Current Weight: 198

A huge life change going on now, and I’m happy I’ve been maintaining my weight through it. A little emotional eating here and there, which led to a little over-eating, but I’m still within my alarm weight. I’m actually kind of surprised, to be honest. I chalk it up to food choices – even though I’m over-eating, I’m stuffing myself with salads (I’ve stopped using dressings, even), local-raised chicken, grilled vegetables, etc. Sit me in front of a pizza, and I don’t want more than one slice. It’s amazing how strongly life changes become ingrained habit over time and with awareness and practice.

Even though I’ve been maintaining my weight, I’ve been noticing a couple spots on my body that are collecting fat again – that must be huge drop in exercising lately. I biked 6.5 miles last week one day, but that was about all I did. Not good, as my 5k race is coming up quickly – June 1st. I don’t think I can even run that entire distance yet, let alone competitively. Fortunately, this is more a fun race than anything, so it shouldn’t be too embarrassing.

Hopefully things will calm down quite a bit soon. I’ve been enjoying blogging, and I have a lot of plans for this and a couple other sites that I’d love to get running. It’ll all come together with time – I’m just an impatient sort of person.

I also have to say – I literally have no time. I work two jobs, one full-time and one part-time. My day starts at 5:30am and goes full-bore ’til 10pm. I usually don’t even have time to take a lunch. I don’t mention that for pity’s sake, but rather for inspiration – I have no time, yet I am maintaining my weight. I am living proof the common “I don’t have time to lose weight” excuse is a cop-out – there is always a healthy food choice alternative to “fast food” and “unhealthy” foods. Sometimes it takes a little pre-planning – I buy a week’s worth of bars at the grocery store every weekend and store them both at home and my full-time job, for instance. But with a little pre-planning and foresight, you never have to eat unhealthy; rather, you choose to.

Besides, why would I want to victimize myself and claim I have to eat fast food because I don’t have the time to eat healthy, therefore my weight gain is not my fault? Displacing fault and blame on a situation that is not immediately fixable (and usually “isn’t my fault” either) is disempowering and causes a vicious downward cycle of despair. Taking responsibility for my choices and recognizing how my choices impact my life, however, was the first step to successfully living healthy and losing weight.