My God, has it been that long?

Ah, I love a good Back To The Future reference ;)

Five months. Five whole months (and 10 days, but who's counting?) since I last blogged. It's a travesty.  But also, a result of events outwith my control.

I should have blogged in August, when I joined a gym... but I didn't.
I should have gone to said gym more than 3 times... but I didn't.
I should have worked on my core strength and abs... but I didn't.

And that last point was my undoing. In October the worst thing that ever happened to me last year, happened again. I put my back out. There are no words in the English language that can fully explain the amount of pain I was in, but know this, it was a complete BITCH.
I couldn't do more than get out of bed to go to the bathroom for two weeks, and even then that was tough.
For about three weeks after that I was hobbling around at a 45-degree angle (imagine an 80-year-old woman with a hump).
Around week 6 I started getting pain in my hip and down my left leg - again. The nerve was trapped again! Brilliant! Not.

 So I've been off work since October, as my job consists of sitting on my butt at a computer for 7+ hours a day and that's really not conducive to a healthy back.  I've been walking, stretching, doing what I can to get better but it's been the slowest recovery in history.

There was a good thing to come out of it of course, if we're looking for silver linings. 
After I hurt myself I lost my appetite - almost completely.  For a month I was eating anywhere between 250-900 calories. Which, of course, is in no way healthy, but I was 200+lbs at this point, so the chances of starvation was pretty slim to none.

I lost 15lbs in a month!  I was so happy I could have cried.  After that first month my appetite started to come back and now I've pretty much maintained my weight since November. Which is great, but now my body will only lose weight when I don't eat =/ Not good.
I have to figure out my calorie goal and exercise goal and find a balance that means I can eat and still lose weight.

So, last time I checked the scale I was 200lbs.  Starting on January 1st I'll be doing weekly weigh-ins (as long as I remember!) and even if it's a gain, I'll be logging it because I really need a kick up the backside to get this weight off.

Two important goal dates for me next year: May 17th and October 25th.  I'm just going to go all out, no particular goal before each date, just taking it one pound at a time, and see how I go.

WHEW!! Wow, essay.

Have you been keeping up with your goals lately, especially over Christmas?

*tap tap* Is this thing on?

Hello!
If you have stumbled upon this blog and are wondering what I'm going to do with it, basically it's going to be a log of my weightloss journey.

I know, enthralling. ;-)

But if you stick with me, I hope to eventually get the hang of blogging, writing for the web, and losing some pounds along the way! (and I don't mean money. Oh, British humour.)

Here's a pic of me from the office Christmas party 2011, with my friend Lianne:

Current stats:
Height: 5ft6in
Weight: 214lbs
SizeUK: 18 (16 on a VERY good day)

Target stats:
Weight: 140lbs
SizeUK: 10
Anything else is a bonus, I'll see when I get there.

I have recently acquired a Heart Rate Monitor to track calories, and it is insane how many calories I burn just by *existing*.  I've been eating 2/3rds of what I burn a day without realising it and may even be eating too little.  It's over what a normal person would eat so I'm not starving myself, but, I can't help but wonder if even with the high number of calories I consume daily I might still be sending my body into a kind of faux-starvation mode.

It's an interesting theory... we'll see how this pans out.