Being at home is hard....

So as I've yet to share being a student I live up in Belfast 99% of the time, coming home to my home town most weekends but as I'm not back at uni until the 26th(which will be another challenge!) I just come home with my flatmate and being here is a struggle to stay with my goals but I've been okay. I did eat a chocolate biscuit which made me feel pretty guilty and want more but I didn't, which I'm so proud of! I'm halfway through this first week and I definitely feel like this is going pretty well, even with the struggles. Today I've been mainly thinking about my goals and so I'm going to set myself a bit of a short term one. I would really like to lose 30 pounds in the next three months, that is my main one and I know I can do it! So woo! Goal setting! This goal is pretty good as it would make me 10 stone exactly and that is something I've never ever been able to achieve, even when I was small I could never get there.... it was always 10 stone 5 and close to that and I think maybe one time I hit 10 stone but this time I want to get there and maintain it. And I know for a fact I can!

Progress!

So it's been 2 day now and I'm feeling pretty good! My goals are going well(apart from myfitness pal, I try my best but its so hard putting a whole meal in when its full of about 50 food but I'm not giving it up). The thing I'm most proud of is my diet coke and drinking water goal! I've only drank 2 cans a day which is amazing for me! Water I could be better but its going well so I'm going to try and keep it going for the next 5 days!

Week One Goals:

So I've spent the past day or so, simply watching youtube videos on how to lose weight and I feel like while I definitely knew how to lose weight before but now I have a good plan on what to do. I'm going to set a number of goals beginning tomorrow(or today, however you want to class it) which is Friday 16th January. I know people don't normally start these things on a Friday but what odds. I want to start now so I will. These are the goals I'm setting for my first week and this will probably be the longest set of goals I will have but every week I will add in new goals to continue challenging myself... so here goes with the goals:

1. This is the big kicker. Reduce my calorie intake to 1200 calories and track this using myfitness pal.
2. Have at least 5-6 small meals/snacks a day.
3. Drink more water and green tea. Reduce my intake of diet coke. I know that this infact will probably be one of my hardest due to my serious diet coke addiction but I'm going to try to reduce what I normally would drink(on average 6 cans a day) to about 2 or even 1.
4. Meal prep on Saturday. I'm currently at my dad's but will be heading home tomorrow but I know I will not have time to meal prep until then.
5. Improve my sleeping pattern. I know a lot of this is due to the diet coke I drink and the awful sleeping patterns mean that my eating habits are horrendous and improving this will help so much.
6. No more alcohol. Period. This is something I'm very determined to give up for as long as possible and while it will be very hard living a student lifestyle, it is something I am willing to, for my own happiness.

I definitely feel like I've missed a goal or two but I can always introduce them in later, for now that is it. Note I have not introduced exercise in yet and I plan that for week two. I honestly just want to ease myself in first. I do plan on walking everywhere as apposed to taking the bus which I do normally but this is not a goal, just something I'm going to try to do. I'm going to post stats at the bottom of these goal posts so here goes:

Starting and Current Weight: 12 stone 11 pounds

Goal Weight: 8 stone 7 pounds or around about that

Height: 5 foot 5

And so the journey begins...

Hello there. Let's be honest here, I never expect anyone to really read this and its mainly for my own motivation in my journey and lifestyle change but I may as well introduce myself, just incase someone does stumble upon this.

I'm Shannon, I'm 20 years old and from Northern Ireland. I have struggle with my weight since I was 11 or around about then when my parents split up. This I would say was the main factor in me becoming an emotional eater, which has developed into full blown overeating and laziness at this point in my. When I was 16 I managed to get myself down to just under 10 stone(note I will be using stones most likely to update on my weight) which is the smallest I remember being. I kept this up until I was nearly 18 when I began drinking. That sounds a bit like I have a drinking problem or something but I can assure you I don't. The norm here is to go out and drink nearly every weekend, this combined with my new job at a fast food restaurant and getting a boyfriend which made me fall into a comfortable place where I was happy with myself  and also gaining a lot of weight at a very fast pace. Now I haven't been in that relationship for nearly a year but the combination of my job and now being at uni where drinking is between 2-3 times a week my weight is still as high as ever.

I currently weigh just slightly under 13 stone which is embarrassing even just to write down, I literally made a face typing it(also note I will likely say literally often!). I am 5 foot 3 and according to my BMI which I first checked today for the first time since I was about 17, I am extremely overweight, and while I know BMI isn't quite a clear indicator of health I'm sure this is right.

So that's me so far. I'm genuinely very unhappy with myself and I've never been so motivated to change!

I'm going to make a week one goals after this post straight away, mainly because I just want to keep everything separated.