April’s One-Year Anniversary on the Double Chin Diary!

Today marks exactly one year since I wrote my first post on the Double Chin Diary!  I am so excited with where this blog has taken me.  I may not have lost an abundance of pounds like I had planned, as I’m just down five pounds from a year ago, but my body has definitely undergone some major changes.

I set forth with three main goals:  Lose weight, find forms of exercise I have fun with, and to knock “fake foods” out of my diet.

I definitely found fun ways to exercise since I enrolled myself in Pilates, yoga, and tennis at the Santa Rosa Junior College. The classes gave me new things to write about on here and made me disciplined in keeping a workout schedule.  I think taking all three of the classes each gave me great benefits in my flexibility, balance, and strength.  I really wanted to be able to “touch my nose to my toes” and pretty quickly into the semester, I met that goal.  Today it takes a lot of effort to be able to achieve that but I’ve been pretty fortunate that most of the benefits I gained earlier this year have carried along with me.  I haven’t been doing nearly enough yoga and Pilates besides occasional stretches but I have been happily playing tennis once a week now!  I’m appreciative of taking on the challenge of playing an actual sport since all my life I’ve been pretty nonathletic. Tennis gave me the cardio and an opportunity to use my arms along with the first spot I’ve ever really liked playing.   I wish I was able to take classes this semester as my body made some great progress from January to May!

Check out my progress chart I had to do for Pilates!

Since I have been doing a plank and wall sit challenge again, I can say I’ve made it to a 3 minute plank and can still do a 4 minute wall-sit. However I can’t say it was 30-day challenge as I have been slacking and only do four a week now… maybe I’ll do better this month!

Food wise, I’ve been better disciplined at saying no to past loves like Taco Bell and the desire to eat sugar all the time.  Often times I think back to the blog and how I would like to have something positive to write about, like I did on Monday when the “old April” was planning on the first fast food lunch  I’ve had in a month.. I was going to cave and get myself Taco Bell as some sort reward for studying so well for an upcoming test.  When I got close to my campus though, suddenly my mind did a flip flop and thought about the last time I had fast food, which was Taco Bell, and how gross it was.  Was it really worth the heart burn, potential diarrhea, and disappointment in wanna-be Mexican food?

Nope, I decided to go to Panera Bread instead and got myself a soup and sandwich for less than 500 calories.  When I ordered my drink, fully intending to “treat” myself to some Mountain Dew, I saw a sign with  “hibiscus tea” jump into my view. People who know me well know that I *hate* iced tea.  I’m a big fan of hot tea, but never once have I had a full glass of iced tea.

But for some reason, on that gray and damp day, I turned from the  neon green liquid and poured myself a glass of the hibiscus iced tea.  At first taste, it wasn’t so amazing.  Mountain Dew dances on my tongue.  This tea did not.  So I squeezed in some lemons, something I also rarely do, and gave it another shot.  The lemon instantly jazzed it up and I pictured Alyssa and my two best friends, Aya and Kristin, nodding happily at me with a look that says “We told you lemon is good.” Haha!

And then, of course,  I had to take a picture!

April’s first iced tea!

Besides helping me achieve my own personal goals, writing on the Double Chin Diary has shown me that there will always be someone who has had an experience similar to my own.  I have loved getting to know people through their comments, and for some, reading their blogs that they keep too.  Every reader that we have, every message that we get saying they enjoyed our post, and every single virtual high five we receive only makes my sister and I feel so much more welcomed into this world.  The unity that sharing an experience like weight loss creates is something quite special.  There are so many people in the world who feel bad about themselves constantly because of the negative outlook society has on weight.  Yes, being overweight has serious health issues, but it never should make anyone feel bad about themselves.  Being on this blog has really introduced me to so many amazing people each with their own stories to tell and keeps my self image pretty high.  I’m so appreciative for how all our readers make us feel!  🙂

As much as I love the support that this blog has given me, and of course I write this in tears, the best part of writing on the Double Chin Diary is how it has brought my sister Alyssa and I even closer together.  I thought we were pretty close before but writingon this blog has given both of us another part of our lives to enjoy together.  We both wish so much success for each other and as my sister, it’s so awesome to know that Alyssa will always be one person I know will truly understand the bodies we were blessed with.  She’s been there for me when I’ve texted her with confessions of sugar consumption and she’s answered my calls and listened to me talk and huff along as I’m dragging my butt up a hill.   It’s also made me badly wish to live closer to her so we could drag our butts up hills in Southern California in person rather than on the phone!

I have so much fun on here and I am so grateful that Alyssa gave me the opportunity to begin writing a year ago.  🙂

This weekend I’m very happy that I’ll be spending it with  her and Katelyn, my wonderful friend (and her bff!), so I’m sure we’ll have a bunch of pictures to post.  We’re going down to San Diego to check out the colleges, in attempts for me to actually make the move to Southern California!  We’ll also be hitting up the San Diego zoo! Woo!

Thank you, dear readers, for making it easier to have faith in myself.  You all rock!

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Love,