Writing a diet blog is scary. I know, because I do it every week.
Since September, I’ve been writing every Thursday for Her Campus Northwestern—chronicling my ups and downs as I continue the diet and exercise plan I started last winter, fed up with being unhealthy and self-conscious. I’ve been losing weight for 14 months, and writing “Weighing in with Elizabeth” for 6… whew! Now you know: I’m not new at this, and I’ve lost more than the Freshman 15. When I started my whole trip, I weighed 231 lbs. Today? 165.4, as of this morning!
So why am I here? When I saw the first post about the Lose the Freshman 15: Happy, Healthy Weight Loss with SELF & Her Campus program, it hit me—I had 15 pounds to go until I hit my goal weight of 150 lbs. At 5’8”, I knew that was a healthy weight for me and I was gearing up for the big final push to get there. I was worried. When you lose a significant amount of weight, you deal with plateaus, long stagnant spells, seemingly inexplicable gains and tiny losses; it can be so frustrating! What I need is a pick-me-up, something to shake up my diet, my workouts, and my self esteem. Enter: this blog!
I’m ready to hit the ground running with SELF’s Jump Start Diet, and I can’t do it without you. Know how I said writing a diet blog is scary? It’s not just me who’ll see the number on the scale or deal with how I’m feeling about my body on any given day. I hope you’ll all read along as I figure out how to do my new Jillian Michaels-designed workouts without falling on my face (those “mountain climbers” are no joke!) and attempt to follow the guidelines of the diet while still living in a dorm and eating in a dining hall (it’s getting real old, real fast). Join me—it’s totally free! Subscribe to SELF or just register for the program and you’ll have access to workouts, meal plans, logs, and tons of tips.
I’ve changed the way I live my whole life in this past year, and I couldn’t be more excited to share my trials and tribulations with you. I’ve learned a lot on my own, but I know I have so very much to gain from SELF and the other amazing Freshman 15 bloggers in the next few weeks. In my opinion, diet and exercise will carry you to a certain point; confidence and self-esteem building will kick you all the way up to happy and healthy territory. I’ll be kicking my butt into gear on all three counts—you can count on that!
Follow me on Twitter, leave me comments, ask me questions… I am an open book! Check back tomorrow for my account of DAY ONE!