I've had this Blogger account since February 15, 2001 and I have never done anything with it. Today I got an idea for an entirely new separate blog (this makes three that I run, plus a couple of mirrors) and I realized I could use this account for it. I deleted all of the old posts (they were archived elsewhere anyway) and I'm starting fresh. This also means that I get to use just about any design I want to, rather than fitting it in with my skinned site! Right now I'm using one of the lovely Kristine's designs, but once I relearn the Blogger template tags I may seek out an appropriate design for this blog's subject.

Which brings me, of course, to the subject: my diet. As a teenager, I kept my weight around 110 pounds and I could eat just about anything without gaining weight. I was cute at that size, and I have a lot of really cute clothes from those days. But a combination of factors (the most important being a stint on steroids for an immune disorder) has caused me to gain a significant amount of weight since then, and I've been trying to diet for a couple of years now. When I realized I needed to start dieting (prior to this I hadn't noticed the gain), I was 168 pounds. I made it down to 134 with the help of Weight Watchers, but I gained it back. My maximum weight now is 173, which I reached after a cruise in the second half of October 2004. Damn, they feed you good food!

I have major problems with self-discipline, just like everybody else. I lead an extremely sedentary lifestyle, so I've been trying to control my weight by controlling what I eat, but of course that's a difficult process. I beat myself up over candy constantly. I'm now going to use this journal as a way to be accountable to myself. I'm not going to record exactly everything I ate, but rather generalities (a salad, steamed veggies) and also emotions. If I have a piece of candy, I'm going to write down how I feel about that. I'm hoping to get friends and family to read this journal so they can keep me in line and provide feedback and constructive criticism. We'll see how it goes.