Finally! It's time.

It seriously was like a switch in my brain when that clock struck midnight on New Year's.  I've said it a million times, but this just reiterated to me that my "issue" with food is 100% mental, and is a total addiction.  It is so much easier for me to take away the option all-together and just be like "I can't, I'm not eating that anymore" than to "just have a little."  All or nothing.  

When I quit smoking over four years ago (cold turkey on November 17th 2009), I realized eventually that I ended up replacing my smoking addiction with sweets.  Although I've always loved sweets my entire life, I didn't used to allow myself to eat them to excess on a regular basis like I have been the last few years.  I smoked instead.  After meals. While driving. On breaks at work. At night. On the phone. When I was bored. When I was stressed. When I "just wanted to".  All the times now that I'm "seeking out" sweets, I would have gone and smoked years ago.  I am thankful that I quit smoking, but it has definitely led to a good 15+ lb weight gain (yes, even with as much as I work out).

I'm ready to be done with it. I'm ready to be in control of my body and my mind. Maybe that's why I was led to doing this competition (Thanks Emily!). To give me the motivation I needed to let go of the crap!  To finally get where I want to be - not just physically, but and mentally and emotionally. 

My eating plan is in effect and you can view food log on Myfitnesspal.com (lesliehylton81 is my MFP name).  

I am going to be posting my weight daily. Today was 162.2.  Yes, I've done some major damage over the last few weeks.  I was at 150 lbs, what, a month ago?! I am sure quite a bit of that is excess water weight, which will drop off over the new few days.  Even after just a couple hours I'd dropped to 161.2.  (FYI...If you do want to follow my blog posts daily, then click "Subscribe To" or bookmark me, because I will not be posting the link daily on FB.  I will for my regular bodyfat check-ins though.)

My Advocare 24-day Challenge shipment should be arriving tomorrow!  On the day we start the challenge (me, Steve, and several of our friends are doing the challenge together!) I'll check-in with body-fat% and measurements and will be checking-in every 6 days, with progress pics as well.  

If you would like to join us in the challenge, get your challenge pack here.  If you live in the Indy area, we are offering free body-fat analysis before and after the challenge!

I'm super-pumped about the new lifting routine I'm doing!  I decided (after more research and reading a great book) to go back to heavier weight and lower reps.  Instead of doing total-body workouts that take me sometimes close to 2 hours to complete, I've gone to a 4-day split routine, hitting two muscle groups at a time, and performing 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps, starting at 8 and working my way to 12, before increasing my weight (aka "Progressive Overload").  I have been so sore the last week ... I know it's working and I LOVE IT!!  And I can be done in less than an hour!  (I'll try to post my workouts tomorrow night.)  Gosta study BodyPump now...

Looking forward to later today, starting to turn my garage "beer fridge" into my "meal-prep fridge"!  (And hopefully seeing a few more pounds drop off that scale too!)  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!