First day of the rest of....

This is me. I am an almost 50 year old woman who weighs over 300 lbs. I am a born again believer in Jesus Christ.
I was going to make this blog about my weightloss journey, but it is really about so much more. How did I get to where I am today? I am a wife, a mother of two girls and a step-mom to one son. I have two granddaughters. I am a late in life teacher. But somewhere along the way I have gotten lost. I am lost in the business of life, but I really don't live. I don't experience. I think back to my highschool days and afterwards, I always had friends to hang with people to talk with but as the years progress got more and more isolated. Yes there are a lot of things that have broken me down over the years, but this blog is not about that, this blog is about changing the things in my life I don't like. Learning to change my actions to become the person inside of me I have lost. So how do I do that? I am not quite sure.
The first thing I am tackling is my weight. I do not want to be 50 and over 300 lbs.  I am starting a raw diet. My goal is to eat about 85 to 95 percent raw foods. I had started to do this in the fall and had great success (the first time in years) but I allowed the holidays to get the best of me and I gained most of my weight back. Now if any of you are raw foodist, I am sorry I am not really into the "lifestyle". I want to eat healthy etc... but as money is very tight, I do not have a dehydrator or a juicer. So I can only do so much. One thing I do have a is a good blender. Each day I make a big smoothie that I drink throughout the day. Usually I put in a little OJ, 2-3cups of greens, a frozen banana, a serving of frozen strawberries and 2-3 cups of water.
There is no recipe, you just put things in to taste. Honestly in the beginning I started with a cup of greens and over time I have added more. I tend to like my drink thinner so I keep adding water until I have a consistency I like. But now I am up to 2-3 cups of greens with my fruit. I know it does not sound good, but honestly you mainly taste the fruit. My greens vary but my favorite is kale. My sister says she will never put that ---- in her smoothie, but it is sooo good for you and gives me energy. Other greens I use are collards, dandelions, spring greens. A good book to read about this is Green Smoothie Revolution by Victoria Boutenko.
So I have part of my diet down. The smoothie is my breakfast and afternoon snack. For lunch I usually have a salad. As a teacher I have about 25 minutes for lunch but it usually takes me longer to eat my salad so my 4th bell is used to seeing me eat it in class. No its not that the salad is that big, did I forget to mention I had a lap band a couple years ago? Well I did. So it takes a while to eat and you have to eat slowly if not the food gets stuck, and you will throw it up. So It takes me an hour to eat my small salad. Dinner is where I struggle. I hope to do better planning this week otherwise this will be my downfall. Now as I said I want to go about 85% raw or more so I do allow some cheats. I use bottled dressing, as I have not found any raw recipes that I like yet. I try to do organic dressings but I still like my favorite italian dressing. I am taking the raw a step at a time. You will see I have some "cheats" that real raw foodists would disapprove of, but right now I am trying to get healthy with limited time and funds so I am doing my best. I am not sure that there is anyone out there that will be reading my blog but I feel better just sharing my journey. I am hoping this will make me more accountable so that I will stick with this journey and stop just watching life go by.
Goals for the journey:
1. Lose weight
2. Get active
3. Make friends for me and couple friends for hubby and me.
4. Step outside my comfort zone and try new things.
I think I missed the mark with the above list as I should have started with reading my bible and praying daily. The book of Matthew says "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
I want to put God first in my life and I know that He will help me get the other items on my list. This blog and you are one of the ways he is helping me to change.
Hope you join me on this journey. I can't do it alone.