New Year... New Me!!!!

New Year's Eve has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year. It's a time to reflect on the changes we want (or need) to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. For the past... uh...5 years, my New Year's resolution has been to lose weight. Like every other person, I eat healthy and work out some in January, and by the beginning of February I call it quits.

Well, this time I'm serious. DEAD. STINKIN'. SERIOUS.

What's different this time, you ask? The answer is Facebook.  Facebook? Yepp.. you read that right.

A couple of weeks ago I was just Facebook creepin' and I saw that one of my friends liked a before/after photo of a girl who had lost 70 pounds between April 2012-December 2012. Naturally, I clicked on the photo to see who this girl was and what she did that I haven't done tried before. I ended up staying on the site for a while and noticed that the girl (Lacey) was only 20 years old with a baby, started at 250 lbs, has a husband and was a dental hygiene student. She started out walking 2 miles a day back in April 2012, and increased the mileage as she got used to the physical activity. At first, she was eating Subway sandwiches and salads, thinking that it was "healthy", but then one of her friends told her about "eating clean" and she's never looked back since then. She's down to 170 lbs, and still wants to lose more.

Lacey has completely inspired me and has challenged all of her 3K followers to do Jamie Eason's 12 Week Challenge with her. She set up a Facebook group (with 500 current members) so we can all motivate and support one another through the 12 week challenge. We were encouraged to take before pictures in our bathing suits/bra & underwear so that we can see how far we came once week 12 is complete, and post them on the FB group's wall to hold ourselves accountable.

Ya see, whenever I have done "diets" before, I am always doing it alone and I don't have anyone to push/motivate me when I get discouraged. I try and follow strict diets and end up getting frustrated because I don't see results fast enough, or I just really miss a Chick-fil-A sandwich.. so I just give up.

But not this time. The words quit or give up are no longer in my brain. I WILL DO THIS and will get back into shape. Don't believe me? I can't wait to prove you wrong!

For the first time ever, I am actually so excited to start my transformation. I'm eating clean now and am following the Fitness Challenge and can't wait to see my body at week 13.  I have a goal weight poster in my apartment, I have a binder of workouts and recipes for all 12 weeks of the Challenge, and I have even made a motivation collage of the skinniest I have ever been.

Now...I don't expect to be a tooth pick after this challenge. I know I will lose inches and pounds, but I will have to continue this new lifestyle change of eating clean and working out for the rest of my life to maintain and sculpt lean muscle. The Fitness Challenge only sparks up the process and gets you going.

My goal weight is 145-150 pounds. Let me tell you... I have a longggggggg way to go. I still have a lot of muscle from my power lifting days back in high school, so I don't expect to get any lower than those numbers (as muscle weights more than fat).

I am going to faithfully update this blog to keep my story going and to keep me even more accountable. So please, I encourage you to come back and check on me every now and then. A little encouragement here and there never hurts either! :)

2013 is my year, y'all! I KNOW IT!