The Reason for this Blog:

Conversation with my 4-year-old son the other day:

Him: "Mommy, you're going to have a baby."
Me: "Nooo...I'm not."
Him: "But, your belly is fat."
Me: >Long Exasperated Sigh< "I'm not pregnant...I'm just fat."

OK, I am NOT fat, but I could be leaner, healthier, and not so exhausted all the time!

Here's my story:

Just like most women, I gained quite a bit of weight with my first pregnancy, and then didn't lose all of it afterwards. Let's see...at 5 feet tall, I weighed around 120 lbs when I first got pregnant five years ago. Then, by the time my first son was about 18 months old, I weighed 135. At that point, I finally got motivated enough to start reducing calories and exercising. I lost 20 pounds, then found out I was pregnant again. After my second son was born in 2006, I worked hard and lost twenty pounds again in about 6 months. In January of 2007 I weighed around 114 lbs and I felt great!

After that, I'm not sure what happened. Actually, I know exactly what happened. We went on a trip to my in-laws house for Christmas and I got sick with a nasty sinus infection that left me feeling quite horrible for a long time. I got out of my normal routine completely: I stopped exercising, got a little depressed, and started giving in to all those cravings for yummy things that I had been suppressing for so long. Slowly but surely the weight crept back on. Now, almost two years later, I am up to 128 lbs. Luckily, I'm not as heavy as I have been before, but I think I lost a lot of muscle mass when I stopped doing Pilates/yoga and weight training. And I seem to be collecting the majority of fat right around my waist and hips. Of course, my stretched out baby tummy likes to hang on to every fat cell it can find!

So, here's my ultimate goal: I want to lose weight, feel stronger, and feel energetic again. I did it before (twice), and I can do it again. And, my husband wants to also. Somehow, I'll get him involved in this plan, but I'm not sure how yet. His schedule is a little more complicated than mine with work and everything.

I will discuss more specifically how I will accomplish my ultimate goal with smaller more manageable goals in the next post.

I'm giving myself until the release date for the new Twilight movie to lose 13 lbs. That is about 1 lb per week weight loss, which is doable with the right amount of exercise and meal planning. The countdown for my weight loss and the movie will be on the sidebar of this blog.

My posts will track my daily weight, exercise, and food intake (based loosely on the Weight Watchers point system that I tried several years ago - it really works!). Here's to a new healthy lifestyle!