The Story of a Fatty

I am a fatty. I have been struggling with my weight for as long as I can remember. My first diet started when I was in kindergarten (!!!) by recommendation of my pediatrician, and it seems that I have always been on a "diet" of sorts ever since. Clearly none of them have worked.

I was the fat kid, and believe me, it sucks to be the fatty fat kid. In elementary school and middle school I was teased relentlessly by classmates, family (never my sister), and even some kids I considered my friends. Not fun. The teasing continued throughout high school, but it mostly came from family at this point, at least to my face. All of the teasing took its toll on my self-esteem, and by no means aided me in losing weight. It actually made my situation worse, as the only thing that made me feel better was eating. Go figure.

During and after my sophomore year of college, I managed to lose a lot of weight in healthy and unhealthy ways. The healthy way was that I started to exercise, which I also found to be beneficial in managing stress and keeping my mood up (runner's high is the best). The unhealthy way was that I was basically starving myself. I was not learning how to eat the right foods to stabilize my metabolism. Starving myself worked, but of course it didn't last forever. My weight has stayed lower than it was when I was in high school, but still tends to fluctuate.

So, here is my current plan to lose weight, and hopefully keep it off...

1. South Beach Diet. I tried this diet awhile back, and it is awesome. Check it out: http://www.southbeach-diet-plan.com/

I started the diet this morning.

2. Half-Marathon Training. I ran a half-marathon in January of this year, and am quite proud of myself for finishing. I want to do another one this coming Spring, either the ING Miami Half-Marathon, the Ft. Lauderdale A1A Half-Marathon, or the 13.1 Marathon Miami Beach, depending on my school/gig/audition schedule. Here is the training schedule I used for the first race: http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/novice.htm

3. Get more sleep. Muy importante.

My goal for this project is not to reach a specific weight, BMI, inches, etc. Numbers depress me, but I do plan on weighing myself once a week. I will disclose my weight when I feel more comfortable, until then it shall remain a mystery. I have this cute dress which I wore to a wedding a few years ago. I want that dress to fit me again; for now I can zip it up, but I look like a sausage. Fitting in that pink dress will be my first goal for this project, and I will probably post a picture of me wearing it.

Hopefully this plan will work. All it is basically going to take on my part is self-discipline, especially when it comes to balancing my work/school/dissertation schedule with the half-marathon training. The diet is going to be rough for the first 2 weeks because I can't have any sugar (no chocolate!!!), but I will survive.

I do not want to be a fatty anymore.