Why a blog?

Although I'm very computer literate and live on the internet (in fact, among my friends and coworkers, I was one of the first to get the internet when it came out), I had no desire whatsoever to be on social media.  None.  Ever.  A friend showed me Facebook some years ago and I set up an account out of curiosity.  Within months, I closed it.  I had no idea how to blog, twitter, or anything of the sort and had no desire to learn either.  I hadn't even seen what these looked like.

So why this blog?  Flaminia ("Fla"), my trainer, told me for months and months to start a blog to help other people achieve what I was achieving, but I kept telling her, "Nah.  I have nothing new to say about losing weight, the information is out there already."  However, as time progressed and I started to lose more weight, I realized that a lot of people wanted to know what I was doing and kept asking me the same questions over and over again, the same questions I had when I'd meet someone who had lost a considerable amount of weight.

Also, more and more people (even complete strangers) were telling me to start a blog about my "journey."  It put the seed in my head that maybe I might be able to help someone else with what I've learned along the way.  I found myself mulling it over and over what I wanted to tell people and so one day I sat down and started writing my blog, whatever a blog is.  For weeks I worked on the narrative, but then gave up when I realized I was consumed with writing my story, that it was way too wordy, and that no one would waste their precious time reading my voluminous words.

Additionally, it's quite embarrassing to put yourself completely out there to friends, let alone strangers.  Telling anyone how much I weighed was out of the question my entire life.  Are you kidding?!  The only reason my doctors knew how much I weighed was because they made me get on their scales, otherwise they wouldn't know either.  Now you want me to expose my biggest failure to the world - and through the internet to boot?   What?!?!  Are you insane?

So I gave up working on a blog for weeks at a time until someone else would say, "Hey, you should start a blog," and then I'd start working on it again until I gave it up again for a few weeks.  I kept telling Fla, "I read what I wrote and I'm boring myself - and it's my OWN life?!  No one's going to want to read what I have to say!"  Every time I told Fla that I gave up on doing a blog, she'd roll her eyes at me and said, "Fine.  Don't help the world do what you did."  Dang Catholic guilt!

So here I am, putting myself completely out there to the world in hopes of helping someone.  When it comes to losing weight, each person needs to be ready to commit to the process.  No one can find that commitment for you (just like no one could find it for me), but what I can do is share my story in the hopes that people might pick something up that will help them turn things around and achieve what I have achieved.  Nothing I've done or am doing is new, earth shattering, creative, or incredible.  Anyone can do what I've done.  You just need to start and stay with it.

Remember:  it's a slow process, it won't be easy by any means, it's often frustrating and infuriating, but the end results are priceless.  Good luck with your journey!