Day One

5'9" and 265 pounds.

Need I say more? This is the beginning of another quest to lose the weight. Ideally, I should be 170lbs but I would be happy 190 or less. Hell, right now I would be happy at 240!

Long story short, I started gaining weight when I got married at age 20. Eight years and two kids later.....I am obese.

This time around is slightly different. I want to become a runner. I am hoping the weight loss will follow. I would love to be able to run 6+ miles easily. Right now, I can only do .75-1mi without walking.

Exercise has not been the problem for me. Food has. Put simply, I eat way to much. I love to eat. It is quite possibly my favorite thing to do. Losing weight has never been about the need to exercise more or even to cut back on junkfood. It is all about portion control. I overeat salad. LOL

One big bump in the road will be surgery in a month. I am having ACL reconstruction in my left knee. I tore it playing soccer back in June. The funny part about it is I managed to do it 5 days before my scheduled surgery for Chronic Compartment Syndrome.

The Compartment Syndrome. I've had the symptoms since I ran track back in Jr. High School. It took over 10 years to be diagnosed. It kept getting written off as shin splints. I never denied having a history of shin splints, but THIS was something different. By the time I had my surgery in June, I could no longer even do the elliptical trainer more than 10 minutes without my legs cramping up so bad I had to stop. I had all four compartments in both legs 'released.' The front of my legs are MUCH MUCH MUCH better. I am still having symptoms in the backs of my legs, but it only bothers me when walking fast.

It is VERY frustrating to me that now that I can run for the first time in 10yrs without my legs cramping up, I have ANOTHER injury to contend with. I can run now and will keep trying to improve until my surgery. After surgery, I want to get into physical therapy ASAP.

Goals-
-Blog at least every other day to track progress
-Continue eating healthy through surgery recovery. I gained weight during my recovery from Compartment Syndrome.
-I want to run a 5K by my 29th birthday in September 2007.
-Long term, I want to be below 200lbs by my 30th birthday in September 2008.

For now my goal is to run /walk 13 miles per week. I will adjust, if needed, after this week.
I am aiming for 1500 calories per day.

Day 1- 3.5 miles
________
6am-Walked/ran 2.5 miles outside. I ran about 1.75 miles of that, with .75 miles or so being the longest without walking.
7pm-I ran/walked with the dog for 1 mile this evening. (1/2mi run, 1/2 mi walk)

-Stayed within 1500 calorie limit.