NOW WHAT?

As promised here is the follow up to the Biggest Loser three part adventure blog entries. After starting the application process I watched the show with wide eyes every week thinking to myself "could I really do this? could I handle what they get put through on this show in order to lose weight?" To be honest what was scarier to me was not getting cast and having to answer the NOW WHAT? Obviously for 32 years nothing that I have tried on my own has been successful. In part because I have very little self-discipline and self-control when it comes to food and excercise...lets just be honest. When it comes to school, work, excellence in just about anything else I am a perfectionist but not so much in this particular area.

The sobering reality on the drive home from New Orleans was that with every hour that past our chances of getting a call back were dwindling away. Something in me, probably the prompting of the Lord and my own overshare personality...led me to share with numerous people the process I was going through and at this point I now felt accountable to them to figure out how to lose this weight without the show. So how?

Probably the greatest thing that I learned about myself through the application process is that I am an emotional eater. I'm happy and there is something to celebrate...LET'S EAT. I've had a rough day and I'm stressed...LET'S EAT. I'm bored..LET'S EAT. Regardless the emotion and how quickly the emotion changes my chosen way of dealing with the emotion has been food. First step is identifying the problem and the second is choosing a new release. Blogging has turned into a great stress release for me, hopefully exercise will turn into a great release that will have a health benefit. I've learned the importance of making ONE SMART CHOICE AT A TIME. Every time I fix a drink I have a choice...water or something with calories/caffiene. Sometimes I make a good choice and sometimes I don't. Every meal is a choice to eat something healthy or to eat something not so healthy....to eat enough to be full or to overeat. Taking my day once choice at a time is managable and when I mess up it doesn't give me an excuse to blow the rest of the day. I've even set goals at the start of every day to make "X" number of good choices that day and then try to exceed my goal.

So far we are taking this one day and once choice at a time. Within two weeks of the casting call just by making smart choices I have lost 5lbs. The next step was to be realistic about adding exercise into my daily routine. So I now officially look like a dork at work but I have replaced my office chair with an exercise ball. Constantly having to tighten your core abdominal muscles to balance on the ball all day is a great workout. Replacing my chair with the ball has also helped my posture tremendously...we'll see how the ball goes. I feel like a midget sitting at my desk though because it is considerably lower than my chair, oh well. The ball is quite the conversation piece because everyone who walks by stops to comment.

The other addition to my daily routine is walking on a treadmill. I am not a gym girl. I don't feel like a fit in at the gym. I am constantly self-conscious the entire time I am there because I am not walking as fast as the person next to me or I am out of breath or my butt keeps eating my shorts (a wardrobe malfunction for the overweight). I don't mind walking and even trying to run on a treadmill I just don't like being in the gym. Praise the Lord for craig's list and my dad who is a pro at finding good deals. I am now the proud owner of a treadmill that will be replacing my oversize chair in my living room when I get back to Pineville. So my living room will lose some of it's cozy feel but I will lose some of my big butt...a win lose situation. I love to watch TV at night, especially Criminal Minds so now I will watch my favorite shows while my body is in motion. That's change I can live with. And in the privacy of my own home I can leave my shorts in my crack, fart while I run, pant because I am out of breath and even walk in my PJs if I want to.

All of the above were settled upon solutions and then came the last addition. Like I said...I had shared with several people about applying for the show, including my RA staff. After not getting a call back I received a text from one of my RAs saying that if I was serious about losing weight that his brother was a personal trainer and amateur body builder and he would get him to come up with a plan for me. Who needs Jillian and Bob...I have Hayden and his brother?! Famous last words of a fat chick. Hayden is home this week for spring break working with his brother to put together a diet and workout plan for me that I am sure will be brutal. Not quite the leisure exercise my treadmill is going to be...but as Hayden so graciously put it...you can lose a 150lbs the easy way but its going to take you 45 years. So if I live to tell about my training adventures I will keep my blog updated with stories and pics of my progress. MY GOAL....to not be eligible for the Biggest Loser when casting calls come around next year...how wonderful would that be?