I considered starting this blog post off with an apology … again … for not posting much lately, but I’ve decided against it. I’ve been completely off track with my eating and exercise the past couple of weeks. When that happens, it’s really easy to not blog, but apologizing for that now isn’t going to change what I did (or didn’t do). It is what it is, so I’m just going to move on to what actually motivated me to start posting again.
A few days ago, I was reading an article about Michelle (a.k.a. @FormerFatGirl). Some of the things in the article really resonated with me, and I’ve not been able to get them out of my head since. It’s made me stop and really take a long hard look at my life including where I’ve been, where I’m at, and where I want to be in the future.
I’ve been overweight or obese (sometimes morbidly so) for virtually my entire adult life. My weight started going up dramatically once I started college. Over the years, I have gone on numerous diets. I’ve pretty much tried them all at one point or another: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Diet Center, South Beach, low calorie, low fat, low carb, food combining, etc. You can pretty much name a diet or particular way of eating and I’ve been there, done that. Yet, here I am, still obese. 
I have very distinct memories over those same years of making milestone promises to myself about my weight. This includes things like:
- I won’t turn 25 fat.
- I won’t turn 30 fat.
- I won’t start the new millennium fat.
- etc.
- etc.
Notice the trend? Every time I found myself facing a milestone birthday or event in my life, it prompted me to start a new diet with the hope of, once and for all, getting to a healthy weight and staying there.
Oh sure, in my 20′s, it was all about getting skinny. I didn’t really care if I was healthy or not, I just wanted to fit into a size 6 by any means necessary. 
As I got older, I got wiser and realized it was more important to be healthy and not just skinny. Of course, I apparently didn’t become wise enough to actually accomplish that task. 
So, you may be asking yourself, what is all of this leading up to? I have decided to embark on a journey that I’m calling Project 100. My ultimate goal for this mission will be to lose 100 pounds over a period 54 weeks. Along the way, I hope to finally discover who I really am (rather than the people-pleasing me I currently present to others), what I want out of the rest of my life, and to find true happiness within myself rather than looking to other people/things to make me happy.
This new venture will be starting on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009, and my final weigh in for this challenge will be January 1, 2011. So, it will definitely be a stretch as that means losing an average of just over 1.8 pounds per week, but it’s still a very achievable goal. Even with losing 100 pounds, I still won’t quite be to my ultimate goal, but I’ll deal with those last 20 pounds when I get there. 
Why wait and start on Dec. 20 instead of just starting now? Well, that’s because I’m leaving on vacation in 5 days. Yes, I know I could go on and start now and stick with my plan on vacation. Instead, I’ve decided to take that time while I’m off work to really focus myself, work out the logistics of how to meet my goal, and just mentally prepare myself for the journey ahead. By doing that, my plan is that when Dec. 20 hits, I’ll be 110% focused and ready to get to work!
I do have one other major milestone that I hope to reach during this year-long Project 100 adventure. My goal is to complete my first half marathon. I’ll be training for the Rock ‘n Roll San Diego half marathon with the Virtual Team in Training group of Team Shrinking Jeans along with some other folks from the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans website.
I’m still working out all of the registration details, but once I have my fundraising page set up, I’ll post a link. I’m hoping that many of you will sponsor me either with a one-time single donation, or perhaps with $X per mile or $X per pound lost. All donations will be welcome regardless of their amount or form because the money is going to help a good cause. My dad is a lymphoma survivor, so my hope is that one day they will find a cure for this disease so no other family has to go through what we did when he was sick!
I’m still ironing out all of the details/specifics of my Project 100 mission. I know there are several things in my life that are going to have to change in order for me to meet my goal. Once I have everything figured out, I’ll post more info. If anyone else wants to join me on the journey, please post a comment and let me know. I would love some company because the road can sure get lonely. 
Even if you don’t have 100+ pounds to lose like me, just being there as a cheerleader for me will be a huge help! 
Before I sign off, I also wanted to point out that I’ve added some new buttons in the Follow Me section of the navigation pane. They are links to where you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Please feel free to drop me a friend request if we aren’t already connected.
Until next time …
PhotoHunt
In case you missed it, here’s the final winning moment:
