New shoes... Shopping for sportswear yesterday took forever. It was hard to find well-fitting clothes. I am looking forward to the day when I lose enough weight where everything fits better! Oh, and I bought these neon yellow training shoes, they are super-comfortable, so I went for them, never mind the color :) At least they are the colors of my county's flag (they are blue inside), that's what I am going to tell myself anyway when everybody stares.

Joining the gym... I was thinking about joining the gym again (I used to be a member about 2 years ago) and finally went for it today! I had my "orientation" first, then went swimming for 20 minutes.

I have an appointment to meet with a trainer on Wednesday (everyone gets one personal 30 min session a week). They tell everybody to come in 3-4 times a week for 30 min of cardio and 30 min of strength training.

Tomorrow I am going shopping for some sportswear.

Recap of week one...

SW: 206 lbs
CW: 204 lbs (2 lbs lost!)

Exercise: walking and treadmill

Cheats: salmon burger & fries (business lunch)
          cuban chicken sandwich (friend's birthday)
            starbucks (iced hazelnut latte + chonga bagel w/ cream cheese)

Photo: from one of my walks this week

Starting out... I am not sure really where to start. I have never blogged before. I am hoping this will be my diary while I am working on becoming healthy and fit. The weight gradually crept up on me over the last 12-13 years. I have been a healthy child and teenager, eating right and being active. But over time, my life has become more stressful, my eating habits worsened, my physical activity diminished.
I find myself today overweight by about 50 lbs (23 kg), in danger of high blood pressure, hormonal imbalance (this is the stuff I am aware of anyway). My doctor has offered to put me on medication in order to lose weight. I refused, I want to try and do this on my own. She said I have to see her in 3 months, and if I have lost 10 lbs (4.5 kg) by then, she will not insist on medication.
Since my appointment with her, I have read a lot of useful information on-line and also decided to join myfitnesspal.com to help me do this. After you input your weight, height, age, etc, the program spits out your weight loss guidelines. I am set for losing 1 lbs/week. In order to do this, I need to eat no more than 1,600 calories each day and burn 900/week in exercise.
So far so good. After my first week, I actually lost 2 lbs (0.9 kg)! I am ecstatic. I hope I can keep this up. I know I will not lose as much weight every week, so I really need to keep up with this long term.
During my first week I have done my best to stay within the daily calories and eat healthier food. I have started walking for exercise and also using the treadmill.
I am considering joining a gym so I can start swimming and taking advantage of classes they offer.
Once I reach my target weight, I am going to publish this blog as a book (on blurb.com; so I can keep it as my diary).