How my Journey Began!

     My name is Lizzie Gates and I live in a small town in Alabama. I am a disciple of Jesus and I am a very social person. I also love to hang out with family and friends and under God they are the people most important to me. Throughout my childhood I have been overweight, disgusted, and hard with myself at times... but that never encouraged me to stop being "lazy" and start to work on my health and attitude toward my body until last year. So even though I am not through with my journey and I don't think I will ever be even when I get down to the weight I want, here is where my weight loss journey begins....
    Back in June of 2011 I went shopping with my Momma Gates (Grandmother). While shopping Momma Gates told me if I got down to a size 12 that she would buy me a whole new closet full of clothes! So I decided to start losing weight because I really wanted to get some new clothes. Even though I was getting compliments from family and friends telling me that I was pretty just the way I was, I found that I was unhappy with being unhealthy. I looked back at old photos and was disappointed with the way I looked, so on July 11, 2011 I decided to start my journey of weight loss. I weighed in at 264 lbs.
       I wasn't committed like I was supposed to be. I would eat right sometimes and work out, but I wasn't strict on myself. In August I went up to Momma Gates to hang out with my cousin (Tyler) and his girlfriend (Penni). We took pictures and I told Penni that I wanted to lose weight and asked if she wanted to help me. So Penni made up a diet plan and we got Tyler to make a work-out plan. Momma Gates told me for every 10 lbs I lost she would get me a present (new shirt, pants, etc). They decided to help me so that I could have support and determination. As long as I was committed I would get the support I needed from these 3 awesome people.
         By the end of August I had lost 10 lbs. I was down to 254 lbs. I was going strong on working out and eating right. I was sticking to the program that Tyler and Penni had made for me. I was good at saying "no" to things I didn't need or wasn't suppose to eat, with only one splurge meal a week. It was tough but I was determined to do it.
        By the end of September I had lost 9 more lbs weighing in at 245. I was going steady keeping up with calories and weighing every week, while also measuring twice a month. In October I lost about 10 more lbs. I was still going strong until I hit a plateau point. I was determined not to get discouraged because in November I was getting my pictures taken to mark my weight loss. Since I had lost approximately 29 lbs we needed a marker and in November I would have lost about 30 lbs. For every 30 lbs we were going to take pictures. I continued with my diet and being strict, and by the end of November I had lost 11 more pounds. That put me weighing in at 224.3 lbs, which had me at losing 40 lbs total. :)
       Since the end of November was the start of the holiday season I decided that it was gonna be extremely hard to be as strict on my diet, so I wanted to take a break but still be healthy. I was gonna start back really strict after I got back from Passion 2012 (an awesome conference) in January. I started back school and my plateau got in my way, so I got very discouraged and a little tired and unfortunately I lost my motivation. I took a semester off of my diet and still ate kind of healthy but didn't work-out as much.
        Throughout May and June the whole time I was out of school I kept saying I was going to get back to being strict and gonna get down to my goal. Well, on June 15, 2012 Tyler asked Penni to marry him. So I told Penni that whether I am in her wedding or not I am gonna use it as my motivation to lose my weight and look good. A week later Penni told me that I was gonna be one of her bridesmaids (which means I have to fit into one of those dresses), and so that meant I had to get serious. I decided to start a blog to keep me dedicated! I also made two mason jars with glass marbles in them: one that has "Pounds Lost" the other saying "Pounds to Go."
         I am gonna try to blog at least once a month to let everyone know where I am at on my journey. So far I am still at my plateau point but I have a feeling I am gonna move on since I had gained about 6 lbs since November (when I quit being so strict) and as of today I am back down to having lost 40 pounds. I hope you will like hearing about my journey because I still have a ways to go. I am gonna go strong until the end this time because I know that I can do it.