A Much Needed Reboot

It has been ages since I have actually had the desire to post anything regarding my weight loss on this blog. When I started this little personal blog for me and Chloe last year, it was meant to lay out our eating and fitness habits for the world to see, even if only one other person read it, to keep us accountable. Where we lost focus was that WE needed to keep ourselves and each other accountable and this blog should have just been an outlet for venting our thoughts and feelings. Since July and our vacation, the eating well left and the fitness has been non-existent. The pride of losing around 50 pounds was replaced with the disgust of gaining about 40 of it back. I won't go any further into the negativity I was feeling...previous posts sum that up enough.

Instead, I will focus on the personal reboot to the mind and body that is taking place. Chloe and I are about a week into continuing our weight loss journey. We did an initial weigh in, but are only going to weigh once a month to avoid falling back into the scale discouragement that often occurs on days we weigh more than we think we should. Chloe is 14 now and still growing and developing into a young woman. The last thing she needs is to develop an eating disorder over trying to lose weight. So we are keeping things realistic and easier for her to do. She watches her calories on the MyFitnessPal app, still allows herself to eat what she likes (in moderation) and is avoiding as much fried and sugary foods as possible. So far, so good for her. I have focused on trying to cut as much processed foods from my diet as possible. Fruits, vegetables, lean meat and whole grains are a staple to my eating plan. Bread, sweets, crackers, cookies and other junk food are not part of it.

My wife has joined MyFitnessPal with us to help her get healthy too. While she has no weight to lose, she too realizes how unhealthy our eating has become. Our son Austin...well, let's just say we do what we can to get him the right foods, but at 11 years old and super picky he has an alternate menu most meals. Eventually adding our walks back into our routine, along with basic exercises at home, should help all of us even more.

So that is about all I got for tonight. As always, I hope this blog will inspire someone one day on their weight loss journey as much as I hope it keeps me on mine. Also though, keep in mind, this is pretty much my (and Chloe's) journal that will be used to vent and brag about the good and bad through all this. I am not writing to win 20000 views, I am writing for me. No need to critique my posts or slam the blog. I hope my friends and those also trying to shed some pounds will find future posts insightful or motivating, and that they will leave a comment to help inform or motivate us as well.

More thoughts, tips and rants to come. Thanks for reading and keep the fingers crossed or say a prayer that this will be the last reboot we need.

Mike