I have a collar bone!

  I know a lot of you will understand my excitement with this and not go "Duh Shalon, we all do!" 
  I have not seen my collar bone in, probably, 15 or so years. This has given me more motivation than fitting into size 16 pants did. I can't believe how much a collar bone can inspire me! It doesn't show when I am just standing there, but if I move my arm you can see it.
Excuse my hair. I need to get it cut badly!

I know these aren't good pics. For some reason my phone doesn't do well in my bathroom. These were taken the other day. It is nice that you can see the weight loss. My belly is a lot smaller. So are my boobs though. :( lol!

My workout space

  I thought I would show you guys my workout space. 

  As you can see there isn't much room. I can't really use the living room because of sleep schedules of other people that live here. I was able to do an old Walk Away the Pounds video I had in that space though.  Oh, the pillow is where the dog sleeps. lol!


  As I mentioned I was able to do a video. I did one mile but I think that tomorrow I will try the two mile as the one mile didn't seem like much of a challenge. I also did some arm exercises with my little dinky 2 pound weights. After 2 sets of 15 reps I could really feel it though. 


  On a totally different subject I was texting with my boyfriend early. He asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was online looking to find out how much I have to weigh to get my BMI out of the obese category and into the overweight category. His reply to me was "Wish you could get over the weight thing"  I read it and a couple tears escaped. He's never been overweight a day in his life and doesn't get it. He thinks I'm attractive the way I am and is afraid that I'm going to get really skinny, which he doesn't find attractive. I don't want to be super skinny. I was to be healthy and able to go on a hike without feeling like I'm dying 5 minutes into it. 
  So now I feel like I can't talk to him about any of it. He's supposed to be the person that is the most supportive and I feel like I can't talk to him about this now.  The other friends that I hang out with don't really get it either. I was over at one of their houses today and they asked me if I wanted to go to McDonald's.  I'm not going to give up though.

How Do You Know If It's Right?

   I don't have a membership to a gym, I can't see a personal trainer. I simply can't afford it.  What I have are some old workout videos, the internet, and some 2 pound hand weights. Not much, but I know it is possible to lose weight and get fit using those. However when I see so many other people using fancy new gadgets it makes me a little jealous. I get it in my mind that those things are going to make it easier for them to lose. Maybe it will, maybe it won't,  but since I don't have them I'll have to just suck it up and go with what I do have. 
   
   Now to the reason I actually sat down to write this post:
     If you are like me and doing this on your own how do you know that you are doing the exercises right? 
Take this one for example: The Plank 
   How do I know that am doing it right? How can I be sure that what I am feeling is actually because it is using muscles I haven't used in years and not because I'm doing it wrong? 

Thank You's and Before & During Pics

   I want to start off saying thank you to everyone that came to my blog. Those that left messages, followed me, and even those that didn't do either of those. It is nice to know that people at least looked at it. :) 


   Now, on to the pictures. I don't have any after pictures since I haven't reached my goal yet. So right now I have before and during pictures. 


   I have looked through my pics and hate all of them, especially the ones from a year ago. I was tempted to not post any but then thought that isn't fair. It isn't fair to the people that come here looking for someone they can relate to. It isn't fair if I hold back something simply because I don't like the way I look in it. 


   While going through the pictures I couldn't believe how big I had gotten. Don't get me wrong, I knew I was fat. It was impossible to not know, I just didn't realize it was as bad as it was. So..here is a before pic, taken Christmas 2009. Not sure my exact weight but it was close to 250. 

   This would be sometime mid July 2010, right after I started dating my boyfriend. I'm not sure about my exact weight. I'm going to guys somewhere between 200-215 but am not positive.  Sorry my eyes were closed in the last pic..that seemed to be the theme that day. lol! 

   These are some of the more recent pictures I have, from a month or two. I was between 190 and 196 in these. New pictures wouldn't be much different since I'm only down to 188 right now. I kind of stalled over Christmas and this month.  

   First I'd like to thank anyone that has ventured over this way to read my blog. As you can see I'm just starting out. I'm hoping that it will help me be more accountable. I have kind of lost motivation and am trying to get it back. 
   January of last year I weighed a little over 250 pounds. I'm 5'2" so that is quite a bit. When I weighed about a week ago I was 188. Right now my goal is 160, and when I reach there I will see if I feel it needs to be lower. I know according to charts I should be between 115 and 130 pounds. I don't see that ever happening. I wasn't that small when I was a freshman in high school and played soccer. 
   Over the next few days I will fill in my profile and add some before pictures. Hope you will come back. :)