Today I made a decision. A pretty big decision as it happens, but not a unique one. I decided that I need to lose weight, and get fit.
Let me explain. Today is the 27th December 2010, I’m a 22 year old British national, currently living and working in Korea. I live with my husband, who I married earlier this year. I’m incredibly happy right now, and have been for the last 18 months, my life is amazing and I’m very lucky to have a great family, friends, experiences, job etc. But there’s always something that nags at the back of my mind, telling me that I should feel guilty. I’m overweight. I’m about a size 18/20 (UK) not massive I grant you, but significantly overweight. I hate this. It makes me feel like I’m failing at something that should be simple and instinctive. I know how to live healthily, I can, and do, cook healthy meals. Yet I still eat some food I know is bad for me (mostly sweet snacks and takeaways after long days at work) and I don’t exercise enough. I know all this. And what’s more, I know that only I can change this, but so far I haven’t. Until today.
In 4 months me and my husband will leave the comfort of Seoul for a few months travelling through Central Asia and Europe. Then once back in the UK, we’ll look for a new city to live in and a new job to go with it. In 4 months I need to be able to feel comfortable walking / travelling for long periods and able to keep exercising even when all around me is constantly changing. I’d also really like to feel more confident about myself. This, more than anything is what I want to achieve. I know this can’t necessarily be achieved in just 4 months, and will take longer to reach scary sounding things like optimal body mass and goal weight. But surely I owe it to myself, no, I deserve to feel good about myself.
As I’m a person who likes a degree of organisation in things I have a plan I’m going to try and stick to. I have a simple easy to follow diet plan (which I’ll explain in more detail another time) that I’m going to follow, and I’m making a starting pledge to do 30 minutes of exercise 3 days a week. And I’m going to write about it. Writing, and posting, this is far more scary than anything else about losing weight. However, writing is cathartic which I hope will make it easier as time goes on and motivation wanes, plus by writing this I’m turning it into an external commitment which, fingers crossed, will help me to stay focused.
So here I am, for better or worse, this is the task I’m setting myself.
1) To exercise 3 times a week
2) To increase my fitness
3) To start to improve my self-confidence in relation to this
I know, the last one is not measurable and the first two are similar. But for now, I feel these targets are more useful than things like ‘I must lose x lbs in x weeks’.
I promise to keep you updated. And any support or encouragement is welcome.
For now,
E
