So I never got around to taking that picture. I still plan on doing it, but I just haven't had time. The first week back at school after an extended break is soo hectic. I have been so tired all week and just couldn't summon the energy to round up Gary and Alissa to try to take the picture. But I will get it posted.

Well, for the good news. I have successfully managed to make it 5 days on my healthy eating plan. Wednesday was super duper hard for me. I'm not sure why, but every time I try to break a habit the third day is a killer. I felt so hungry all day long no matter what I ate. And I did eat. I am not one of those girls that can starve themselves to death. I need food. I just need to make healthy choices with my food. I am maintianing between 1300 and 1600 calories a day, but I'm not really counting calories. I am keeping track of what I am eating and that seems to be the range that I eat in everyday.

I also found this wonderful support web site called Buddy Slim. It has a forum where you can take part in challenges and you can meet people and become buddies to support each other. It also makes daily blogging a breeze, although I haven't started blogging yet. But my favorite part about it is the food and exercise journals. Holding myself accountable for what I eat has never been easier. If you would like to check it out, you can Join me on BuddySlim!. If you click the link and join, you will automatically become one of my buddies and we can encourage each other!

Now for the bad news. Well, its not really bad, but it is a bit depressing for me. As I said in my last post, this is a whole family effort. Gary is also eating low-fat/healthy although he is a little more lenient on the low-fat part and does more counting calories than trying for low-fat. He doesn't exercise at all. And as of today he has lost 12 lbs. That is 12 lbs. in five days folks!!! And as proud of him as I am, I can't help but be a little depressed. I do not expect weight to just melt off of me. It didn't get there overnight and it will not take more than a week to get it off. However, after his revelation this evening I decided to go ahead and weigh myself just to see. I don't think the needle has even moved!! But that's okay! It just gives me more motivation. I can't let him get healthy and sexy before I do!

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New Years Resolutions

I don't have a picture to post yet. I have a really neat idea, but it involves both Alissa and Gary. Since school starts back tomorrow (yuck!), Alissa had to go to bed early tonight. We have been letting her stay up waaaayyyy to late for two weeks! She is so not going to want to get up tomorrow! Anyway, I didn't get around to taking the picture I want, so I will be posting it tomorrow (keep your fingers crossed!).

When I started this blog, I was so excited and motivated. But it was totally the wrong time of the year to be trying to diet. Well, it could have been successful with a proper support team, but with everyone offering you cookies and holiday candy and with all the stress of getting grades in, putting up christmas decorations, & shopping, it just wasn't a great time for me.

So, I decided to just give it a break until after Christmas. Well, after the new year really because Gary took a week of Vacation starting Christmas day and we wanted to really enjoy our break. In this household, "really enjoy" means eat all the high fat foods we want! And we did too! We had so much candy after Christmas day that I didn't think we would ever get all of it eaten, but somehow we managed to suffer through it. LOL! I think I gained 15 pounds over my two week break! I'm going to go weigh myself. Hang on....

Okay, so I didn't gain 15, but I did gain 5. I shouldn't have done that (weigh myself) because know I'm kinda depressed. I have been larger than this, but I didn't get on scales during that time of my life. So this is the first time I have ever seen the needle tip over the 220 mark. I guess it's a good thing the TOMORROW is the BIG DAY. Tomorrow is the day that my whole family is beginning a new chapter in our lives. The "We want to be healthy" chapter.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to feel good about my body. But more than that, I don't want my daughter to have to suffer all of her life with weight related issues like I have. The tired legs, feet, and ankles; back aches from that extra "woman fat"; and lets not discount the emotional toll it plays. Shopping when you are overweight is so difficult. Everytime I try to buy myself something, I just get depressed. I normally leave the store in tears. Well, actually, I normally manage to keep it together to the car then fall apart and cry all the way home.

Anyway, Alissa already has that tendency, the genetics to be a little on the chubby side. When you factor in the bad eating habits that she is picking up from both Gary and me, she is doomed if we don't do something. But I don't want her to worry about weight. So we are trying to stress that we are trying to get healthy. If we lose weight, great, but mostly we just want to be healthy people.

To help us out, we have decided to make a few changes in our lifesyle. Food is obviously one of them. We will be eating low-fat. We have done this before with success, but we didn't stick with it. Why? Because it is so much easier to stop off at Burger King rather than cook from scratch. So this time I am really going to work at not making this hard work. I know that didn't make a lot of sense, but what I mean is that I am going to look for healthy things that are easy for me to fix for dinner rather than slaving in the kitchen. I want to make our new lifestyle as effortless as possible so that we will stick to it.

Another major change is our electronics limit. Gary, Alissa, and I are all techy nuts. Alissa is also a big T.V addict. We spend way to much time doing our own thing on our own computers in our on rooms. Besides the fact that we are not being active, we are not spending time together as a family. So we decided that we will limit our electronics time to an hour and a half per day. We decided on that length of time so that we could watch a movie if we wanted to. But it also makes us use our time wisely, so I probably will not be spending as much time just cruising around on flickr!

One of my changes will be getting outside and playing with Alissa. I'm not a big "outside" kind of person. Just ask my mom. When I was a kid, I was much more likely to be found in a corner somewhere reading a book than playing outside. But we don't have anyone for Alissa to play with, so I'm going to become her biggest playpal.

And I know we need to get active. I'm going to start walking in the mornings. It makes me feel so good throughout the day to start off with a little exercise. But I'm not a morning person; I don't like getting out of bed. So that brings about a whole other change: getting to sleep at a decent time. I'm going to be putting myself to bed a 10:00, lights out by 10:30 (ya know I gotta read before I go to sleep). Which brings be to yet another change: Time management. Since I am going to be going to bed so much earlier (I rarely get in bed before 12:00, seldom not until after 1:00), I am going to have to manage my time much more efficiently so that I don't get behind on housework and school stuff. I'm not good with time management, but I'm determined to get good. I've got to.

Well, I have never posted anything quite this long. LOL! I guess I just need to sort of organize my thoughts. Know I have to get ready for bed so I don't start falling behind before I ever get started!!

Until next week......

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