Day One: My Starting Point

The first thing I did when I woke up this morning (after feeding my crying, insistent cat) was weigh myself and take my measurements. I figured I’d get the most painful part out of the way early! Now, I’m going to be very open, honest and personal throughout my journey of Fighting Mick…but there’s no way I’m publicly sharing those numbers! However, every week I will tell you the difference between my starting measurements and the current ones for that week – in other words, you’ll know the details of my progress…just not my exact starting point. Sound fair? I will tell you though that my weight goal is 46.5 pounds less than I currently weigh.

I weighed myself and measured my chest (across the largest part of my breasts), waist (at the smallest part), stomach (at my belly button), hips (across the hip bones), butt (again, across the fullest point), thigh, calf and bicep. These are the measurements I’ll take every week and (hopefully) deduct each new number from my starting points. Here’s a tip a friend gave me once that I’ll share with all of you: When taking measurements for the purpose of tracking inches lost, you want to make the measuring tape as tight as you can. That way you can’t fool yourself into thinking you lost more than you did, by starting loosely and tightening the tape on the subsequent weeks. It’s a good way to accurately gauge a decrease in measurements. (But obviously, if you’re taking measurements for clothing sizes and such, the tape should be neither loose nor tight.)

Since improving my health (particularly my reproductive system) is actually the purpose of this journey, I’ll also be tracking progress in those areas weekly. Below I’ve listed the symptoms I experience most frequently, and have given each one a score from 1 – 10 (with 1 being nonexistent and 10 being almost daily and severe).

Loose or irregular bowels: 10

Bloating/gas: 10

Indigestion (heartburn, etc): 8

Itchy skin: 8

Knee/hip/shoulder pain: 10

Congestion/sneezing: 9

Headaches: 5

“Mick Symptoms” (pelvic/ovarian/low back pain, cramping): 10

Menstrual Symptoms: N/A this week

…There you have it – my official starting point!