Day 1

My name (just so you know it's not Allyria) is not inportant in this journey.  What is important is that you know I really need to lose weight and need to start today.  Why today? 
I just looked at a picture that was taken of me and wow...  How could I not have seen how big I've gotten?  It can be so easy to not to notice those extra 5 poounds here and the extra 5 pounds there, but when it's eventually 95 pounds.  Well, that's a different story.. 

Here are the facts:
5'6" and 225 pounds = 95 pounds overweight
I balance a full time job, a wonderful husband and a beautiful preteen.

I could come up with multilpe reasons why I'm overweight, but bottom line it's lack of motivation.  However, this picture is the start of that motivation.  My plan is to start with my biggest challenge, my nemisis, PEPSI.  I start the morning with a 32 oz and then have at least 2 - 12 oz cans throughout the rest of the day.  I might drink 1 - 8 oz glass of water a day, but more times than not that doesn't even happen.  I dont know how everyone else has kicked this bad habit and welcome your ideas.  For now I'm going to slowly cut down on my intake of pepsi and replace it out with water.
In addition to this, I'm going to go to a gym 2-3 nights a week with a friend.
I know that I will need to eventually start doing more excerising and also cutting down on the junk food.  Let's see how this first step goes and we can go from there.

I would love to get any feedback you may have.  I need all the motivation I can get.