Starting a Diet.

Heya guys! I have a handful of watchers, so I thought I should start letting you guys know what's going on in my life. I'm just gonna admit it now ... I don't have the best self esteem. I don't think that much of my appearance, especially when it comes to my body. I think my face is okay (sometimes I think I'm kind of pretty) but I do not like my body. At times it really depresses me, and I strongly feel that my weight is a huge reason why I am shy and prefer not to be around a lot of people, like at parties and things like that. I've always been a big girl, but as I got older (especially since I started high school) I've felt worse about it. I've never had a boyfriend, and I always think it's because of my weight. Nobody finds me attractive, so they don't ask me out. Simple as that.

I'm cool enough with you guys to tell you. I'm 5'3 and 228 pounds. So I'm not morbidly obese or anything, but I am definitely overweight and I don't find my body attractive at all. I realize that I could be bigger, and that it could be way worse, so that motivates me. My friend started her diet 4 weeks ago, and so far she's lost 18 pounds. When she told me about her progress, that jump-started me on trying to lose some weight myself. She's doing it for health reasons (she's bigger than me) but thankfully I don't have any health issues that are caused by my weight. I just want to look in the mirror and like what I see.

So last Monday, I decided to go on a diet. It's not a strict one, just calorie counting. My friend told me about this awesome app called MyFitnessPal. It tells you how many calories you need a day depending on your weight and how much you want to lose a week. It's really helped me so far. Without it, I don't think I'd be able to diet.

Last week was really hard, and I cheated a few times, but I still managed to lose two pounds over the course of that week, which is what I want to lose every week. My goal weight is 160 pounds. That's still overweight by doctor's standards considering my height, but I think I'll look cute at that weight. I still want to have curves. Once I reach that weight, I'll determine whether I like how I look and if I should lose more or stay at that weight. So what I want to do is just give you all updates every week and tell you if I lost, gained, or stayed the same.

So, first update: last week, before my diet, I weighed 230 lbs. Today I weigh 228. So like I said, I lost 2 pounds! It's not that much, but as the weeks go by, I won't cheat as much so who knows, maybe I'll lose even more each week!

I'm telling ya'll this because, well...you're my friends, too. There's quite a handful of you guys that I've never met, but love to pieces. Online friends are just as good as real-life friends. I have support from my real life friends and family, so I thought some of you guys would like to help me out too and just know what's going on with me.

Love,

Shelbie

P.S. About exercising. I want to slowly get into that. I walk everyday after school to my friend's house. I burn around 100 calories everyday doing that. My friend wants me to walk with her on the weekends too, so there's that. I'm happy with my thighs and boobs (lol) but I like other parts of my body to change. I want to work on my arms and stomach. Do you know of any (cheap or free) exercises I could do that'll help me with that?

P.S.S. If any of you are on a diet, let me know so we can talk!