Excited in Illinois {about this challenge :-) }

I'm super excited to be a part of this weight loss journey. I've always wanted to join one of those weight loss challenge groups but never felt that connection or pull to join the once I came across. I also wanted to keep an online journal of my journey because felt I needed the motivation and encouragements of other people to be able to stay consistent on the challenge but because I didn't have followers or subscribers {neither did I have the power to start growing one} I scratched that idea also.

When I saw Sting's post on this challenge I was super stoked and practically kept bouncing on my seat from excitement.

I really like MissLara's post where she asked the question 'Why do you want to lose weight?' and I see that it got people to think about their reasons for wanting to lose weight and joining this challenge. I personally think, this should be viewed from an angle of being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle. As much as we want to be able to fit into that fab dress or build amazing abs (my current obsession as I have a lil 'afo beer'...according to Verastic....lol), if we lose sight of what is more important which is being healthy, we go fail yakata..

Just like MissLara, I am not a professional on the topic, just someone who is overloaded with too many information (which you can find for free on www.internet.. daz all). So I would love to share some of the ideas I found interesting and easy to follow through on.

First, I'm going to give a very brief bio of myself and my weight statistic so you guys can maybe make a mental picture of this noise maker :)

I'm IzzieMedula and manage a million and one blogs which I do not consistently update ...rme...I'm 29 years old and currently live and work in Illinois, USA as a Quality Assurance Engineer. I came here to study in 2010 weighing 198 pounds (don't gasp, I really did/do not look biiiig..lol). Then, my friends told me I was going to blow up from stuffing myself with burger and all that crap. Thankfully I didn't. That is blow up or stuff myself with crap and I was able to fluctuate my weight from 198-195-190 and now currently 180 pounds with an average of 15/20 exercises a year...lol..How, just staying away from burger and all that crap ;)

Anyway my stats are below

Weight as of today = 180 pounds / 81.6Kg

Height = 5 ft 8" / 1.7m

BMI = 27.4

So yes, I am overweight :( . This is why I'm joining this challenge. To get to a healthy BMI and build some 6 packs meeeeein. Just to be clear, I look great and look fabulous in dresses ooo, but like I said, I have to also factor the future into whatever I am doing now and make the best decisions for my life and family.

I chatted with MadamSting about how and when we'd start the challenge and it seems like Monday 22nd April will be the day to begin...can someone say Woot Woot... Actually, she mentioned it would be our first weigh in and I practically decided we can also start then too.

So our task on Monday 22nd April 2013 would be to note down our weight stats at the start of the challenge. Like I did above, we should note in a journal and also share here (if you like) our weight, height, waist measurement (for the abs interested people) and calculate our BMI. Here is a link to calculate your BMI by the US Natioanl institute of health {http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm}. I'll do a follow up post on some activities/exercises we could do on this amazing journey of being healthy, losing weight and looking/feeling fabulous.

P.S

Sorry MadamSting, I did not mean to hijack your blog oooo...just my enthusiasm getting the best of me....hiohiohiohio