Hello World

I have decided to start a blogger blog to go along wiht my LJ blog and my rampant YouTube vlogging.

I have done this to keep focus and meet new people.  While I adore some of the communities on LJ it seems to be not so slowly dying.  This makes me sad, but I guess that's life.

In addition I like some of the clean designs and styles that blogger offers. 

So a little about me.

I am a geek by nature, overweight, lazy by design, and trying to cure the last two... I'm perfectly happy as a geek tyvm.

February 2010 I started a journey to lose weight and get healthy via a lifestyle change.  My start weight had balooned to 310 pounds. I took start pictures shortly after I started this insane journey and when I saw them I bawled.  My mental image and the lady I saw in the picture were two completely different things.  I was devistated.  I mean I "knew" I was out of shape and overweight, but man those pics hit me hard. I had spent so much time avoiding the camera it had become second nature.

So  I re-joined the LJ group 100pounds2lose (which I love btw), and  started blogging like mad.

In Sept 2010 I decided to start vlogging my journey as well. I decided I needed to have a visual moving representation of my journey.  I thought it would be great for posterity.  I still do.

I still blog on LJ regularly, and have started a 365 vlog project on youtube. 

This lifestyle change thing isn't easy.  In fact I'd say there are times I wonder wht the heck I'm doing, but in the long run I know this is  the best option.

So the goal is to lose 155 lbs.  That is literally half my starting weight, and will put me into the high end of a normal BMI.

So how far have I gotten in a year?

My current weight is 255.  That means that I've lost 55 lbs in a little over a year.  Not great, not bad, and more or less right on target.  My 2011 goal is to lose another 50.  I'm not shooting for a fast dump of weight. I am looking for sustainable life changes that will end in me changing more or less absolutely nohting when I get my goal weight.

Now, that doesn't mean I don't use conventional assistance or programs along the way.  I started with sparkpeole.com  I love that site.  They have an absolutely excellent community too.  However, since most of my posts were vlogs it just wasn't as easy to upload,  and I kind of stopped using it to track calories when I got my BodyMedia (more or less a BodyBugg).  I love my little nerd device. I love that it tells me how much effort I've put in, how many steps, and how many calories I have burned in a day.  I also did Weight Watchers Points Plus for about 3 months.  I really liked the program, but per the recommendation of a co-worker I'm going to be starting the Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping 10 week experience here at the end of March.  They have their own nutrition program that does nto include counting calories, but does have specific requirements. SOOOO I'm at least temporarily giving up WW for Farrell's.  After the 10 week program I may go back unless the Farrell's thing is working perfectly. 

I'm hopng to like the Farrell's thing because it's 3 days of cardio kickboxing and 3 days of resistance strength training.  I def could more str training.   I 'know' I should do it now... but for some reason I gravitate to cardio.

I am also hoping I love it because I think kickboxing sounds like a heckova lot of fun.  I got a freestanding wavemaster kickboxing thing for my birthday and I love it.  There is something very great for stress and anger managment about beating the crap out of a punching bag. And if I can get into the routine and like the program they have a maintenance program that is more or less the same as the 10 week program with less babysitting from them.

I am engaged to a sweet man, and am the proud owner of two greyhounds and an evil but insanely cute cat.

So tht's me, and that's what my major goal is.

So I say, hello world.