Hi! My name is Megan, I'm 22, and I live in Arizona. I'm very excited to find journals on this board, because I was looking for a place to write an ongoing fitness/diet journal where I could get advice and encouragement from others. My mother is actually a frequent poster on the community board, but I didn't really get into it. It led me here, though, so that I'm happy about.
I've been posting lots of stuff on 43things.com. If you don't know what that is, it's a website where you can make a list of the goals you want to accomplish, and you can view other people's goals and cheer and comment one another. I have entry after entry under my "lose weight" goal, but there aren't a lot of people there who read and comment on my ramblings. I'm hoping here will be different.
So here is a little bit about me: I grew up in Maine, went to college in New Hampshire to study musical theatre and theatre education, and then moved out to Arizona where my husband is from. I graduated college in 2005 and got married that October. I spent the next school year earning my teaching certificate. My husband graduated that same year with his bachelors and teaching certificate (he is older than me, but went on a two year mission for our church). He got offered a job to teach music at his old high school in a town about an hour away from Tucson, so we decided to move there and take that job. That meant that none of the jobs open for me would be within commuting distance, so I have not been teaching this year. I'm not upset about that, because while it would be a great job for me, why work if I don't have to? However, I am working right now. My car had to have lots of work done on it this year, so I'm working to help get us out of debt. I currently work at an insurance office three days a week and at Curves twice a week.
Now for my weight/fitness/diet history... I graduated from high school weighing about 115, and then from college at about 140. During college I had a dancing job in the summers, so I would usually finish the school year around 140-145, and then finish the summer around 130. The lightest I've been post-high school was when I reached 128 the fall of 2003. When I got married I weighed about 135 and stayed there until we took a vacation to Maine for about a month last summer (2006). When I got home I was about 144; this was last July. Since then I've been trying to lose it, but I've only gotten down to 140. For the past few weeks I've been trying to get to 139, but I've plateaued a bit! I would like to shoot for a range of 125-130, so I have 10-15 pounds to lose. Not very much, but it's still not easy! For my height of 5'1'', the heaviest weight that is still considered normal is 132.
As for fitness, I did some cheerleading and gymnastics in high school, and some dance in college, but I've never been involved with any intense cardio sports. When I did gymnastics I had killer arm muscles, though! I've taken up running this year, and I can run 5k in about 37.5 minutes (nothing to brag about!), and I'd like to run a 5k race sometime.
So overall, I'd just like to lose 10-15 pounds, and I've already done a good job of making daily changes. I've kept a food journal for a few months now, which I keep up to date, along with writing down what I do for exercise. Now that I work at Curves, I do the Curves workout twice a week, plus I do some of my own strength training at home, and for cardio I mostly just run 2-3 times a week, but sometimes I will do a workout video. I have Windsor Pilates, which I like, along with some other ones. I grew up on junk food and eating out, so I have BAD eating habits that I'm trying to break. I've done a decent job of adding in fruits and vegetables and water, and reducing my soda and junk intake. So I guess I'm doing a decent job, though I still eat out fairly often, which sets me back a bit.
So on here I will be posting information about my weigh-ins (which I do everyday), what I'm eating, what I'm doing for exercise, and probably lots of ramblings about my everyday life.
There is one major thing I would love to get advice about right now- what I've been struggling with recently, and I'd love to hear from women who may have dealt with the same thing. My husband and I are definitely wanting to start our family this year, and we're thinking about starting to try to get pregnant sometime in the next 1-3 months. I'm very excited about having children, but I'm feeling major pressure to do things now that I may not be able to do later. One of those things is to lose weight. I know that any weight I lose before getting pregnant will be good for me, but that it will be depressing to lose it and then just gain it right back once I get pregnant. I know that I can work to lose the pregnancy weight after having a baby, but I feel like it will be so much harder, and I don't have great willpower. The other thing is that I love to dance, and I want to get better. I will never be a professional dancer, but that is also not my goal. I just want to be better, so I'm afraid the time I have now is my only opportunity to work on that before I get pregnant and my body changes for good. Basically I have two goals: to raise a family, and to continue in the performing world (even just on a casual/local basis). I also direct and produce shows, but I want to perform too. In order to be my best, I'd have to throw myself into the work full time, and that would compromise my other goal, so I'm looking for a happy medium. I'd love to hear from women who have been in my situation and how you dealt with balancing your activities and your children, as well as your weight!
To summarize, for anyone who just skipped to the end of this lengthy post: want to lose 10-15 pounds to get to 125-130, currently plateauing at 140, wanting to get pregnant but not to compromise getting into shape or being involved with the activities I love (theatre/dance), would love advice from anyone on anything!
Thanks for reading this, and good luck to everyone else on your goals!
I've been posting lots of stuff on 43things.com. If you don't know what that is, it's a website where you can make a list of the goals you want to accomplish, and you can view other people's goals and cheer and comment one another. I have entry after entry under my "lose weight" goal, but there aren't a lot of people there who read and comment on my ramblings. I'm hoping here will be different.
So here is a little bit about me: I grew up in Maine, went to college in New Hampshire to study musical theatre and theatre education, and then moved out to Arizona where my husband is from. I graduated college in 2005 and got married that October. I spent the next school year earning my teaching certificate. My husband graduated that same year with his bachelors and teaching certificate (he is older than me, but went on a two year mission for our church). He got offered a job to teach music at his old high school in a town about an hour away from Tucson, so we decided to move there and take that job. That meant that none of the jobs open for me would be within commuting distance, so I have not been teaching this year. I'm not upset about that, because while it would be a great job for me, why work if I don't have to? However, I am working right now. My car had to have lots of work done on it this year, so I'm working to help get us out of debt. I currently work at an insurance office three days a week and at Curves twice a week.
Now for my weight/fitness/diet history... I graduated from high school weighing about 115, and then from college at about 140. During college I had a dancing job in the summers, so I would usually finish the school year around 140-145, and then finish the summer around 130. The lightest I've been post-high school was when I reached 128 the fall of 2003. When I got married I weighed about 135 and stayed there until we took a vacation to Maine for about a month last summer (2006). When I got home I was about 144; this was last July. Since then I've been trying to lose it, but I've only gotten down to 140. For the past few weeks I've been trying to get to 139, but I've plateaued a bit! I would like to shoot for a range of 125-130, so I have 10-15 pounds to lose. Not very much, but it's still not easy! For my height of 5'1'', the heaviest weight that is still considered normal is 132.
As for fitness, I did some cheerleading and gymnastics in high school, and some dance in college, but I've never been involved with any intense cardio sports. When I did gymnastics I had killer arm muscles, though! I've taken up running this year, and I can run 5k in about 37.5 minutes (nothing to brag about!), and I'd like to run a 5k race sometime.
So overall, I'd just like to lose 10-15 pounds, and I've already done a good job of making daily changes. I've kept a food journal for a few months now, which I keep up to date, along with writing down what I do for exercise. Now that I work at Curves, I do the Curves workout twice a week, plus I do some of my own strength training at home, and for cardio I mostly just run 2-3 times a week, but sometimes I will do a workout video. I have Windsor Pilates, which I like, along with some other ones. I grew up on junk food and eating out, so I have BAD eating habits that I'm trying to break. I've done a decent job of adding in fruits and vegetables and water, and reducing my soda and junk intake. So I guess I'm doing a decent job, though I still eat out fairly often, which sets me back a bit.
So on here I will be posting information about my weigh-ins (which I do everyday), what I'm eating, what I'm doing for exercise, and probably lots of ramblings about my everyday life.
There is one major thing I would love to get advice about right now- what I've been struggling with recently, and I'd love to hear from women who may have dealt with the same thing. My husband and I are definitely wanting to start our family this year, and we're thinking about starting to try to get pregnant sometime in the next 1-3 months. I'm very excited about having children, but I'm feeling major pressure to do things now that I may not be able to do later. One of those things is to lose weight. I know that any weight I lose before getting pregnant will be good for me, but that it will be depressing to lose it and then just gain it right back once I get pregnant. I know that I can work to lose the pregnancy weight after having a baby, but I feel like it will be so much harder, and I don't have great willpower. The other thing is that I love to dance, and I want to get better. I will never be a professional dancer, but that is also not my goal. I just want to be better, so I'm afraid the time I have now is my only opportunity to work on that before I get pregnant and my body changes for good. Basically I have two goals: to raise a family, and to continue in the performing world (even just on a casual/local basis). I also direct and produce shows, but I want to perform too. In order to be my best, I'd have to throw myself into the work full time, and that would compromise my other goal, so I'm looking for a happy medium. I'd love to hear from women who have been in my situation and how you dealt with balancing your activities and your children, as well as your weight!
To summarize, for anyone who just skipped to the end of this lengthy post: want to lose 10-15 pounds to get to 125-130, currently plateauing at 140, wanting to get pregnant but not to compromise getting into shape or being involved with the activities I love (theatre/dance), would love advice from anyone on anything!
Thanks for reading this, and good luck to everyone else on your goals!
There are 2-3 people in the office each day, and there really only needs to be 1. It's hard to continue my plan on these days, because I hardly see the sunlight. I leave my house at 6, go to rehearsal, then come here, and get home around 6. But I did dance this morning, and so far I've just had a cereal bar and water. I'm planning on Subway for lunch and walking around the mall. There is no microwave here, so I can't bring lean cuisines or anything like that, which is too bad.
and think you have very reasonable goals. Yes you body does change after being pregnant, but many people go right back to their body shapes, with the hips being a little larger obviously, after delivery. 
to WISH! Thanks for stopping by my journal!
Let's hope! 
