Cenula Valeo; My journey to good health begins

My name is Briana and I created this blog as a way of sharing with my friends, family and the world, my journey to health and good eating. I chose two latin words to name my blog. I think they fit nicely for what I intend to do.

Cenula - [a little meal]
Valeo -[to be strong , vigorous, in good health]

I put them both together and with a little wordplay (*wink*) we have Cenula Valeo; By small and simple meals are good health and wellness brought to pass.


So what is it I intend? First some background!

As some of you may know, I've been diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). Finally finding out what was wrong was a huge relief to me and now I'm on a mission to control it. PCOS prevents me from ovulating which in turn prevents me from becoming pregnant. My husband and I have wanted to have kids for a while now and we hope that this journey will take us in that direction. My loving hubby is joining me on this path to health.

First order from my doctor was to get exercise. We have no excersize equipment at home and with winter looming ahead of us we deemed it practical to put a gym membership in the budget. We found a great SnapFitness center just a few minutes away. The staff, atmosphere and equipment are perfect for what we need. And to top it off, we got a free personal consultation with a personal trainer who spoke with us, tested us and then showed us what we needed to do to reach our goals. Right now Mon, Wed, Fri we are doing a hard workout with strength training and cardio. Tue, Thur and sometimes Saturday we just spend 45 minutes on the treadmill in a 'long cardio' session. My meal plans are now done accordingly with more sustaining foods and snacks for hard workout days.

The second order from the doctor was to begin a weight-loss diet program. The doctor was not specific and after spending a week trudging through diet plans and meal options online I decided to go with the tried and true calorie counting method. To be honest, counting calories did not sound like fun. And it isn't. But it's free and it is pretty easy. There are tons of free tools out there to help me on my way.

I found, for the last three weeks that we've been carefully counting calories, that if I'm going to go through all this work of meal planning and excersize....then I might as well share it with everyone. So if you're looking for some help planning healthy meals or just need an idea for dinner tonight because you're totally brain-dead...then look no further! Feel free to stop by anytime and see what we're having for breakfast lunch and dinner this week or to just stay in touch with us on our journey.

We began our workout on Oct 17th. I weighed in at 263 pounds. I plan to weigh in once a week from here on out to keep track of how I'm doing. My goal is 100 pounds by the end of June 2010 (and hopefully loose my batwing arms too!)

We began our meal planning about 2-3 weeks ago, keeping in mind our budget and doing our best to shop healthy and shop the sales. My daily calorie goal is 1100-1550 per day.