The Road to Weight Loss with Ronnie: Part 1

'Move your body, and don't eat crap.'

By Veronica Batton

My name is Veronica. I am 31 years old, recently married and lately, a bit thick. I'm starting my weight loss journey and sharing it with you along the way. Once a month, I'll share my progress and my thoughts with you. I hope you'll stay with me and cheer me through it. This is gonna be tough!

"Just move your body, and don't eat crap," my doctor said. 

He said these words to me after I talked to him for two months about how I want to lose weight. 

It's funny, but true. I focus too much on doing the workout than actually doing it. It's a bad habit, and it's one I want to break.

I've always battled with my weight, but I've never reached this point before. 

I got married on April 21, 2012, and Sally helped me go on a quick diet to fit in my wedding dress. More on that here.

I felt great on my wedding day, but I didn't keep up any of the healthy eating habits she taught me or any physical activity and ended up gaining (gulp) 35 pounds. 

Ouch. That was hard to admit, but I have to start somewhere. 

So, here I am. I want to eat healthy, exercise and buy a pair of skinny jeans in a skinny-mini size. 

'FEED ME!'

Eating healthy doesn't bother me; I'm just more familiar with eating poorly. 

It takes time to learn new things, and I've never been great at "creating" recipes. 

However, I need to stop making excuses, branch out and try new things. 

I tried a recipe from Sally's blog, and I have to say, it was delicious! 

I tried the "I don't feel like cooking" dinner, and it was a hit. I served the dish with steamed broccoli, and I even had leftovers for the next day. 

Of course, I burned it the next day because I was distracted by Star Wars Angry Birds. 

It was still good, though. 

Body movin' 

One of the biggest problems I have with exercise is doing it. I'm the queen of, "oh, I'll do it tomorrow," workouts. 

I usually use work or my "lady time" as my excuse. 

I've dieted and bought gym memberships before, but nothing ever seemed to stick. 

Except for an accountability partner. 

My friend and co-worker Stacy is a runner, through and through. The girl's done a marathon and runs eight to 10 miles just because it's a Saturday. 

She lives just a few blocks away from me and asked if I wanted to join her on a run/walk. 

We've been going on run/walks for a few months off and on, and Stacy is kind enough to slow down as I heave and wheeze my way down the road. 

It doesn't even feel like exercise when you can go out with a friend and gossip for 45 minutes. 

I also really liked going to Sally's classes at the Studio on Main. I remember, on more than one occasion, performing an exercise on the reformer and thinking to myself, "Whoa. Has that muscle always been there?" 

Her reformer class is so much fun, and I would occasionally even feel graceful! 

The point of all this is that having an accountability partner helps keep me motivated. 

So here I am reaching out to you, my future accountability partner. 

Will you, blog readers, do me the honor of reading my posts, leaving me motivational and non-judgmental comments until I'm in those size tiny skinny jeans?

Please, say "I do!"

Goals for December:

• Exercise no more than six and no less than four days a week
• Experiment with new healthy meals
• Stop drinking soda!
• Current weight: I will tell you when I'm skinny. See? Now you have an incentive to keep reading my posts!