A little over two years ago, I signed up for my first dietbet.  I was seven or eight months into a new relationship and struggling with weight gain.  It was harder to find time to work out and more difficult to maintain a healthy diet, and during the relationship, gained almost twenty pounds.

It wasn't easy, but during the course of seven to eight months, after doing a kickstarter and then a transformer, I lost the weight I gained during the relationship.  My boyfriend and I broke up during the transformer but I continued on with my goals.  By the end of the transformer, I was happier and healthier.

During the last few months of the transformer, I began to change from my usual cardio workouts, running and using an elliptical, to workout programs that had strength training.  At my YMCA, I signed up for a program where we were assigned personal trainers who have us new workout goals, and for two months, worked on two new goals: running a faster mile and developing the ability to do a full push up.  I continued on with my personal trainer after the program, and that Spring, I ran new records at 5K races, continued to develop my physical strength, and a few months after the transformer ended, competed in my first Sprint triathlon.  I also began buying up lots of Jillian Michaels DVDs, as thus far, her workouts are the most simple but effective programs I've done, where I don't feel like I'm endangering myself.

Then a little over a year ago, I met someone new, a really great guy, and I gained some of the weight back as it became more difficult to find time to workout, as we drank lots of local brews, and as we began to order/make lots of pizza.  

A few months ago, right after I moved in with my awesome boyfriend, after following Gretchen Rubin's advice (author of Better than Before and the Happiness Project), I decided I needed to become an "abstainer" on desserts, and using her Better than Before tips, I decided to "no longer be someone who eats desserts or candy" (except on holidays and family members' birthdays) and finvented some handy rules about alcohol that helped me reduce my alcohol consumption.  In itself, giving up desserts and reducing my beer consumption helped me lose a few pounds and stop the weight gain.

Now that we've finished working on my house, so it can be sold, I no longer have any excuse to avoid working out and making healthy meals.  So to kick off a return to healthier habits, I've signed up for Jillian Michaels October Kickstarter.

My goals for this Kickstarter:

  • Rather than "dieting" during this dietbet, I'd like to continue working towards a permanent healthy lifestyle.  I will continue the healthier habits I formed a few months ago and add one new goal: five servings of vegetables will now be necessary every single day, starting October 18th.
  • I want to get back into my strength training workouts by kicking off the start of Jillian' Body Shred 60-day program.  I'm not waiting to start this and kicked this off today.
  • I want to do a better job of avoiding unnecessary alcohol.  There's too many days where I have 2-3 glasses of wine after work, solely because I wanted to celebrate the end of a work day with my boyfriend.  Sparkling water with fruit/juice/etc could easy replace the glasses of wine, and so, I plan to only drink alcohol socially (outside of my home) during the course of the Kickstarter.  [No, this one isn't permanent.  But I hope it will help build other habits that will make the wine seem unnecessary after the kickstarter.]