Baring it All: Good, Bad and Doing it Again in NYC

You may be wondering: who is this Talia character that keeps posting all these healthy living tips over on the main site? Well now is your chance to get to know me a little better!

Like many of you, living a healthy lifestyle is not something that was initially part of my day-to-day life. I went through all the nonsense of a body image crisis, loving the gym, hating the gym and learning to say “no” to some favorite foods. And now, here I am, ranting and raving about living healthy one small bite at a time.

But, in the spirit of full disclosure, there is a back story to landing in this place where I became passionate about health and wellness.

The short story is I ignored my health for far too long. I remember looking at a picture of myself (damn those digital cameras that let you critique yourself on the spot!) and thinking: I won’t like any picture because I don’t like myself right now which was followed by an overwhelming feeling of desperation and a strange urge to actually use my gym pass. At that point I was living it up in college to the scale-ridden tune of 189.6 pounds.  I was never a “skinny” girl. I mean, I think I skipped the phase where you are supposed to be 110 pounds and love a bikini. But, at 189.6 pounds I was far from feeling good about myself in a hoodie and jeans let alone baring it all on the beach.

So, I jumped into the gym, ran to Weight Watchers (thank god for my leader Pam) where I literally OBSESSED about everything related to my weight until I had proudly dropped 53 pounds in less than a year. A healthy me, but not a happy one. When I was at a healthy weight all I could do was think about how I wanted to be a smaller size, how if I would just work out harder or longer…you get the point. Physically I was at the right spot, mentally I was a mess. The journey I took was necessary but the not surprising part is that I got tired of obsessing and ultimately thought I was too cool for the WW world. I ditched my weekly weigh-ins and made a promise to myself that I would never go through this weight loss journey again and I could do it on my own.  Sound familiar? Ultimately I slowly let my healthy habits dissipate, packed on a few pounds (not all 53 but enough to matter) and I landed right back in the Weight Watchers chair praying that this time around would stick. Healthy habits and me re-connected, but then big changes in my life have left me constantly needing to work at my lifestyle goals…sometimes succeeding with a mental round of applause and sometimes deserving a big, fat F(excuse the pun).

Fast forward to now where I picked up my life from fresh air Colorado and moved to bustling New York City with my nearly new hubby. (Wedding day prep story to come at a later time). The big city is full of “challenges” for someone that wants to live a healthy lifestyle. One being the loss of a gym routine, another is the excess of all things food and alcohol related. So, this is the honest truth about where I am at: I need to get myself under control before I remember what the 189.6 pound me is like. So here I am taking everything one step at a time, new gym pass in hand, embracing the health world with vigor and living vicariously through all of you who are succeeding with your health goals on your blogs. Phew…I feel better already just letting it all out.

Anyway, in having worked in the healthcare field in some form for several years to being wrapped up in my own health I truly have a love affair with healthy living even though sometimes we get into a lover’s quarrel….but then again, don’t we all? I love learning new ideas for healthy meals or what the latest exercise trend is, but in researching new ways to embrace a healthy living I found that I was bombarded with too much. I don’t know about all of you, but I work a full time job and want to have some free time that doesn’t involve reading a thesis on the best ways to shape up and slim down. An inspired idea came to me to share wellness in bite size. So, as I am (over)sharing my story to embrace a healthy lifestyle in a city that constantly tells you otherwise, I am also providing the best bite size tips on living healthfully because it is the little things in life that can help make big changes and this blog is just a start!

Scale image courtesy of asifthebes via sxc.hu.