It Starts....Again

   Welcome to my blog!  I'm sure there are plenty of blogs out there of people chronicling their weight loss adventures, or mishaps, or what have you: I now count myself among them!  I've had this tendency in the past to start a blog, keep up with it for a bit, then slowly fade away from it, but I'm hoping that this will not be one of those.
   As my very first entry I suppose that it's only fair to give you a little intro to myself.  If you're one of those people that don't read the "About Me" section of profiles, (it's ok if you don't), then you don't know that I'm 26 and a female, (really, that's about all I put in it so you didn't miss much anyway!).  Those are facts one and two about moi, the very basics. :)  I have a fairly, ok very, sedentary job which means it's easy to gain weight and difficult to lose, (here's seeing if I can change that!).  A lot of my weight gain I attribute to stress and poor food choices while I was in school.  I gained 40 pounds during my senior year of undergrad...and here I thought you were suppose to gain the weight during your freshmen year?  Not in my case.
    So here I sit, at a not so healthy 217 pounds as of today with a height of 5'8".  My goal weight is 140, a whopping 77 pounds to lose.  I know weight isn't everything, that's why I measure myself as well, but I may not post that info....we'll see.  I know that I am considered "obese" and I don't like it.  I want to be healthy, be able to walk up stairs without getting winded, for my clothes to fit better, etc, etc, thus why I'm getting more serious about this battle then ever before.
    Right now my method of madness is exercising 4-5 times a week and cutting my calorie intake.  I got the MyFitnessPal app for my iPhone and have started counting calories.  I actually already started all of this a couple of weeks ago.  Why wait for the holidays to end to start being healthy?  So far I've lost 4.2 pounds, (I started at 222), have lost 2 inches off my waist and 2.5 from my hips.
     As for the exercise portion, cleaning my house helps, as does walking everyday, to burn some extra calories.  However, my main sources of exercise come in the form of classes at my local 24 Hour Fitness.  I love spin classes and Zumba is fun.  I also do weights and spend time on the treadmill.  
     When it comes to the calorie portion, I'm sticking to 1250 calories a day.  I have to say that the fitness pal app is really helping.  It makes me more conscious of what and how much I'm eating.  Every little change helps!  I've been staying away from sodas and drinking more water.  I do still drink coffee, as this is a vice for me.  I'm hoping to give it up though and switch to tea, which I know is better for me.  I still go out to eat, but I make sure to order off the lower calorie menu, which pretty much every restaurant has.  If they don't, then I look up the nutrition info on my phone and order a lower calorie option.  Something else that helps is when your meal comes to ask for a box right away.  Box half of the meal before you even start eating, if it's not on your plate then you won't be tempted to eat after your already full.
     So that's it in a nut shell.  I'm getting serious about it again and going to stick to it.  I'm hoping that if I keep up with MyFitnessPal app, the website that goes with it, and this blog that it will help keep me going.  I've tried having a weight loss buddy in the past, NutriSystem, Weight Watchers, LoseIt!, and various crash diets but none of that has worked.  So, here's hoping that with this new year my new approach will work better than years past and methods past.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.....