vg_ford: (varitek)
vg_ford ([personal profile] vg_ford) wrote2006-03-28 09:49 pm
Entry tags:

A decision.

xposted to [livejournal.com profile] val_marathon

This coming Saturday is my 32nd birthday.

This past Sunday, at fighter practice, my mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I realized something.

What I want, no one but me can give me.

I want to look in the mirror and not see a double chin. I want to be able to shop for clothes in stores that don't cater to "generously-endowed" women. I want to be able to walk up a flight of stairs without sounding like a beached whale. I want to be able to fence all day and not have to stop because I'm out of shape. I want to run again.

So, as my birthday present to myself, I signed up to walk the Greater Hartford Marathon in October.

I can't continue on the way I have. I'm 5'5 1/2" tall and 281 lbs. TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY ONE POUNDS. I have Crohn's disease and fibromyalgia, and most days I creak like an 81-year-old woman. Unfortunately, I still eat like a college student, and I sit at a desk for 8+ hours a day.

That is, until yesterday.

Yesterday, I started a new way of eating. I swore off most soda - no more than 16 oz. a day (and for someone who routinely sucked down 2-4 20 oz. Coke with Limes a day, this is HARD!!!!). I'm drinking water with lemon instead, and working on dealing with the caffeine headache. I'm also eating breakfast - and not snacking on chips or chocolate.

And I'm exercising. I've made a deal with myself. There's now a cup on my desk labelled "Val's Pennsic Fund." Every time I go to the gym to swim or work out, I get to put a dollar in the fund. Every time I do at least 5 sit-ups (because I think I can do 5 right now), I get to put in fifty cents. This will be spending money for Pennsic - talk about incentive!!! (oh, Midnight Madness....)

And Jess and I are making our marathon count. We're walking for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Fund - my aunt Susie died of breast cancer, and I've got women I adore on both sides of my family fighting it right now. It's a cause very dear to my heart.

So if you'd like to sponser us, or make a donation, please do. You can email me at captain_hobbes@yahoo.com.

I'm also starting a new LJ, just to keep track of my progress. Please friend [livejournal.com profile] val_marathon if you'd like to, and if you don't see any postings on it, get on my butt!!!:)

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate your support.

Val

[identity profile] empath-1111.livejournal.com 2006-03-29 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
Yay for you, Val! Good going! There is a doctor in Hampton, Dr. Jennifer Warren, that has a weight-loss clinic, that's all she does and several doctors recommended her to me, so I have an appointment on April 10th. My family doctor told me today that all of his patients that are going to her have been very please with the results. Just FYI.

Meg

[identity profile] vg-ford.livejournal.com 2006-03-29 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
Cool. I might have to check her out. We'll see - I'm going to see how the exercise works out.