Day 1.

Yesterday was day 1 of my life transformation.  I'm not calling it a diet, because it's not.  I want to make healthy changes to have a healthy life, but obviously the goal of this life transformation is to lose weight, feel better and be healthy.

I am still holding on to about 30 pounds of pregnancy weight.  I have lost this weight before, so it's kind of frustrating having to lose it again, but I know that if I don't make changes that this weight will never go away.  And I know that I have done this before so I can do it again!  It's also hard starting to workout again.  I quit exercising while I was pregnant, so I am pretty much starting all over with that too.  It's frustrating having to start from square one with things that I used to do on a daily basis, they are harder to do now both because I am out of shape and I am 30 pounds heavier than when I was doing them before.  But, I started somewhere before and made it to the level that I was at, so I know that I can do this and get back to where I was.

To make these changes I am back on the calorie counting train.  I lost about 80 pounds counting calories before, so I know this is an effective way to lose weight for me.  I have been messing around with the apps My Fitness Pal and Lose It to track my daily caloric intake.  I think I am leaning towards My Fitness Pal to be the one for me.  With My Fitness Pal it is so much easier to find foods in their library, I can easily find homemade foods, store bought foods and easily add my own creations.  With Lose It I have found it very difficult to find foods - I can't just type in 'peaches and cream oatmeal' and find it, everything is categorized funny.  It is easy to find things by using the barcode scanner, but you don't always have a barcode to scan, and My Fitness Pal also has this feature.   And the deal breaker... My Fitness Pal has beer in their food library, even Surly!  I know I shouldn't be drinking beer while I am trying to lose weight, but you better believe if I have calories left at the end of the day, I will be drinking them!  You can have 'friends' on My Fitness Pal, so if you're using it too, find me kristinlien04.

I also joined the gym again!  They had a deal to join for $14.99/month and if I go 8 times a month I will get reimbursed $20/month by my health insurance, so I'll be making $5/month.  Can't go wrong with that!  Yesterday was my first attempt at running on a treadmill.  It was slow, but it was a start!  When I first tried running 2 years ago I couldn't run for 60 seconds straight.  After nearly a year off of running I am pretty much back to where I started at.  I did manage to have a couple of 2 minute and 2.5 minute stretches, which I consider a success!  I did 3 miles in 45 minutes, extremely slow, I know... but I did it!  The treadmill that I was on was acting kinda funny, so it made it hard to run... every time I increased the speed the belt would slip. I have to make sure not to get that treadmill again!  I am using dailymile.com to log my miles, if you use it, be my friend!  My DailyMile profile

I will be doing my official weigh in every Monday.  But I am a freak and like to weight myself daily.  I know some people say not to do this, but it keeps me in check with where I am at, so I do it!

My first goal is to run the Get in Gear 5k on April 28th, and to be down about 20 pounds by then.  The run is 12 weeks away, so that should be plenty of time to drop 20 pounds and to get myself prepared to run.. wish me luck!

My overall goal is to fit into all of my pre-pregnancy clothes, and for them eventually to be too big for me!!

I know this will be a daily struggle, but I need to remind myself that it's worth it.  I am ready to enjoy clothes again, to feel confident, to enjoy exercising.  Every day is a struggle, but I feel so much better at the end of the day when I know I stuck with my plan!

This about sums it all up for me:

I also have a pinterest board for all these lovely motivational and inspirational quotes to keep me going.. feel free to follow it!  Post Pregnancy Body board