South Beach Here I Come

Tomorrow Chris and I are starting the South Beach Diet because we're both a couple of fatties who need to lose some serious pudge and we have been putting it off for far too long now. I used to be a whopping 104 lbs about 3 years ago but then I got pregnant and then I got depressed and everything went downhill from there. At one point in my life I had a great body and I felt great. Now I don't and I don't. I am not delusional in thinking that I will reclaim the body I had when I was 20 years old but I do know I can look and feel 100x better than I do right now so I am going to give this South Beach Diet thing a whirl and see how it goes.
South Beach is really strict on what you can eat in the first two weeks. You are basically cutting all sugars and starches and most dairy and fruits out of your diet for two weeks. After two weeks you move to phase II and you can add certain things like fruits, a few more veggies, and certain starches back into your diet. After that its on to phase three which is the healthy way of eating that you are supposed to maintain for the rest of your life. We went grocery shopping tonight to get all the healthy stuff we would need for this diet and our bill came to $346 which is about $175 more than I usually spend on groceries for us. Why the hell does it cost so much to eat healthier? That alone almost put an end to my plans to do a diet because I was that close to having a heart attack right there at the register.
On top of the diet I have started exercising on my treadmill. Yesterday I walked/ran/jogged for a mile. Today I did just over two miles. I am planning on doing at least 2 miles a day from now on. Doing the treadmill thing is actually not that bad except it makes my right foot hurt so bad I want to chop it off. The reason for this is because I have a huge painful bunion that causes me to walk on the outside of my foot to alleviate the pain in the bunion but that doesn't work because it makes it feel like I'm about to stress fracture my entire foot. I really need to see a podiatrist to see what I can do about getting my feet fixed but I've been putting it off since most likely it will be the right foot I'll need to do first and if this is the case I'll have to wait until next year to get it done because I can't get surgery on my driving foot and get it all bandaged up and have no way to work. I can't expect Chris to drive me to work every morning until my foot heals.
So I did an online weight loss calculator online. I added up the calories I generally consume in 1 day (2,400- for shame). It says to lose weight I need to create a calorie deficit. So I decided a 1,500 calorie a day diet would be good which would give me a calorie deficit of 900. Taking into consideration my current weight, my goal weight, and a calorie deficit of 900, I should reach my target weight in just over 5 months, so sometime in October I should be where I want to be. This doesn't seem too bad.
So finally I am being proactive about getting me healthy and looking decent. I am using the proactiv for my face to clear up that mess that is triggered by something here in Michigan because I didn't have acne problems when we lived in Kentucky. I am on the diet and exercising to take care of the weight issue. I have an appointment later this month to get my teeth evaluated to see what work has to be done there. I'm going to find a podiatrist and get my feet looked at sometime soon. Now all that will be left is doing something with my hair and praying that the twin towers won't be all saggy after the weight loss because then I will have to do something about that also. How did I ever let myself go this much????? Anyway I guess that doesn't matter now that I am on the road to fixing all the damage.
I wish I could be one of those people whose self esteem was not tied to the way they look but unfortunately that isn't the case. I just keep thinking that I have so many issues that would be made better if I looked and felt a little more like my old self. I will probably be horrible to deal with while getting used to this diet but hopefully it will pay off in the end.
A huge part of my wanting to get healthy is because I am extremely paranoid about developing some sort of cancer or heart disease that will kill me and take me away from Chris and Chucky. My mom, aunt and grandma all died of cancer, one of my sisters has cancer now and has been battling it for years and there is a whole myriad of other health problems from both sides of the family. I just want to get healthy and stay that way so that I am not increasing my chances of being the next one in the family to get something that can't be cured. I don't want my baby to be without his momma. Guess thats the best motivation of all for me right now. Well I am exhausted and I have about 40 pages to read on South America for my Western Geography class so I better get to it.