Catherine, Day One:

So we're kind of using today as a Welcome Lecture. (I'm a student, I have stupid analogies) You're going to know a little bit more about me, and hopefully by the end of the day, I'll know a little bit more about you.

To keep things interesting we wanted varied goals being written about in the blog. But if you are wanting to lose weight, feel free to tag along with the journey VIA the comments. I want this to be as interactive as possible.

Ok, well a little bit about me then, yeah? My name is Catherine (if you haven't gathered that already). I'm 19 years old and I live in a small Industrial town in the North of England. I have a really common (as in filthy, dirty, no bloody standards) English accent - the queen would be ashamed, truly. *Scuttles of and finds an example of someone with my accent...*
Now, obviously I'm not a man, but the way I speak is identical to this, just with a femine twinge to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WdcJYEWLnc

And really, if we're going down the routes of being common. I am. My Step-Dad is a Steelworker (No.1 industry in Scunthopre, don'tchu know?), my Mum is a Checkout Operator and me? Well, I'm a full time student, working under my Mother's shadow part time. Yuh, I work at a supermarket on the weekends, constantly annoying my Mum with how much cooler I am than her. It's just fact Mum, deal with it. I think sometimes I come off as really confident and/or arrogant, but my sense of humour is really, really, really dry and sarcastic, and sometimes I don't think people know whether to take me seriously or not. Like, when I serve dirty chavs at work and tell them the shell suit they're wearing is beautiful - they don't know whether to hit me or thank me. Most of the time they should lean towards smacking me up the head, but that beautiful bright pink tracksuit I saw the other day, really was beaut.

I have no verbal filter, but for this, I'm trying to keep everything PG-13 (or 12A if you're from the UK, jeez, Americanisms).

So really, you've learned nothing about me thus far, except that I'm working class, I have a terrible accent and I'm super sarcastic. Really, I'm just an average girl. I'm studying History at University, which I think is funny because I hated History at school and didn't do it at GCSE, and I only did it at college because I needed an extra subject... I also volunteer with a bunch of kids in the Council Estates round here, in a project called DreamScheme, it's pretty cool really. I'm a pretty closed-off person in real life. Online I am so open about anything, nothing held back, but in real life, there are only a handful of people outside my family that know anything substantial about me. I'm an expert at deflecting conversations and I've grown to really enjoy my own company. I'm a loner, but never lonely. I don't trust very easily and I don't make new friends easily either. I've had the same best friends for 7 years...

If we're going to be honest. I'm stuck in a terrible rut. And that's another reason why I'm so excited about this blog. I can't wait to shake things up and do some new things. Yes, my primary goal is to lose weight but I want to experience things I've never done before too. I want to do a high rope challenge, I want to go hiking in the Yorkshire Moors and I would love, love, love to start some kind of dance lessons. But it's all one thing at a time of course. Today we're going to start simple... I'm taking salad to work instead of buying chips and crap from the canteen and I'm going to walk the 4 miles to work. I'm not going to fall off the bandwagon. I'm making this promise to you right here and now.

Now, I'm not going to weigh myself again until October 16th. I don't want to get obsessed with numbers... But for a before and after type of thing, here are all my current measurements:

Current Weight: 172lbs
Current Inner Thigh: 25"
Current Bum: 44"
Current Waist: 34"
Current Chest: 43"

I can't wait to get to know all of you as we do this journey. Good luck.