Starting Line.

Today's weight: 166.8 (Goal: 150)
Today's change: 0

Today's calories consumed: 1575
Today's glasses of water: 4

Today's exercise: Level 1 of Gillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred
Today's achievement: purchasing organic vegan green pea soup and organic whole wheat bread for dinner instead of Thai noodle take-out


I am not an athlete. I hate exercising. I loathe sweating. I love salty foods. But I don't want to anymore.

I want to be more active. I want to WANT to exercise. I want to want to eat kale. I want to start treating my body with the respect it deserves.

So I'm doing what any depsperate individual does when looking for accountability: public self shaming blogging. I'm starting this blog to kick my own ass. I'm terrible at motivating myself and to be 100% honest: I don't normally succeed when I try something new. I'm not trying to put myself down here...I'm just being completely honest and trying to motivate myself because nothing else has worked so far!

So, this blog is going to be an online journal of my journey to try and lose weight, run a half-marathon, and start appreciating my health and ensuring I stay healthy for years to come. I'll be honest, this is partly about body image, but mostly about health and proving to myself that finally I can stick to something and accomplish a goal. I might mix in a few life details and food stuff too...we'll see where the wind take me ;)

My plan is to try different methods of training, but without professional help. I'll be joining a gym come January (along with every resolution-maker in the city), and will be mostly running, but also want to get back into yoga and maybe (gasp!) try a spinning class or two. I'll be using My Fitness Pal and Run Keeper to track my progress, mainly because they're free, but also because they're fun to use, too!

There are a few motivating factors that have led me here:

• I'm getting married on January 25, 2014. I tried to lose weight for the wedding so I can look back on my photos and focus on something other than my arms or chins...but I haven't succeeded. I wanted to lose 25 pounds, but I've only lost 10 (which I'm immensely proud of) and I'm running out of time. I'm pretty disappointed with that.

• While I won't be hitting the 25 pound mark by January, I've also promised myself I will never EVER go back to where I was when I began my 25-pound journey. And seeing as I've plateaued these last few months, it's time to step up the game.

• This past October, while chowing down on medium-spice chicken wings and a pint of wheat beer, I realized that my fiance David and I were the only ones at the table of our closest friends who had not participated in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon the week before. Everyone was sharing stories of meeting up, times, pace, etc. It was not a good feeling. So David and I have decided we WILL be running the half this coming year. 311 days to go! 

• I miss blogging. I tried having a fashion blog a few years back, and while I loved blogging, I felt I didn't have much of a purpose to do so other than to show off what I thought were well put together outfits. I loved the writing aspect, but not so much the fashion aspect (don't get me wrong, I love me some fashion, but just couldn't feel comfortable putting myself out there like that). So this new blog is a way for me to get out there, write, and try to hold myself accountable to my fitness goals at the same time.

I'm totally ok if nobody ever reads this blog. They might, they might not. That's cool. I just need to try something different to help myself acheive my goals. Hopefully this will do the trick.

xo J.