of a support group and also develop a tool to help me be accountable for my actions.

Join me on this journey, won't you!?! :)