A new list

As I was thinking about my goals for 2010, I decided to do something a little different, so here is my list of the top 5 reasons I should NOT try to lose weight in 2010.

5. Laundry. Sweaty workout clothes really can increase the amount of laundry I have to do and who needs that?

4. Clothes. Let's face it, belts only help so much. If I lose too much weight, I will have to buy new clothes. Who needs cute new fashions a size or two smaller than I'm used to? Not me. I'm perfectly happy with the sweat pants and big t-shirts that I already have.

3. Frequent trips to the grocery store. Fruits and veggies only stay fresh for a few days, while Twinkies have a shelf life of like 125 years. Need I say more?

2. I might lose my "mom" look. Right after I started losing weight, my son offered me come candy and when I turned him down and told him that I was trying to lose weight he said "Why? You're skinny enough for a mom." I certainly wouldn't want to embarrass my kids by being "hot". :)

1. I'm afraid the staff at my favorite Chinese buffet will forget my name!

So there you have it, the reasons why I shouldn't lose weight in 2010. Once I remove my tongue from my cheek, maybe I'll come up with a better list for tomorrow.

Happy New Year everyone!

My 30 day challenge

Today was the day. Earlier this month I challenged myself to see if I could work out for 30 days in a row and I am happy to say that today was day 30! I did it! I wanted to do this to prove to myself that there is always time in my day to exercise. I figured that if I could find the time to do it every day even in the midst of the Christmas shopping and the wrapping and the visiting and the baking and everything else that comes with this time of the year, then I have no excuse for not working out any other time of the year. Does this mean I plan to exercise every day for the rest of my life? Probably not, but I think more often than not, I will be working out.

I have to say that I have felt great for the past few weeks. I've even gotten more done around the house than I normally do and I don't know if it's because I have more energy or if starting my day with exercise makes me want to stay active throughout the day. I also know that exercise is what kept me from gaining more than I did during the past week. I ate a lot of things that I have been avoiding for the past 2 months (read- chocolate, LOL!) and without the exercise each day, I'm sure yesterday's weigh in would have been much worse.

So what about tomorrow? After completing my 30 day challenge, am I planning to take the day off? Nope. I am actually hoping that we don't get more snow tonight so that I can take a nice long walk outside tomorrow. I can't believe I just typed that. If you knew me, you would know that I am not an outdoors person and when it gets cold, well, that's all the more reason to stay inside. It's been so snowy and icy that I've had to workout indoors for the past 2 days and I am ready to get back outside in the fresh (but cold) air. So keep your fingers crossed for me. There's a 4 mile path down the road that's calling my name!

Do I have to weigh in today??? LOL!

I had a great Christmas! To be honest, I had several great Christmases! We celebrated with different family members Thursday, Friday and all day yesterday. The kids had lots of fun (so did the adults-LOL) and we enjoyed good food and great company.

I have to admit that I did enjoy a little too much of the good food and though I ate plenty of veggies (when they were offered), I also indulged in lots of goodies. I did manage to get some exercise every day (even Christmas Day I managed to do a 30 minute walk) and I had a great walk (4 miles) with a friend on Saturday. I was not looking forward to my weigh in this morning, but I figured that I might as well get it over with and see just how much damage I'd done in the past week.

Drum roll, please.....I gained half a pound. I probably shouldn't be, but I'm OK with that. Of course, when I add that to the 4 pounds that my new scale has added, I'm even further away from my goal, but instead of feeling discouraged, I'm feeling motivated. I'm ready to really work hard this week and get those numbers going back in the right direction.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

New scale, new goal

I asked for a new scale for Christmas. Nothing fancy, just a digital one so I could get a more accurate weight. My old one is ancient. It's hard to read and I wasn't sure it was entirely accurate. I did get one and sure enough, my old one apparently was not accurate. I weighed myself on each one to see what the difference is and it's 4 pounds. I'm choosing to believe that my old scale was consistent, just wrong. :)

Of course, testing them today means I got a sneak peek before my weigh in on Monday. Looks like I better get off the computer and get a couple extra walks in this weekend! LOL!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Enjoy the weekend.

Can you plan for a splurge?

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and that begins my family's "Many Days of Christmas". My husband and I both come from families that tend to have big holiday celebrations. It's gotten to the point that we need several days to celebrate with everyone. Tomorrow we visit my mom, Christmas Day we spend part of the day at home and then my father and brothers join us and later we visit my grandparents. Over the weekend, we will celebrate with my husband's family (3 separate places). It makes for a wonderful holiday, but it also means tons of food and drink.

It was easy for me to "be good" at Thanksgiving. I don't like most of the food that goes along with that holiday, but Christmas is different. I know there will be many yummy things that I will want to eat that aren't exactly diet-friendly. I'm trying to decide what I want to do to enjoy myself and yet not undo what I've been working so hard for the past 2 months. I'd like to say that I will simply pass on the things that aren't healthy and make good choices all week/weekend, but I don't think that is realistic. I'm thinking that a more achievable goal is to eat what I want (in smaller quantities than normal) and try to get an extra workout in each day. Instead of doing my normal 30-60 minute walk, trying to do 2 walks instead.

I would really love to hear what everyone else does this time of year!

Yesterdays weigh in

I am happy to say that even though it wasn't a big change, it was a change in the right direction. :) I lost 1 pound last week which brings my grand total to 17 pounds. Yeah! I would really love to lose 3 more pounds by the end of the year to bring it to an even 20 pounds, but I think that might be stretching it.

My self-imposed exercise challenge is going well. I have now exercised for at least 30 minutes for 23 days in a row. A week from today I will have made it to my goal of 30 days in a row. I have to admit that when I started, I wasn't really sure I could do it, but now with only 1 week left, I think I will be able to do it with no problem.

My trip to the gym was as bad as I feared. I couldn't even find the machines I was looking for and couldn't find anyone to help me, so I wound up just getting on the EFX for 25 minutes which is fine, but I had already walked for 45 or 50 minutes that morning, so I wasn't looking for more cardio, I wanted to do some strength training. I think the Y offers a program for people "new" to working out that I am going to take advantage of. Once I get a feel for the equipment, I don't think I'll have a problem using it. Until then, I am doing squats and lunges at home, so hopefully that is better than nothing. :)

Getting over my gym-phobia

TMI ALERT - This post may contain more information than you want to know. LOL!

Believe me when I tell you that looking at myself naked is something I usually try to avoid. So I don't know what possessed me yesterday, but I caught a glimpse of myself getting out of the shower and decided to take a look. My first thought was "Wow, my boobs are really gone." (LOL-see post from last weekend). On the good side, I really could tell that I'm losing weight, my waist and hips did actually look a bit smaller. Then I turned around to take a look at my butt. Hmm, I'm pretty sure that's not where that's supposed to be! OK, it's getting smaller, but uh, it seems to be a bit (what's a nice way to say this?) droopier than it used to be. :)

OK, so I guess I know for sure, I've got to hit the weights. I know adding strength training is good for you for so many reasons (bone density, boosting metabolism, improving overall strength, etc.) and I knew it was something I was going to need to incorporate in order to feel healthy and strong, but I've been putting it off. Why? I've developed a fear of going to the gym. I know it's stupid, but it's there. It's been so long since I've been there that I'm sure they don't even use the same equipment I used to use. I know I can ask someone and the people working there will be perfectly happy to help me and tell me which machines I need (can they point me to the one that will magically lift and firm my butt-LOL), but I'm still avoiding the gym. Why is that? Well, whatever the reason, it ends today. My 15 year old wants to lift while he's on break and since the school's weight room isn't open, he wants me to take him to the Y. So that's where I'll be. I'm hoping that once I start going (he wants to go at least 3 times each week), I'll just want to keep going. Were any of you worried about going to the gym when you first started working out? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Let's tighten those belts

You see it on the news and read it in the headlines. In this economy, everyone is "tightening their belts". Well today I literally had to tighten my belt.

My waist and my butt don't match. Seriously, it's like they belong to 2 different people. I have a funny story to illustrate that fact. I've always had a horrible time finding jeans to fit me well. If they fit my legs and hips, the waist is always way too big. Many years ago, Levi's came out with the "Personal Pair". Is anyone else old enough to remember these? The idea was you would go to their store and they would measure you and make a pair of jeans to fit you perfectly. My husband saw the ad for it and took me to the store to get a pair. He figured that if they actually fit, I could just order a bunch of them and stop getting so frustrated when I went shopping. At the time, I was probably about as thin as I have ever been, so it seemed like a good idea. So I go in and the clerk starts taking my measurements and when she's done, she has to put them into her computer. She has this odd look on her face and says, "I have to measure you again, apparently I have one of the numbers wrong". She measures me again and puts the numbers (which were exactly the same as the first time) into the computer. Guess what, the computer tells her that it's not possible to make me a pair of jeans that will fit correctly. The discrepancy between my hips and my waist was so big that it couldn't be done. So much for hubby's plan to not get frustrated when shopping for jeans. Hearing that it's not even possible to have jeans custom made is pretty darned frustrating! LOL! But I digress.

Anyway, today I was putting on a pair of jeans that I bought about a month ago after I had lost about 10 pounds. I've always needed a belt with them because even though they fit nicely in the hips and thighs, the waist was always too big. I guess "need" is not really the right word to use because believe me, even if they decided to slide down my waist, I've got the ultimate stopper back there. LOL! Back to my point - after I put on the belt, they still didn't feel right, so I tried the next hole in the belt and voila! They felt perfect.

I am really working on celebrating these small achievements. Finding the motivation to workout when there is so much to do for the holidays or the will power to pass up the cookies that seem to be everywhere can be hard. I find that when I let myself enjoy these little victories, it makes it that much easier to do the things I need to do to get to the next achievement. Enjoy the small stuff! It makes getting to the big stuff more fun!

Counting calories

So I'm doing pretty well with exercising. I'm doing at least one 30 minute walk every day and trying to add another walk/video most days. The one thing I have no idea about is how to figure out how many calories are in something that is homemade. I made chicken soup yesterday, but I have no idea how many calories are in a serving. I know some of you are great at keeping track of all of your calories, so I'm looking for some help from you. Is there a website or some other source you use to figure that out? Thanks in advance for your help!

Have a great weekend!

I need blogging help

Hello blogger friends! I need some techincal help this morning. I have been trying to add a weekly progress chart to my page, but I can't get the text to line up well (as you can see). I know several of you have very nice progress charts, so if anyone wants to tell me how to do that, I would really appreciate it!

I hope everyone is doing well! I have been sticking to at least 1 walk every day and as of today I have made it 18 days in a row. I am shooting for 30 days (I didn't really think about Christmas being one of the days when I set that goal-OOPS). My kids are out of school after tomorrow, so I am looking forward to making my walks 60 minutes instead of 30 minutes (I will no longer have to squeeze it in between getting kids on the bus) and I may even head over to the gym for some weight training. Woo hoo. :)

To bake or not to bake, that is the question

It's that time of year, time to bake. I am not a person who just loves to be in the kitchen baking all day, but at the holidays I do like to spend some time baking. My kids like it and I like to have cookies and treats for people who stop by. I think this is the first holiday season that I've ever been trying to lose weight (at least as actively as I am now), so trying to have a "regular" Christmas and not tempt myself with a bunch of cookies that I shouldn't be eating is new. I feel like two different people with very different outlooks on this topic, the mom who bakes all kinds of things during the holidays and the dieter who does not have a house full of desserts. I've been having a little debate with myself about it, but I haven't come to a decision yet. It sounds something like this-

The "Mom" me - Of course we're going to bake cookies. What's wrong with you? Your family wants to have cookies, so we're going to make them.
The "Dieting" me - Yeah, that's a good idea, NOT! Why don't we make 10 or 20 dozen cookies so we can just undo everything we've done in a matter of days?
Mom - So what, you want to be the skinny scrooge? You just want to ruin Christmas for your family so you won't gain a pound? That doesn't sounds very motherly!
Dieting - Tough. I don't need the cookies and neither do they. They'll be perfectly happy with something else.
Mom - Like what? A tofu cake? Maybe instead of a plate of cookies, you could put out a plate of carrots. That would be a hit - YEAH RIGHT!

So basically, this is what has been going on in my head for the past few days. Fun, right? :) I think I've decided that I am going to bake the cookies, but I'm going to avoid my favorites. My kids don't really care, any cookies will do and my husband's favorite holiday cookies are not ones I really love. When I decided to try and lose weight I told myself that I wasn't going to do anything that I couldn't do for the rest of my life. Honestly, I can't see going the rest of my life without eating a cookie. I am just going to have to learn how to eat one (not 3 or 4) and walk away. I'm doing very well with walking and exercising every day, so if I have one too many cookies, I'll just have to add a little extra exercise that day. That's what I'm telling myself at least. We'll see how it goes! :)

The reasons vs. the benefits

We all have different reasons for wanting to lose weight. Some people are motivated by wanting to improve their health while some want to be positive role models for their kids. I have to say that the reason behind my decision to lose weight was superficial. I was motivated by vanity.

I was sick of looking the way I looked. Tired of clothes getting tight or not being able to wear certain things and tired of not feeling good about my appearance. The big 4-0 is looming (well, it's over a year away, but it's there!) and I decided that I didn't want to get there and look like this.

Over the past 2 months, I have realized something. When you decide to lose weight, you get all the benefits, no matter what your motivation is. Losing 16 pounds (so far) has definitely improved how i look (I'm short, so even 5 or 10 pounds makes a difference), but it also improved the way I feel. I have more energy and I typically feel great all day. Other people may have decided to lose weight for health reasons, but as they lose weight and get healthier, they look better too.

Whether you want to look better, be healthier or be a good role model, when you lose weight, you get all of that. So let's enjoy ALL of the benefits we are getting (whether we wanted them or not-LOL). We've earned them!

Weigh in results

Today was my weekly weigh in and I am so happy to have reached a personal milestone. I am halfway to my initial goal of losing 30 pounds. I call it my "initial" goal because I didn't really put a lot of thought into it when I was setting it. I was thinking that I needed to lose AT LEAST 30 pounds, so I decided to start with 30 and re-evaluate once I lost it.

I am finding that setting mini goals (lose the first 5 pounds, then the first 10, drop 1 pants size, etc.) is helping me see progress and stay motivated. The end goal can seem so big and/or far away, that some days it is easy to lose sight of it, but breaking it down into smaller steps is helping me get there (one 30 minute walk at a time-LOL!).

I'm so motivated right now, I think I'm going to go for another walk! :)

Some sparkling motivation

For Christmas 11 years ago (right after I gave birth to our second son), my husband gave me 2 diamond anniversary bands, one "from" each of my sons. His intention was to replace my wedding band and for me to wear one of the new rings on each side of my engagement ring. I had gained so much weight with my son that I had stopped wearing my wedding rings several months earlier, so he took them to the jewelry store so he would know what size to buy. Needless to say that the size he got did not fit me since I had barely lost any of the baby weight at that point. I wasn't worried since I had lost all of my baby weight with my first son, I did not expect to have any trouble that time either (boy was I wrong!). After a year or so of not wearing my rings, he finally persuaded me to have them re-sized so I could wear them. I decided to only do 1 of the bands so I would at least have something to wear, but in my mind, if I did them both it was like giving up and admitting that I would never lose that weight.

OK, so it took me 11 years, but I'm finally doing it. As I was putting on my rings yesterday, I noticed that they were a bit loose. I don't know why, but it made me wonder if there was any chance that I could wear the second band, the one that I didn't have sized, the one that is the same ring size I wore when we got married. I am so happy to say that I got it on easily. I actually don't wear my wedding rings every day, but I have been wearing them pretty much non-stop since yesterday. It's not that I suddenly love to wear the rings. I am using them as sparkly motivation. Every time I look down at them, I am reminded that I can only wear them because of the changes that I am making. When I thought about not going for my walk today because it was cold and rainy, I looked down, put on a hat and jacket and got my butt out the door.

My weekly weigh in is tomorrow, and I'm hoping to hit a personal milestone, but even if I don't, I think I'll keep wearing the rings for a while to help keep me moving forward (plus they're pretty-LOL).

Bye bye boobies

It's Saturday and I'm in a silly mood (maybe I'm just slap-happy from lack of sleep), so today's post is a tribute to the collateral damage of my weight loss - my boobs. :)

I'm a pear. No, not the fruit, the body type. You know, you can be an apple, a pear, a banana or an hourglass (notice the hourglass is the only one without a stupid fruit name, but that's another story). When I was younger, I was closer to being an hourglass, my hips were always bigger than my chest, but the measurements were close (well, closer than they are now). I thought that after having kids, I might get an increase in my chest, but guess what happened? You got it, with each kid, my chest got smaller and my hips got bigger.

After having my first son, once I got back down to my normal weight, I was a little surprised to see that even though I weighed the same as before I got pregnant, my clothes didn't fit the same because my weight had "shifted" a bit. :)

That actually reminds me of a funny story. I had gone shopping and had come back extremely frustrated. I walked in the door and had this conversation with my husband -

Me - That's it! I'm getting liposuction!
Hubby - (No response, just staring at me not sure what to say)
Me - I'm sick of not being "even". I can't find a dress that fits me at all anymore! My top half and my bottom half are about 2 sizes different so when I try on a dress, if the top fits, the bottom is too tight and if the bottom fits, the top is too big. I am not going to be stuck wearing separate tops and skirts for the rest of my life! I am making an appointment with a plastic surgeon tomorrow to discuss having liposuction on my butt!
Hubby - Don't do that.
Me (yelling, or at least speaking very loudly-LOL) - Did you not hear what I just said?!?! I can't take this!
Hubby - No, I heard you and I get it. I don't have a problem with you wanting to be even, but I like your butt, don't make it smaller, just make your boobs bigger! (MEN-UGH! - LOL)

So until about a month ago, even though I didn't have plastic surgery, I finally had boobs again. Why? Because ever since I had my youngest son, I've been at least 30 pounds overweight!

I know that typically the last place you gain weight is the first place you'll lose weight, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise that my chest was the first place I lost inches. It shouldn't surprise me that it's one of the places I've lost the most (as far as inches go) so far, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

I suppose if the only way for me to keep "the girls" was to keep the extra weight, they just weren't worth it. I'm glad that I'm almost halfway to my initial goal of losing 30 pounds and if it means I have to go buy smaller bras, then that's what I'll have to do. Maybe once I make it to my goal weight, I'll consider taking part of my husband's advice from all those years ago. Maybe I will make my boobs bigger, but only after I make my butt smaller. :)

I guess for now, I can only bid them adieu and remember them fondly. So, bye bye boobies - you were fun while you lasted. :)

18 degrees outside and no iPod-UGH!

My day did not start off well today. I came down to discover that my teenager did not get his ice skates out of my trunk last night (even though I told him to do it 10 times during the evening and once as he was going up to bed). I found that we were out of Gatorade, so I needed to make some (even though I am the only one in the house that doesn't drink it) and when I went to get ice for his drink, I found all 4 ice trays empty (again, I am the only one in the house that never uses ice). OK, so this is really a typical morning for a mom, but for some reason, today it ticked me off. Today is also one of the mornings that I walk by myself. I obviously prefer to walk with a friend, but 3 or 4 days a week, I just grab my iPod and go alone. This morning, instead of finding my iPod where it should be, I find only my little pink earbuds. OK, that's it, now I'm really in a mood. So I'm irritated, I have no iPod and it's 18 degrees and windy outside. Am I really going to go for a walk this morning? I'm happy to say that I did!

A month or so ago, I might not have been able to find the motivation to get my butt going, but today I did. When I realized earlier this week that I had exercised 10 days in a row, I decided to challenge myself to see if I could make it at least 30 days in a row, exercising every day (for at least 30 minutes). This is a tough time of the year to do that. Schedules are even more hectic than normal, there is so much to do for the holidays and the weather may or may not cooperate with me. That's even more reason to challenge myself right now. If I can workout for 30 days in a row at this time of year, I should have no excuses for not exercising at other times of the year.

I'm trying to visualize my goal and remind myself that each time I exercise or each time I pick up an apple instead of some chips, that action got me one step closer to that goal. The more results I see, the more motivated I become. I'm just glad I found the motivation to go out today even though it was only 18 degrees and I had no iPod! LOL! :)

What a difference a day makes

I met some old friends from high school for happy hour tonight. A few months ago, I might not have wanted to go. I would have wanted to see them, but I would have been worried about what to wear, what didn't look too tight, etc. I might have gone, but I might not have. Instead of obsessing for hours about which pants don't make my butt look too big (forget it, the butt is big-LOL), I wound up going straight from work and didn't think about anything except how excited I was to see them (some of whom I hadn't seen in 20+ years).

OK, so the difference didn't come in a day, but the point is that it's coming. Losing weight is about more than the number on my scale. It's about feeling better about myself and regaining some of the confidence that I've lost over the years. I'm so glad that I started this journey because if I hadn't, I might have missed out on a wonderful experience. Over the years, I wonder how many of these moments I've missed. Probably too many. The next time I have an opportunity like this, I hope I'll remember the hours spent catching up, looking at pictures of everybody's kids and laughing so hard I almost fell out of my chair. Times like this, the random, miscellaneous, fun nights make some of the best memories. I'm looking forward to making some more!

If it's not broke, don't fix it?

I just got back from a 30 minute walk. That's 9 days in a row for me and I'm really feeling good. I am down another 3 pounds (for those of you that read yesterday's post, yes that means I did finally get on the scale to do my weigh in) and I've lost more inches too. I know from teaching fitness classes and experience (LOL) that I'm going to be hitting a plateau soon. It's just the way it goes - when you start cutting calories and increasing your exercise, you lose weight, but you will go through times when you seem to be doing everything right and aren't getting any results. That's when you have to shake things up, try a new workout, tweak the diet, or whatever.

I know that eventually I want to get to the point of working out for 60 minutes a day instead of 30, so I'm trying to figure out what I'd like to add or change to help get me there. The easiest thing to do would to be to add another 30 minute walk in each day. To be honest, I think that might be too boring to keep up for long. I do have a couple of friends that I walk with 3-4 days a week and I love those walks, but I've been walking the other days by myself and that's already a little boring. Trying to do that twice in one day may not be the way to go. Adding a short video workout might work. I think I have enough of them to rotate to keep from being bored (at least for a while). I love the idea of taking classes at the Y, so I'd like to try that. The problem there is fitting them into my work schedule which changes day to day and often changes at the very last minute.

I guess that finding a workout routine that works is like anything else in life, you try something and if it doesn't work, you try something else. The key is to keep trying different things until you find what works for you. Something you enjoy, that you can stick to and that produces the results you want. I'll let you know when I find it. :)

What the scale can't tell me

I'm seriously thinking about not doing my weigh in today. OK, "seriously" is too strong of a word. How about, I'm "considering" not doing my weigh in this morning. When I decided to lose weight, I also decided to check my weight and take measurements once a week. Monday is my day, so I should be up on the scale right now, but I'm mulling it over for now. I usually have a hard time not weighing myself in between the "official" weigh ins, so why am I hesitating today? Because there are some things that the scale can't tell me.

The scale can't tell me that I have exercised for 8 days in a row. Some of those walks were only 30 minutes, but a couple were an hour and I added a 20-30 minute video a couple of days as well. 8 days is not a lot to some people, but for someone who hasn't worked out regularly in years, it's a big deal. I felt great all week and I know it's because I was working out every day.

The scale also can't tell me that since Friday I've been wearing jeans a size smaller than I've worn in years! Were they tight? Yeah, a little. Did I have to lay on the bed and suck it in to get them zipped? Nope. Did they look painted on or did my thighs look like they were wrapped in sausage casing? No and no.

I know the scale is an important barometer of my progress, but it's not the only one. I am keeping track of my BMI and measurements as well and the scale can't tell me that since I started this journey, I've lost at least an inch and a half in each of these areas- my waist, my thighs and my hips. Of course I've lost 2 inches in my chest, but that's a topic for another day-ha ha!

The number on that scale shouldn't be the beat-all end-all. It shouldn't make or break my day, but sometimes it does. I don't want to get on the scale today and lose the feeling that I have right now. Feeling good is only increasing my motivation right now and I can't afford to lose that. If I haven't lost weight since last week, will that discourage me or will it fire me up to work harder this week? I don't know and I'm not sure I can risk finding out, so I'm putting it off for now. I'll probably end up on that scale today (it calls my name sometimes-I swear), but no matter what it says, I'm going to try really hard not to let it affect me too much either way because there are some things that the scale just can't tell me.

The natives are getting restless

I grew up with a stay-at-home mom. She loves to cook and bake and one of the things I remember about my childhood is the goodies that would be waiting for us when we got home from school. It seems that there were always cookies, brownies, cake or some other wonderful dessert in our house. My mom is not overweight and as far as I know, never has been. Even at 60+, she exercises regularly and believes in eating everything in moderation, so having all of these things around never caused a problem for her and my brothers and I were pretty active as kids, so we never had weight issues either.

I'm not a stay-at-home mom (although I play one on tv-lol) and even though I never consciously decided to become my mom, guess what? I'm like her in many ways. One of those ways is that I regularly baked cookies and other goodies for my family. That changed about a month and a half ago when I decided to lose weight. I'm not trying to "test" my will power by having a bunch of things that I shouldn't eat all over the place, so my solution is - if it's something I don't want to eat, I don't have it in the house. It's worked until now, but the natives (my husband and 2 sons) are getting restless. :)

My 15 year old is a 3 sport athlete who is actually trying to gain weight right now, my husband has unbelievable will power (not kidding-he can eat something fattening and still be hungry and instead of eating more of it, he eats a banana!) and my 11 year old has a sweet tooth that won't quit. So when my oldest son asked me the other day if we were ever going to have snacks in our house again (the fruits and veggies don't count apparently), I felt a little guilty. My first thought was to go ahead and bake some cookies and just do my best not to eat any. That was immediately followed by my second thought, which was "yeah right!". So I've decided to find a happy medium. After I finish posting this, I'm going to bake a pumpkin pie which is something I don't like at all, but the 3 of them love. They get their treat and I'm not tempted. It's a win-win situation. I'm hoping to find some more solutions like this one in the next few months. I'll let you know how it goes!

On a side note, as I posted yesterday, walking with a friend is working for me right now. My partner in crime today motivated me to walk for an hour even though it was barely 30 degrees and I have a ton of work to do today. It was well worth it, because I feel great and am looking forward to having the energy to plow through my work today! Thanks G!

A partner in crime

I am blessed to have good friends. I have friends that I've known since elementary school, ones I met at my first job or in college and those that I've met through my husband, kids, school, etc. We all have busy lives, so we may not talk or get together regularly, but I always know they are there if I need them. Many of my friends are Type A personalities (I wonder why????)- strong women who you can call in a crisis and they will have the "forces" mobilized and ready to do whatever you need done as soon as you hang up the phone. I am lucky to have one of these friends as a neighbor. Without knowing it, she is quickly becoming my role model for staying fit and leading a healthy life. I'm not sure exactly how old she is, but my guess is 10-12 years older than I am (I'm 38). Her age doesn't really matter because she looks great no matter how old she is! She exercises daily and eats well and it shows.

I have coffee one morning a week with a group of ladies that I met through the PTO and she is in this group. She has recently had circumstances that made it impossible for her to exercise for a few weeks. She mentioned at coffee a couple weeks ago that she was looking forward to getting back to her exercise routine. I told her that I was trying to walk in the mornings as well and said (as I was walking out the door of the restaurant) "If you want to walk with me some morning, give me a call." Well guess who called me the next morning at 6:45 ready to walk? :)

Right now, I am sometimes struggling to find the motivation to exercise like I know I need to, but she is making it so much easier! It's hard to blow off the 7:00am walk when you know someone is waiting for you a few houses down the street! This morning, when the alarm went off at 7:15 (we decided to "sleep in" since it is Saturday) and I didn't really want to get out of my warm bed to go outside in the 30 degree weather, she was a big part of why I did it. Walking with someone also makes the time go so fast! We talked and talked and before I knew it, we had walked for an hour and I felt great!

Walking with a friend is something that is really working for me right now, so I am thankful that I found a "partner in crime" just 2 houses down from me! She may never read this, but in case she does- THANK YOU ANN!

Getting my butt moving - finding an exercise routine to stick to

It's been 6 weeks since I made the decision to make some changes and lose some weight. The first 10 pounds came off pretty easily in about 4 weeks. I guess going from absolutely no exercise to some exercise and picking up an apple instead of a cookie (OK, who am I kidding? Let's try picking up an apple instead of 3 or 4 cookies-LOL) made a difference. But now it's going to get harder. I know that I'm never going to reach my goal if I can't find a workout plan that I can do consistantly. I am never going to be a person who can eat boiled chicken breast and steamed veggies for dinner every day, so for me, exercise is going to be the key to my weight loss.

I am struggling to find something that is challenging enough but that I can do every day (well at least 5 or 6 days a week). For the past couple of weeks, I've walked for 30 minutes in the morning in between when my oldest son leaves for school and it's time to wake the youngest one up. That seems to be working for me, but I need a little more. I thought I might add a short exercise video to the days when I only walk for 30 minutes, but I'm finding it hard to make the time for it. I've thought about taking classes at the gym, but that has been ever harder to make time for. I tell my kids all the time that you have to make choices in life and prioritize what is important. I guess that it's time to listen to my own advice and make exercising a priority in order to reach my goals.

Can I still call it baby weight when my baby goes to middle school?

About 2 months ago I had to go to the doctor. When I got on the scale, I couldn't believe the number. I knew I had been gaining weight (read-clothes getting too tight), but seeing the actual number surprised me. I hadn't been on a scale for a long time, so it was a bit of a shock. I mulled it over for a few days and decided that enough was enough. I think many women find themselves in the same position. I'm getting close to 40, I've had 2 kids and it always seems like I have too much to do and not enough time to do it.

I have never been a skinny person, but I was proportional and fit. At one time, I taught exercise classes at the Y at 6:00am before going to my "real" job. Then I gained a ton of weight with my second child and soon after he was born wound up having to have surgery on my feet. Not being able to exercise for nearly a year (2 separate surgeries), I settled into a larger size than I was used to and got out of the exercise habit. Now 10+ years have gone by and I guess it's time to make a change.

I'm starting this blog to keep myself accountable for the goals that I'm setting and hopefully to find other people in the same boat. I know there are a lot of us out there that are carrying 20-40 pounds of extra weight and while we'd like to lose it, we just can't find the time or motivation to make it a priority. Hopefully, through this journey, we can find things that work and inspire and encourage each other on our way to becoming more healthy and feeling better about ourselves.