How It Began

Hello, fellow 12 Change-rs! I’m Stephany and I blog over at stephanywrites.com, about anything and everything. I’d like to tell you a little bit about how this all came about (for those who don’t know) and what it means to me.

I’m going to be honest, though. It was an emo-induced tweet that got us here.

It caused Katherine to initiate a gChat conversation which then spawned the idea of “12 Changes”. Whenever I’ve thought about losing weight, it’s been about more than diet and exercise. It’s about living a healthy lifestyle for the rest of my life.

But when I think about living a healthy lifestyle and all the different changes I would have to make to my life, it can be seriously overwhelming. I drink too much soda and not enough water. I munch on unhealthy snacks throughout the day and don’t know how to properly fuel my body for a workout. I don’t eat breakfast and I rarely go to bed at a decent hour. I eat too many carbs, refined sugar, and drink too much caffeine throughout the day. It’s a dizzying list!

But the beauty of 12 Changes is that this list breaks down. The majority of my goals will be health-related (my word for 2012 is “health”, after all) but getting to the point where being healthy doesn’t feel so overwhelming and out of reach. Instead of thinking about all the ways I need to change to be healthy or how drastic my life has to change to get to where I need to be, I think about it one step at a time. One change at a time. One month at a time.

At the end of 2012, I want my life to look drastically different than it did when I began 2011, especially as it relates to my health and fitness levels. And to do that, I need to make serious changes.

But I only have to think about it in small chunks. I have an entire community (yes, YOU GUYS!) supporting me, doling out advice, and pushing for me to succeed. And that makes this journey seem a lot less scary.