When I started this journey, the goal was for it to be a true jumpstart. Not a start and end. A START to a healthy lifestyle. I think what I’ve been most excited about these last few weeks, as I’ve seen the pounds come off and my strength increase, is how forward I am looking to what’s next.

I certainly have come a long way, but have a long way to go to get to where I want to be. At the risk of sounding dramatic, this program has changed my life, and I know that a lot of that is to do my own hard work and commitment, and that’s what I’m most proud of: that I set out to do it, and with the right team and tools, I DID IT. :-)

So no more suspense, I know you’re all here for the half-naked before and after pics. This morning we took my final pics, weight and measurements, and here are the cold hard results:

Weight

173 to 163

Net loss: -10lbs 

Measurements

Waist: 33 to 31

Hips: 45 to 41

Arms: 12 to 11

Net loss: -7 inches

BMI / Body Fat

Body Fat: 32.3 to 29.6

BMI: 28.5 to 26.3

And my favorite pics from today:

I can’t thank you guys enough for encouraging me along this journey to fitness and health. Your comments meant more to me than I can express. And I absolutely could not have done this without my amazing team Bella and Elana from Bella Body Fitness and TruMeals! Partners in my success!

But it doesn’t stop here though. I’ll be continuing the program with a new list of recruits who have signed up for the first group session of JumpStart 2012 which begins on Monday morning.

Are you ready to JumpStart, too? Join us!

Progress update for end of week 2:

Down 6lbs.

Lost 2 inches.

Oh hell, yes.

Now, you didn’t think I wasn’t going to share my PHOTOS did you? I promised I would and here goes. (As I squeeze my eyes shut and hope this never turns up on an internet search of my name):

Elana and her Yummy, Healthy Party Food

I’ll be posting a few more videos this week. So stay tuned for that.

Thank you so much for all your encouragement. It’s what’s really kept me going. That, AND that I can now fit into my size 10 jeans again:

One size down!

I’m down 3lbs after the first week, WOO-HOO and it feels GREAT to see some results. I was terrified I hadn’t lost any, or worse, gained. I am very proud of my first week’s progress and it’s thanks in part to my team of experts. Here’s who’s helping me succeed:

Bella Barak, Personal Trainer
Bella Body Fitness Studio 

Bella is ma gurl. I mean, for realz. This motivating, spitfire of a trainer has helped me for months believe in myself, and burn burn burn. 

Bella Barak is a certified trainer who developed the Bella Body Fitness method through years of research and study of muscle mechanics, as well as a growing frustration with the typical male-focused gym scene in Houston. Wanting a more feminine approach to body development, she designed a method of training that caters specifically to a woman’s body.  Seeing her client’s bodies transform from thick or scrawny to streamlined and defined inspired Bella to open a studio for women who want an escape from the heavy machines and male-dominant environment that rarely produce desirable results. BBF clients train in a private, feminine studio with bands, physio balls, free weights, steps and sliders to sculpt sexy, toned curves

Elana Vey, Nutritionist

Elana is a monster in the kitchen. No, really. This girl can make ANYTHING healthy. AND she brews her own Kombucha Tea from an organism she buys on Etsy. No, REALLY.

Bella Body Fitness Nutrition Consultant Elana Vey is a certified nutritionist and serious foodie with a knack for creating deliciously healthy recipes for busy multi-taskers like herself.

Elana inspires women to eat foods that make them happy, energized and motivated to live healthy every day.

Find her recipes, nutrition tips and more on the BellaBodyFit.com blog.

TruMeals
www.TruMeals.com

Seriously what has kept me sane for the last week in a half. I’ve tried a LOT of these healthy meals places. Hands down Tru Meals is the best I’ve ever had. I’ll be posting more and some video from Tru Meals later this week. YUM-O!

Tru Meals is a fresh local diet meal program designed for the purpose of weight loss and healthy living.
All your meals are prepared with the finest ingredients available for optimal taste and greater nutritional benefit. Your meals are hand-crafted daily by our experienced chefs in our state-of-the-art-kitchen & delivered fresh to your door!

TRU MEALS ALWAYS USES:

• All Natural Antibiotic & Hormone Free Meats
• Sustainably Farmed Wild & Line Caught Fish
• Seasonal Vegetables & Whole Fruits

TRU MEALS NEVER:

• Uses Dehydrated or Shrink Wrap Methods
• Uses Processed Foods or Fillers
• Adds Preservatives or Additives
• Adds Artificial Sweeteners

We’ve got a few videos planned for the week and I’ll also be sharing my first 2 weeks before and after pic. TERRIFIED. But I told y’all I would, so I promise to. ;-)

Thanks for the support! More soon!

A few of the recipes are listed below. And you can print out a cute recipe card that Elana made here.  I plan to try a few this week for Thanksgiving, let me know if you do, too!

I keep thinking of an issue of Oprah’s “O” magazine a few years ago. She had herself on the cover, after she had gained back all the weight she had lost. She posed the question “How did I get back here?” After years of struggling with her weight, she had lost a significant amount, only to gain it all back a year later.  Well, I’m no Oprah, but what I do share with the Queen of Talk is the struggle, not to lose weight, but to keep it off.

I can’t think of a time in my life when I didn’t think about my weight. I’ve always been a fairly active person, but my schedule, work, life has made it difficult to stick with a routine long enough to maintain a healthy balance. The older I get, the harder I find it to lose the weight. Where as a few years ago, 3 step classes a week and some meal skipping would work just fine, these days my body’s like, “Um, I don’t think so.”

A Pledge to Gain Health

So, it’s with some excitement and even more terror, I’ve decided to embark again on a quest to become healthier. Not to lose 20 lbs, or to fit in a size 6, but to be healthier, and to stop thinking so much about weight all the time. Last week, I began my journey, with a team of health and fitness professionals, who are just as committed as I am to help me GAIN health, and LOSE complacency.

A few years back I dabbled in weight loss techniques. South Beach Diet, Body for Life, cleanses, workout trends, Dance Your Ass of dance classes. And while all of these things offered a short term solution, nothing seemed to provide a solution that helped me maintain a routine that worked with my life.

Wrong Turn

I remember attending a Weight Watchers meeting once with a guest speaker. Something she said has stuck with me for years, each time I’ve tried to begin a new routine. She compared starting a weight loss journey to that of a road trip. If you set out on a road trip, and suddenly realize you made a wrong turn, you don’t decide to turn around on Monday, or on the 1st, or after the weekend. Why? Because the further you continue on the wrong road, the further away you get from the right road.

All too often I hear others, and I’ve been guilty of it myself, say that “oh i’ll start my diet on Monday,” or on the 1st of the month, or January 1st. The problem with this thinking is that the longer you wait to start, the further behind you get. So, last Wednesday, not on Monday, not on the 1st of the month, I began a new journey. Because I’ve been on the wrong road for far too long.

For the next 6 weeks or so, until the end of 2011, I’ll be an active participant in a plan that I’ve helped create. A plan that includes a personal trainer, a nutritionist, and a healthy food company. Crazy right? Starting a healthy living campaign during the holidays? Why not wait until January 1st like the rest of the world? Because it’s time. It’s time to jumpstart my healthy life. I can’t wait any longer. And rather than start off 2012 with the average weight gain of 8-10lbs, I wanted to start the new year fresh with a positive GAIN. A gain of confidence that I can continue my journey through the new year.

By no means am I expecting a miracle. I know that in terms of lifestyle change and weight loss 6 weeks is not a long time. I don’t have a goal weight to reach by the end of the year, although fitting into a few more of my winter clothes would be a nice ancillary benefit. :-)

What I hope to gain by this process is this:

1.) Kickstart a healthy lifestyle BEFORE the new year starts

2.) Inspire others in my same position to do the same

3.) Find a healthy, maintainable routine that works for me for the long term

Here’s where you come in

Surely I’ll have ups and downs, and struggles, and days I miss workouts, and days I eat 2 breakfast tacos instead of a bowl of fruit. But I’m human, and I’m ok with that. I want YOU to see my struggles. I want YOU to encourage me and to hold me accountable. So I will be sharing all of it with you. Weight, measurements, PICTURES (oh yes, scary right?), videos, recipes, workouts, tips, and pretty musch anything I do that I think will help someone else out. Because life doesn’t happen alone, and healthy living shouldn’t either.

I’ll be posting pretty frequently over the next few weeks, along with guest posts from my Jumpstart Team of Professionals. I’ll be introducing the team this week.

To subscribe to blog updates you can do so by signing up here.

Wish me luck! Here we go, y’all.

Kurt, director of Camp For All explains the concept of “Selfish Selflessness” as one getting more out of an act of selflessness than the recipient. Before Kurt, a guy named Gandhi said it best, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

So why, after sitting though 8 hours of inspirational talks, surrounded by my friends, colleagues, and beloved Houstonians am I struggling to make sense of why I feel so tormented, and not high as a kite?

I think I know.

Ya see, about 6 months ago. I hit a wall. Emotionally, socially, work, personally, I reached the end of my rope, and there wasn’t much there but a few frayed ends and an exhausted, lost entrepreneur. I started to question everything. I lost confidence, probably mostly due to the lack of sleep and sanity I was experiencing. After two somewhat successful years of running my first startup company, I couldn’t see what the next year looked like. And it kinda freaked me out.

End of the year, people always ask “so what’s 2011 look like for you?”, “Any big projects?”, “Whatcha working on?” I found myself uncomfortable answering these questions as I didn’t know the answers. I’d make stuff up, or casually change the subject to avoid the conversation. Truth be told I was UNINSPIRED.

2010 was an amazing year for me professionally. I collaborated with some of the most respected creatives in Houston (which also happen to be some of my closest friends) on projects such as Houston’s 1st WordPress WordCamp, the inaugural AMP Summit in D.C., and Houston’s Midtown 10 year celebration and Block Party. I traveled monthly to Los Angeles to help a community of Zen Buddhist practitioners discover the internet and the power of social media. I trained numerous small businesses on finding a voice for their company online, and I helped out with Houston’s inaugural TEDxHouston in June of 2010.

Personally, I was fortunate enough to discover one of my favorite places to visit in Texas: Marfa, and have made many trips back since. It’s sure to become a staple in my travel life from now until I can stand sitting in a car for 10 hours. I continued to help my family raise our adopted 2 year old cousin, an experience that had me at home for 18 months living with my parents at age 31.

Yet in December, as projects wound down, collaborators moved on to new work, I had moved out of my parents house and back to my beloved Museum District apartment, I found myself empty, tired, and uninspired. Contemplating as an entrepreneur can be a very lonely feeling. Sure, I’m surrounded by tons of people to support me daily. In fact, a group of 4 fellow colleagues right in my office. However, I struggled with being able to find answers from others, and started to look inward.

So I decided to make some changes. Not those end of the year Im-gonna-lose-80-lbs-by-memorial-day changes, but changes spurred by my inability to reach happiness from professional success. Now, I use “success” as a term to describe my opportunity to work on projects I believe in, and of course, pay my rent; not as a term of financial success. Hell, I’m lucky if there’s a 2 digit number in my savings account today.

I made a few promises to myself at the end of 2010: I’d try to spend more time with the people who’ve loved me longer than 5 years. I’d try to be nicer to my heart both emotionally and physically. I’d try to rest more, relax more, laugh more, and live more in the moment, and not for the next day, week, or month.

In January 2011 I hired my first employee. Someone who has changed my life immensely, whether she knows it or not. This one step allowed for me to achieve my promises. I had more time to relax. I had more time to be healthy. SLEEP  MORE. Eat better. Remind my gym that I was still a member. I visited my family more. Took my friends to Marfa, and even found some room for love in my heart.

But at the expense of all of these changes came the very thing that has brought me to this morning’s feeling of guilt. The last 6 months, whether recognizable or not, I have pulled back. Socially I attend less events. I tweet less. I don’t follow as many. Mentally I’m taking on projects that don’t require extraordinary things from me. Physically I’m not volunteering to help with near as many projects. I had a drastically reduced role on this year’s TEDxHouston committee, another issue that causes me guilt.

But yesterday, a shift occurred in me. More like a kick. I felt some inspiration return. I felt excited, proud, hopeful. After these emotions came the guilt, fear, and selfishness. But as Kurt suggested, I believe these emotions can co-exist. Excitement often does come with fear. And inspiration often comes with a sense of guilt: WHERE DO I START?

I’m working on that question, and as I am trying to figure it out, a few key ideas stuck with me from yesterday:

Houston’s a BADASS. Just ask Laura Spanjian of Green Houston. And we have the power and resources to teach others.

Innovation and CREATIVITY are needed to fix the problems that Politics and blind Capitalism created. Loved Constance Adams’ shout out to etsy!

We need to all focus our energy on ENERGY. For realz, y’all. This ain’t a politician’s documentary that exists in a parallel universe. It’s here.

We need to rediscover our CONVICTIONS and not be afraid to show them, ya know? Thank you, thank you, @PastorChrisSeay.

Small things can do BIG THINGS with science. Just ask Dr. Wade Adams.

If you aren’t getting the answers you want to solve a problem, CHANGE THE QUESTIONS. Angela Blanchard of Neighborhood Centers reminded us that you can’t fix on top of broken.

After 8 hours of inspiring talks, performances, discussions, and surprises, the day ended with one single outstanding young man poetically giving his premonition for the future. A raging, descriptive, horrific account of the RED our planet will become if we don’t go GREEN.

And when his powerful words were completed, he uttered two of the most prolific, digestible ideas of the entire day:

Buy a water filter to avoid plastic bottles, and unplug your appliances when they are not in use.

TWO SIMPLE IDEAS THAT MADE 8 HOURS OF INSPIRATION ACHIEVABLE.

So that’s where I’m gonna start.  Where will YOU go from here?

Happy Birthday, Mom.

In a million years, and a thousand Facebook walls, I’ll never be able to tell you what you mean to me. But I can try. Everyday.

I love you.

Happiest of birthdays, and many more.

Love,

Monica

p.s. Drop my mom a line today to tell her happy birthday: DD@hellocolab.com

This kid is rad. She gets radder everyday.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star from Monica Danna on Vimeo.

Peace Out from Monica Danna on Vimeo.

Texas Pie Company, Kyle, TX

Laura and I were celebrating the 1 year anniversary of both of our blind leaps into the world of entrepreneurship. Last April 15th, both Laura and I quit our corporate jobs, and headed into a world of the unknown. And neither of us has looked back since.

The last year has been a blast, to say the least. It’s taken me from Soho in NYC to SLC in UT. On a road trip across the country, working on the campaign of our next Texas Governor, and meeting countless number of new friends and clients. Whew. It feels like it’s been 5 years.

At our recent Block Party with my partners, Primer Grey, we installed a quote on the bathroom wall, just visible as you glance in the mirror. “Are you where you’d hoped to be ten years ago.”

I’m not sure how many people can answer this questions with an honest “Yes.” But I know I’m lucky to be one of them.

—

I’m unpacking tonight, and re-packing for Marfa, TX in the morning. I’ll be taking a group of media to the sleepy west Texas town on a press junket as part of promotion for John Demers novel, Marfa Shadows.

I’m not sure if I even remember where I thought I’d be a year from today, but I’m pretty sure the answer wasn’t Marfa, TX.  Wonder where I’ll be headed April 15, 2011?