2) The Beginning

I wish I could say that day one is already in the record books, but there are still far too many hours in the day for me to say that.  I just got home from the gym and I forgot how a) good it felt and b) how much it hurts when you are out of shape.  I am in no way saying I was in shape while I was going regularly, but it had stopped hurting a bit.  But I suppose, so far so good.

So here is what I want to get out of this whole thing:

1. Lose 50 pounds by May.  That's 7 pounds a month and I feel that is very do-able.  Sad thing is, with my height that still puts me at an overweight BMI.  
2. Run in the Pittsburgh Marathon 5k for the Mario Lemieux foundation (in May)
3. Be a better vegetarian/pescatarian (I do eat fish on a very rare occasion).  I rely far too much on pasta and boxed meals for my food.

At first, I plan on going to the gym every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday or Sunday.  Days that I do not go to the gym, I will ride the bike or use the gazelle here at home for 15-30 minutes after dinner.  I figure that will be the first two months or so, then I may actually be mentally ready to head out and do some real running.  I need to get better running shoes first, I fear for my knee.  But then again, if I lose the weight the knee probably won't hurt so much.

I plan on staying around 1200 calories per day, one cheat day of closer to 2000.  I am not going to obsess over carbs, but I am going to watch salt and sugars.  And I am not going to beat myself up if that does not always happen; some days you just have to have a cupcake.

1) Preperation

Many years ago, during my freshman year in college, I had this friend named Brant.  Funny and "fabulous", he was the sort that always commented on people and their appearance.  And I laughed heartily, I was the proper fag-hag after all. One instance has stuck out in my head and is the inspiration for the title of this blog.

One day while sitting in the cafe, he decided that one of the girls he didn't particularly like was to be named Porkchop.  Why Porkchop?  Because she was fat and he could just imagine her ripping into a pork chop.  I laughed of course, because honestly I could see it myself.  But she wasn't that much bigger than I was and it bothered me.  It always has.  What made me different?  Honestly, not a lot.

And that has continued to this day.  I've tried to change, I've tried to start taking better care of myself.  I joined a gym back in May in hopes of slimming down for a wedding this past month (I did but gave up and ended up right back where I started at).  I'm hoping that that if I blog this time, try to keep better track of things (and maybe some cheerleading from friends) I may be able to beat the fact that I really dislike who I am.

The gym bag is packed and ready for tomorrow.  Crossing my fingers here...