ikeajessica
New member
Hi everyone!
My name is Jessica. I'm 22 years old, currently a uni student, living in the US but wishing I were in Canada.
I joined this website on recommendation from a friend who said that it was a great community and that I should try doing a diary thing to keep track on my weight loss progress. So that's what I'm doing! For the next 4 months, I'm going on a bit of a self-improvement kick, before my marriage and graduation late this December.
My whole life I was quite thin, but the past few years, I've gained A LOT of weight, around 50 pounds, a lot due unfortunately to stress ice cream binges. I lost a bit from my highest weight a while ago, but due to the stress of writing my graduation thesis (I do biochemistry research) and spending the summer living with my fiance (who is an AMAZING cook and loves to feed me lots, lol), I've gained a bit back, I guessing to about 25 pounds more than I'd like to be. Worse than that is that I haven't been exercising regularly, so I've lost some muscle tone. Before, even when I was at a higher weight, I was still exercising nearly every day, but lately I've slacked off and REALLY begun to notice it in my arms and legs.
The reasons that I want to lose weight are a few. One, I just want to feel healthier again like I used to. I don't need to lose all the weight I've gained, but at least get closer to the weight and size I was a few years ago. Two, I'm getting married in December, doing the final dress fitting exactly 3 months from yesterday, and like nearly everyone I'm sure, I'd like to look as good as possible. The other thing is, since I'm both graduating and getting married and moving to another country to where my fiance is, I'm sort of starting a new life, and that's kind of a good time to lose weight and start off on a good foot, right?
So, since my focus is on overall self-improvement, not just weight, I've got a few goals to try to stick to:
-every day, do stretching exercises
-drink more water and tea
-eat mostly "clean" not very processed kinds of foods, lots of fresh vegetables and such, and stick to around 500 calories per meal (as I'm prone to skipping meals and then just eating way too much at dinner)
-do some kind of skin treatment for my face once a week
-exercise most days of the week, both cardio and strength training
-work on repairing my damaged hair, from constantly playing with it and knotting it as a nervous habit, by using good shampoo and conditioner and not touching it
I don't know how much I weigh now, and I don't plan on keeping track (I'm guessing around 140, at 5'6"), because from experience I know that I can get way way too obsessed with scale numbers and do stupid things like not drink water just to see something lower. So I'm going to keep track with pictures instead! I plan on taking one every Tuesday morning, same time same place. I'll find a place to store photo albums to put the pictures up to share with everyone who might care to see soon.
I hope to write something on here close to every day as I remember, to track how I'm doing on my goals there. That was kind of a long intro so I don't know if anyone is reading, but thanks to anyone who does want to watch my progress, and I hope to make some friends here.
My name is Jessica. I'm 22 years old, currently a uni student, living in the US but wishing I were in Canada.
I joined this website on recommendation from a friend who said that it was a great community and that I should try doing a diary thing to keep track on my weight loss progress. So that's what I'm doing! For the next 4 months, I'm going on a bit of a self-improvement kick, before my marriage and graduation late this December.
My whole life I was quite thin, but the past few years, I've gained A LOT of weight, around 50 pounds, a lot due unfortunately to stress ice cream binges. I lost a bit from my highest weight a while ago, but due to the stress of writing my graduation thesis (I do biochemistry research) and spending the summer living with my fiance (who is an AMAZING cook and loves to feed me lots, lol), I've gained a bit back, I guessing to about 25 pounds more than I'd like to be. Worse than that is that I haven't been exercising regularly, so I've lost some muscle tone. Before, even when I was at a higher weight, I was still exercising nearly every day, but lately I've slacked off and REALLY begun to notice it in my arms and legs.
The reasons that I want to lose weight are a few. One, I just want to feel healthier again like I used to. I don't need to lose all the weight I've gained, but at least get closer to the weight and size I was a few years ago. Two, I'm getting married in December, doing the final dress fitting exactly 3 months from yesterday, and like nearly everyone I'm sure, I'd like to look as good as possible. The other thing is, since I'm both graduating and getting married and moving to another country to where my fiance is, I'm sort of starting a new life, and that's kind of a good time to lose weight and start off on a good foot, right?
So, since my focus is on overall self-improvement, not just weight, I've got a few goals to try to stick to:
-every day, do stretching exercises
-drink more water and tea
-eat mostly "clean" not very processed kinds of foods, lots of fresh vegetables and such, and stick to around 500 calories per meal (as I'm prone to skipping meals and then just eating way too much at dinner)
-do some kind of skin treatment for my face once a week
-exercise most days of the week, both cardio and strength training
-work on repairing my damaged hair, from constantly playing with it and knotting it as a nervous habit, by using good shampoo and conditioner and not touching it
I don't know how much I weigh now, and I don't plan on keeping track (I'm guessing around 140, at 5'6"), because from experience I know that I can get way way too obsessed with scale numbers and do stupid things like not drink water just to see something lower. So I'm going to keep track with pictures instead! I plan on taking one every Tuesday morning, same time same place. I'll find a place to store photo albums to put the pictures up to share with everyone who might care to see soon.
I hope to write something on here close to every day as I remember, to track how I'm doing on my goals there. That was kind of a long intro so I don't know if anyone is reading, but thanks to anyone who does want to watch my progress, and I hope to make some friends here.
