Background Info and Explantion

*Note – I apologize in advance for this post being so long.  It wasn’t really my plan, but I did want to take the time to explain all of the background information and the plan from this point on.  If you have time to read it all, kudos to you and I appreciate it!  If not, I don’t blame you one bit and don’t hold it against you!  Lol!  Future posts definitely won’t be this long!

Hello and welcome and thank you for reading!  This is, of course, my first post in what I hope to be many and hopefully positive posts!  Part of the link to this blog kind of gives away what this is all about, but I’ll explain in more detail.  First, I should share the background info for both parts of this adventure.

PART  ONE - BACKGROUND  ON  WEIGHT:

Weight, weight, weight… is anyone ever happy with their weight?  Seems like very few are.  No one’s ever happy with him/herself and if you are, you’re considered conceited.  Lol!  Semi-kidding.  So for as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a bit of a “chunkster” and was well aware of it.  I noticed enough to sometimes wish I was “skinny” and not feel comfortable in certain clothing or not like the way other clothing fit me, but at the same time, I always accepted my body for the most part.  I never had an eating disorder or got to the point of being depressed about the way I looked or anything like that.  Wasn’t 100% satisfied, but still accepted myself for me.

At some point in middle school I got really sick.  The doctor was convinced it was mono b/c I was sleeping so much.  The mono test came back negative and I ended up getting better anyway.  Whatever it was, I was out of school for about a week and wasn’t eating much at all during that week.  I lost some weight at that point and for some reason, I never really gained it back.  This didn’t make me “skinny” but it made me the weight I’d end up sticking around for quite a long time.  Through high school I didn’t really change much and, surprisingly, in college I never gained that “freshmen 15.”  After finishing college and grad school I stayed about the same as well, give or take a tiny bit here and there.

Several years ago (around 2005 or 2006), I decided I wanted a change.  I wanted to work on losing weight.  I started using the website Spark People and tracking my food and I began exercising.  Obviously I know results don’t happen over night, but I got extremely frustrated as weeks went on and resulted in no change AT ALL.  I was exercising… why wasn’t I losing even a tiny bit of weight?  Spark People analyzes your habits and said I wasn’t getting nearly enough calories.  At that time, I never ate breakfast at all, ate a muffin for lunch every day, and then ate a normal dinner.  On top of that, I was still drinking tons of Mountain Dew.  After quite a bit of time with no results, I gave up the exercising in frustration.

A year or two later, a friend of mine lost a bit of weight.  I asked him what he had done and he said to start, he just stopped drinking soda completely.  This obviously wouldn’t turn someone into a “skinny Minnie,” but it was a great start and then he started going to the gym and has been doing well since then.  I thought to myself, “Yeah, you love your Mountain Dew, but you can do that N!”  So a new mission began.  I 100% stopped drinking soda.  Unfortunately, as with my last attempt, this resulted in NO changes at all!  I wasn’t expecting it to change my life, but figured if I lost at least a bit like my friend did, it would be a start.  No such luck.  After clearly seeing it wouldn’t help, I gave in yet again.  Now, I don’t live on Dew like I used to… I never buy soda for the house… but I do drink it again.  I’ve been good at limiting myself though.  The only time I’m bad is when I got to Jerz b/c my parents always have Dew in the house.  I’m not down there that often and for that long though.  I do plan on working on sticking to the limits while in Jerz.

Fast forward a bit and I decided to try to attack it from the calorie side of things.  This lead to two changes… (1) although I still don’t eat breakfast (I’M NOT HUNGRY!!), I will eat something small (granola bar, Pop Tart, crackers, etc.) at snack time at work (around 10:30) and no more muffins for lunch.  Real lunches only!  By real lunches, I usually bring in a frozen meal to heat up.  Honestly, I buy what’s on sale.  When I can, I’ll get “Lean Cuisines” or “Weight Watchers” meals… occasionally I get a non-weight-related one because it’s on sale.  Either way though, I’m eating a real lunch and not a muffin.  Another plus is that I eat whatever is included even if I don’t like it so I’m eating a tiny bit of veggies.  Yes, I should eat them more, but it’s a start at least.  Another lunch plus is that our school recently changed to a new system.  The lunches are made by an outside company and are supposedly healthy in terms of portions and what’s included and such.  So far, most of the days I like what they’re serving, which is shocking, so I’ve been doing that.  Again, this always keeps me eating at least some veggies and fruits.  Unfortunately, all this change in eating hasn’t helped to lose weight either.  In fact, I’ve gained weight.  I don’t know if the gain is actually connected to the change of lunches or not because I don’t think the timing really makes sense, but it doesn’t matter.  The point is that I’ve gained weight and I don’t like it.

Last Monday I had a yearly check-up at the doctor and we discussed the weight issue.  She suggested that maybe it would be helpful for me to see a nutritionist, if my insurance would cover it.  During the week I called to find out because we have this entirely new insurance plan this year that’s really cool in some ways, but also really weird and complicated.  Anyway, without boring you with the details it comes down to this… I’d have to pay for the nutritionist, but the insurance company does have a cap depending on the doctor and area.  Also, I <i>think</i> work will reimburse me for 1/2 of the total cost (not 100% sure about that part… need to do a bit more research).  So, I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to afford going.  I need to call my doctor back, get a few suggestions of nutritionists, find out which ones are in-network and accepting patients (I can go to out-of-network doctors, but it’ll cost a bit more), find out the cap for that specific doctor, double check that work will reimburse me, and then decide if I can afford it or not.  In the mean time I decided to start doing other things on my own as well.  Much of this inspiration came thanks to runner-red (HI B!), who recently started blogging about her goal of returning to running and eventually doing the Boston Marathon.  I make a point of reading and commenting on her blog in hopes of being one of the people to keep her motivated, so I hope she (and others) will do the same for me!  Admittedly, there are currently only 3 people who know of my blog and I don’t know that I’ll be “advertising” it to the world (although I may tell some), but I think knowing even only one person (aside from myself) is holding me accountable will help.  Don’t get me wrong, I know I also have Dave who is very supportive.  But I also know how he views me and how he talks to me and “You’re not fat” and “I love you the way you are” which I know he says because he truly means it, will not help keep me going.  Besides, I think if my mom insinuates/hints at that I’m fat one more time, I may punch her.  ‘:oP  (True or not, I don’t need to hear it from her!  Do you think I don’t see myself on a daily basis??)

PART  TWO - BACKGROUND  ON  DREADS:

The background on this one will be much shorter, as it’s not an issue but rather a desire.  I want to dread my hair.  I’ve wanted to dread my hair for as long as I can remember.  I’ve always known that the idea that “dreads are dirty” and “you can’t wash dreads” was complete BS.  There were, however, always two reasons as to why I was hesitant about dreading my hair…

1- I thought you had to cut them out in order to remove them and wasn’t sure how I felt about cutting off all my hair when I was done with them.

2- I didn’t want “disgusting/messy dreads” and didn’t know the difference.  I’ve seen many people with beautiful, clean dreads and many people with gross ones.  What was the difference though?  Why did Person A and Person B have such different looking dreads?  Was it a matter of getting them professionally done vs. doing them yourself?  Was it a matter of them being made in different ways?  Was it a matter of caring for them vs. not caring for them?  I had absolutely no idea!

Well a few months back Dave and I met a friend of a friend who has dreads (nice/clean ones!).  Dave started talking to the guy about them (Dave has wanted dreads for quite a while too) and they discussed the nice/clean vs. gross/nasty dreads.  The guy explained that it had nothing to do w/ professional vs. non-professional, but more about how you do them and take care of them.  He recommended a website for us to check out.  Over the past week or so I’ve been doing more and more research about things… finding out about various methods, care, maintenance, etc.  I’ve been reading information, watching videos, talking to people with experience.  The big thing I learned was that you do NOT have to cut them out, which is awesome news!  Taking them out is time consuming, but nowhere near impossible at all.  I also found out you can dye them, which someone told me you can’t!  Not that dying would make or break whether I do it, but it was exciting to find out since I do like dying my hair for fun at times.  Basically all of my researching has eliminated my concerns.  They say getting dreads is a journey and I’m ready for mine to begin!  Soon!

PART  THREE - LESS  WEIGHT  MORE  DREADS

So how do these two things connect?  Well they don’t really, but I’m finding a way to connect them.  In regards to my weight, I’ve decided to combine all of my previous efforts.  Continue eating real meals, continue with the low soda intake, AND exercise.  The meals and soda has been going on anyway, although I do plan to be a bit more cautious with soda.  The exercise part… well that starts TOMORROW!

I searched on-line and collected a bunch of *FREE* exercise videos (like kick boxing, cardio, etc.)  They vary in length, but my plan is that on Monday-Friday mornings I will do at least 20 minutes of exercising.  I did a lot of debating back and forth about when to exercise.  I didn’t like the thought of having to wake up earlier than I already do.  At the same time, cheerleading starts Monday so now on Mondays-Thursdays I’ll be stuck at work until 6pm (sometimes later).  By the time I get home and change it’ll already be 7pm and I still haven’t even eaten dinner.  The thought of also squeezing in a work-out and shower sounds absolutely horrible.  After going back and forth quite a bit, I decided to try mornings at least for now and see how it goes.

There are two big things I know I need to keep in mind with all of this….

1- It will probably take my body some time to get used to getting up earlier every day so I have to fight through being tired.  One good thing about this week is that we only have 3 days of teaching, then a day off, and then a day of workshops.  Maybe the “off” week will help to ease the adjustment.  The following week will be the first real week and then the one after is Turkey Day break so it’s screwed up again.  I have to remember to give it time though.

2- Again… TIME!  These things take time.  I’m well aware of this and gave things time in the past.  It’s sometimes hard not to get easily frustrated and give up though.  I need to remember to give things time though.  There definitely won’t be any huge weight changes over night.  Be reasonable and give it time!

I have an Excel file on my computer to keep track of my exercising and weight loss.  I plan to weight myself every Friday and keep record.  I don’t know if I’ll post my actually weight on here, but I will post how much I did (or didn’t) lose along the way.

So how do the dreads fall into place?  Well my thought is to use the dreads as one of my “carrots.”  You want dreads N?  Lose weight first!  I’m good with setting rules for myself and sticking to them.  I used to be horrible about getting my hair trimmed.  Then I set a rule for myself – no dying your hair unless you get it trimmed first.  Although I can’t say I get it trimmed as much as I should, I’ve stuck to that rule and it’s helped keep on top of things better.  The plan is for my friend, H, to dread my hair for me.  We already know it’ll be VERY time consuming so we need to set aside an entire day to do it.  She lives in Jersey and I definitely won’t have time for her to do it during Turkey Day break.  The following month I’ll be down for Christmas, but I’ll be busy and I know she will as well b/c of her work schedule.  I probably won’t go down in January so the plan is for her to do them in February.  That gives me about 3 1/2 months to work on this weight issue.  I wanted to set a specific goal like “lose at least X pounds and get dreads” because obviously it isn’t fair and doesn’t accomplish much if it’s like “Oooooo!  I lost 1 pound!  Yay dreads!”  However, I’m not sure what a fair goal would be.  I don’t want to set something unreasonable and knowing I’ve had issues losing weight in the past, if I truly watch what I eat, limit the soda, and exercise daily… and I don’t lose any weight at all… well (a) it is not fair to basically punish myself for trying and (b) clearly in that case I think something else is going on in my body or something.  Soooooo…. this is one piece of things that I’m uncertain about and if any of you have any suggestions/opinions/etc., please do share!

Anyway, I have typed WAY too much.  I’m typing this in Word and I’m on friggin’ page 5!  Kudos to any of you who actually read all of this, but I don’t expect that at all and don’t blame you one bit.  My future posts definitely won’t be as long as this one.  PROMISE!  Well… time to relax and enjoy what’s left of the last day before the start of a hopefully healthier and happier, future-dreadhead N!

PS – I’m new to this website.  If you leave a comment and I don’t respond, please shoot me a message via FB or email and let me know.  I’ve used LiveJournal in the past and that site emails the user any comments they receive.  I don’t know if this site does that as well or not though.  Still getting used to things here…. ‘;o)

<3

*Slinky*

PS - Just noticed you can post movies here too.  Maybe I'll turn this into a vlog too and sign some of my posts.  Hmmmm....