I recently accepted a third grade teaching position. I am excited about the new job, but as a result had to move to a small WI town away from family and friends. This is hard for me because I am very family oriented. Before joining SparkPeople, I did some running and tried several things with my diet from just keeping a mental check of what I ate with not drastic changes, to cutting out tons of things from my diet and feeling deprived. I was not seeing the results that I wanted. I joined ...

I recently accepted a third grade teaching position. I am excited about the new job, but as a result had to move to a small WI town away from family and friends. This is hard for me because I am very family oriented. Before joining SparkPeople, I did some running and tried several things with my diet from just keeping a mental check of what I ate with not drastic changes, to cutting out tons of things from my diet and feeling deprived. I was not seeing the results that I wanted. I joined Spark people a couple years ago, and it has helped me a lot. I joined this site to find other ways in which I could reach my weight goal. Tracking my calories and seeing exactly what I eat, along with increasing my cardio and seeing how many calories I burn has helped immensely. Since joining, I had steadily lost weight, but most of last year, I took a hiatus from logging my fitness and calories. As a result, I was not as motivated to workout and check what I ate. I have undoubtedly gained some weight (about 8 pounds). My goal is to lose 13 pounds by the end of October and 18 pounds by next June. I am a little doubtful of my first goal, but have that date set due to a wedding I will be in. I feel my second goal is very attainable, but I know that the best way for me to lose weight is to sweat my butt off. I know it is going to be a lot of work on my end, and I am getting slowly back into a healthy mindset about fitness, and building up my cardio stamina. Some things about me: I recently found out I have exercise induced asthma, I have seasonal allergies, I am a runner, I love salty and sweet foods, and I am a total dog lover.

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