Obligatory First Post

It's been about a year--but I'm back.  Whatever that means.  :)

My first blog was a journey to lose a significant amount weight and become healthy for the first time in my adult life.  My second blog was my attempt to maintain the progress I had made and to explore life as a healthy me, both physically and emotionally.  The past few years have been the best of my life and are only getting better.  I truly hope that I can say the same thing about every year to come in this life!

Well, my emotional health has been great!  My physical health has declined, but I am still *much* better than where I started.

First, food.  For the last year or so, I have not stuck to a healthy food plan.  Having said that, my overall appetite is smaller.  I simply am not interested in or able to eat the volumes I ate before my weight loss journey began.  But I certainly can eat the bad, sugary, carb-filled, high-calorie foods--just in smaller portions than before.  This has undoubtedly helped mitigate the weight gain damage, but the weight gain is definitely there.  I have put back on around 50 of the pounds I originally lost.  But numbers are weird when it comes to weight.  My body is not the same body as the early-weight-loss-journey Erin who weighed this number; I am in a much smaller clothing size.   

Next, the exercise.  My husband and I indoor rock climb twice a week.  For the most part I stick to that, but I didn't go more than once or twice the entire month of September.  On the whole though, I rock climbed twice a week.  Most weeks, that is it.  Not good.  I am trying to do cardio on two off days at work.  I have a FREE GYM to use (a really nice one!) and I rarely take advantage.  So, I have been trying to be diligent about packing a bag.  Again, I don't always.

So, that's where I was.  Now, for where I am/plan to go.

Despite my snack/dessert issues, my actual meal choices have remained pretty healthy and similar to the diet plan when I was losing/maintaining.  Thanks to the encouragement from Holly, my husband and I have joined myfitnesspal.com.  It.  Is.  Awesome.  I have the app on my iPhone and so can track my food from almost anywhere--no excuses.  Also, their database has almost EVERY food product in it.  I have not not found (nice double negative usage, I know) anything yet (this is a whole 2 days of food tracking here).  My food plan is simple: keep sticking to my healthy plan and track the calories; goal: eat less calories than my limit. 

Typical Day Example?  Okay.

Breakfast: my egg sandwich of champions (Multi-grain sandwich thin, 2 fried eggs, 2 canadian bacon), coffee with cream and sugar
Snack #1: yogurt, fruit, sometimes granola blend
Lunch: leftovers from dinner the night before (see "Dinner" below)
Snack #2: Powerbar (or something like that)
Dinner: meat, vegetables, sometimes potatoes or cous cous or rice or something

To complicate things, I have had pretty bad stomach pains for about a year or two.  I am in the process of trying to figure out why and so this may be shaken up a bit if I start experimenting with foods to see if anything is causing it.  More to come later on that likely.

Ok.  Now the exciting part!  The exercise plan!!!  I got married in May and do you know what *that* means???  Yeh-heh-heh-hesssssss.  It means I have a workout partner.  We love to workout together so it's very good for me.  I get to spend time with the love of my life and it helps keep me on track.  Like I said, we've been good about rock climbing, but not everything else (well, *he* has been great at cardio...just notsomuch me).  We are doing the couch-to-5K program.  It is simpler than I need, but I think it's nice to start from the ground up sometimes.  We just finished Week 1!  As I told my husband today, we always knew we could, but we just proved that we can fit 5 workout days in one week.  Game.  On.  (Secret: I want to get back to 6 days/week and add in a lifting day too!)

And here are my goals:

1. Be in shape again: I want to be able to do things like run a 5K because a friend is and have no need to prep for it. 
2. Lose 30 pounds: I know I said I gained back around 50, but my low from 2010 was too low for maintenance.  I was 17.2% body fat.  I want to be in the low 20s.  Basically, I want to wear a size 10/12.  I think that's 30 pounds.
3. Feel strong again: This may sound crazy, but I miss DOMS.  I miss feeling my muscles.  I miss being able to bench 120 pounds for a full set.  I want it back.

So, yeah.  That's where I am.  And where I want to go.  And how I plan to get there.  I'll post along the way if you care to join me...again.  :)