Day 1

Hello everyone,
    I am Jennifer Neal. I am a mother of 10, that's right, 10 children. Six of the children are mine biologically, and 4 are my step children. They all live with me all the time, they are all mine. Period. Now that, that is out of the way.
    For my entire life, or since having my first son 16 years ago, I have struggled with my weight. During high school I was an active, regular teen. I played volleyball, soccer and I was a cheerleader. There was not much that I would not do. I had my first son when I was 15 years old. I was devastated, but so excited. My son was born my freshman year in high school. I continued to attend high school, but no longer had the time to play sports. I tried to, but I just did not have enough time for school, sports and a baby. I graduated 4 years later with high honors, a week later, my son's father and I got married. I continually struggled with my weight all though our marriage. Our marriage ended, and for a while I was able to lose some weight, probably merely from the stress of working, having a baby and getting a divorce.
     Not too long later, I met my second husband while going to college. I ended up becoming addicted to methamphetamine. This addiction was "great" because I did not eat and thus lost a ton of weight. I loved it, but I was not healthy at all. As soon as our marriage ended, I was able to kick my addiction and the weight slowly, but reliably came back.
     Since then, I have married again. My new addiction? Children, Pepsi, baking and STRESS! Oh, how the stress loves to get piled on with everything I do. I gave birth to our last child in October of 2014. The day after my Marley was born, I went in for a tubal ligation. We figured 10 children was probably enough! It took me a few months, some drama, and healing to realize that I have to get healthy so I can be around for these 10 babies of mine. They're going to need someone around as long as possible to keep an eye out for them. Someone to be here when they need to cry, or scream, or breakdown. Someone here to be proud of everything they do. And someone here who knows what to say and how to do things, teaches them things, and is just plain here to ground them when their lives feel crazy and insane and undo-able. I have to get healthy for me too. My worst fear is diabetes, and if I don't do something soon, I will have it for sure.
     So this is it. My weight loss journey. I decided two weeks ago from this date to quit drinking caffeine, but in the end, I quit drinking soda completely. I got a three day supply of a diet product called Thrive. It was a set of vitamins, a protein shake and a patch that I wore all day long. It was a great product and put me in gear to quit the caffeine, but it was way to expensive and I could not afford it after the third day. However, my mind had been put in the mindset, and the product had helped me get over the caffeine deprivation headaches so I was on my way. It has been two weeks. I have tried a drink here and there, but soda is just too sugary and almost has a chemical taste to it.
     For the past three days, I have been taking mile long walks, and I have been doing at least 15 minute workouts. A few apps I have been using that I am really starting to love are MapMyWalk, My Fitness Pal, and also a program called The Daily Burn. Map My Walk is an app that maps where I am walking, the distance and also how many calories have been burned. My Fitness Pal is where I can enter everything I have eaten, my exercise, and my water intake. This app counts my calories, it can count my steps and it shows where I can do better. The Daily Burn is a set of workout videos with many different trainers. There are a ton of different videos and a new workout everyday. I love these apps. They make this all so much easier because I can actually see what I am doing and how well I am doing. Besides these apps, the soreness of my leg muscles is proof that this is working.
     I am hoping this blog will help me stay accountable for what I am trying to do. I know I can do this. I can be healthy, and I can lose the weight I want to. My goal for now is 10 pounds, but my overall goal is to lose 80 pounds. I have not weighed myself, but I am assuming I am weighing around 250 lbs. Here we go!