Post One- An introduction

I know many of you have seen The Biggest Loser or other shows of that nature.  I have to, usually while eating a big giant dinner while sitting on my couch with my 2 cats weighing about 270 pounds at only 26 years of age.  I'm sure some of you out there can even relate to that too!

So here's the deal, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately.  I'm currently unemployed thanks to budget cuts etc, so I've been spending my free time doing what... playing Skyrim and watching Tv, of course! While I was still working I had a gym membership and a personal trainer that I was paying to see weekly, but I have since had to put a hold on my account to save some funds.  But what I've forgotten in this little bought of depression I am in, is that I can do something to make me feel better about myself in the mean time and keep my ass off the couch and not have to spend any extra money.

I've got this workout video that I bought last summer. I actually did it for quite a while and I was seeing pretty good results until I injured myself and had to stop working out. The lack of regular routine made me get lazy again.  I started at 270 and went down to 245 in a matter of 30-days.  That's quite an accomplishment for me! Then once I was over my injury, I started working at a new place.  A great job overall, minus the fact that all I did was sit on my ass all day.  I became a driver for a health care facility, transporting people to and from the facility, 5 days a week, 8-10 hours a day.  So the lack of exercise I WAS getting at previous jobs became nil and I gained a little more weight back in the 6 months I worked there.  So, now I'm back to 270 (actually I'm not sure how accurate that is, but I'll double check here in a few minutes and correct it if necessary).

I've noticed a lot of things in that time.  When I first started that job, I was able to wake up at 6:15 in the morning every day without a problem.  I'd make some coffee or tea and head off to work.  The longer I worked there the harder it was for me to wake up in the morning, no matter how early I went to sleep the night before.  I stopped eating breakfast or even having tea/coffee for a while.  I'd get sleepy after a few hours and I'd come home on my lunch and sit on my ass even more because I was 'tired.'  I stopped making lunch at home after a month or so and began eating out again.  Promising myself I would only do it once in a while, but that turned out to be every day. Then I started drinking coffee again, with cream and sugar, when I used to drink it with honey only.  Then I added doughnuts to my morning routine.  So for the last 2 months I would have coffee and doughnuts for breakfast and fast food for lunch 5 days a week.  Until finally I'd gotten frustrated, with everything!

I signed up for the gym but I didn't change too many of my habits right away.  Then I started eating a little better. Order a salad at the fast food place one or twice a week, eating smaller portions, cutting back on the coffee, substituting fruit and veggie smoothies here and there.  It was helping.  Then I got laid-off.  Now I'm pretty sure I'm back to about 265-270 from the last 3 weeks I've spent sitting on my ass, pretending to be a Dragonborn and slaying dragons.

So, I'm finally getting sick of it all! Tomorrow I'm going to try and get back on track (well I guess it's today now since it's 1 am, but you know what I mean!).  I read an article tonight about exercising and the ties to sleep and sunlight and mood, etc.  (http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/sleep/basics/how-to-fall-asleep1.htm) If you're interested in reading it too.  I was thinking, why wait until tomorrow why don't I just do it now? But I realized how late it was so I thought maybe I'll check it out and see if it'll be beneficial at all or not.  Well, it's not.  I read that the best time to exercise to improve sleep is the late afternoon/early evening (about 5-6 hours before bed time) and it's best when that exercise is vigorous cardio exercise.   Exercising first thing in the morning is also goo to help with mood and energy levels and alertness for the day.  Even better for your sleep cycle to equate exercising with daylight and time of day.  So I am proposing this for myself:

1. To exercise more. I'm going to try and incorporate what I know from my workout videos and what I learned from my personal trainer, plus what I've been reading on the internet as well. 
2. To eat better.  I can't afford to eat out right now anyways, so home cooked meals, lean meats, lots of veggies, and more water! 
3. To improve my sleeping schedule.  Because I'm not working I've allowed my sleep schedule to be rather poor.  I just sleep whenever for however long I want and wake up whenever I feel like it.  It's going to be hard at first but I'm sure I can fix it. 
4. Make a schedule for working out.  Ideally I'm going to do 3 days of strength training and 6 days of cardio and give myself one full rest day.  So that means 3 days a week I will be working out twice as much.  It'll be hard, but I think I can push myself to make it happen.
5. Weigh in once a week.  I don't really care WHAT the number is as long as I feel better, but just to keep track of my progress I'm going to check my weight once a week.  Probably every Wednesday because that's the first day of my new schedule.  
6. Make an attempt at counting calories.  I'll do my best but that's the problem that really alludes me the most.  
7. Create recipes and post them up here for people to use.  (My ultimate goal is to be a chef so this will mix my passion for cooking with fitness by coming up with great new items that are nutritious but delicious too!)
8. Post before pictures and progress pictures.  I am going to want to see how far I've come, and I'm sure you, Reader, will also as well! I'll try and do them every 2-4 weeks.  
9. Share this blog with as many people as I can, in hopes that I can spark some changes in others as well! After all, this type of journey is harder to do alone, so it would be nice to have someone to cheer along!
10. Finally, research the internet from time to time and look for helpful articles and tips from professionals! Knowledge is power, as they say, so if I keep looking for more ways to improve myself, I'll share the most interesting things with you so you can learn as well! 

I would take the before shots now but it's rather dark in my house and I'm sure I'll still look the same tomorrow when I wake up.  So for now, I'm going to try and sleep, because tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life as a reformed fatty!