Beach Body '08

Since I have been slacking on my weight loss goals lately, I thought it might be good to put my intentions in writing and post them for all the world (ok, all twelve of you) to read.

In the past year or so, I've lost almost 30 pounds. Almost. I started 2007 weighing almost 170 pounds, and now I weigh about 143, give or take a fluid pound or two. I haven't been in the low 140s since my third child was about six months old, back in 2003. I had my third baby in September (14 months after my second baby), turned 30 in October, and after the initial post-partum weight loss, began a slow gain that had me pushing 170 by the time I went back to teaching in 2004.

It feels good to be back near 140, but it also feels like I should make a short-term push to get to 135, which is just ten measly pounds more than my ultimate goal of 125. I weighed 125 for three years as a married adult, and for a year after my first child was born, so I think this is a reasonable weight for me and my 5'3 frame. It's not like I'm shooting for the 105 I (effortlessly) weighed when I graduated from high school. I might be happy with 130 if I had a more typically-feminine, pear-shaped body, but I don't. Instead of carrying weight in my hips and butt like my Mom, I carry it mainly in my belly, and all the way around my torso. It ain't pretty, and it's certainly not healthy. Belly fat is bad for the heart, and since I very seriously plan to see my hundredth birthday, I need to work on that.

So, it's back to the gym for me today. I was supposed to go back four weeks ago, but illnesses--mine and the kids'--have kept me from going. And then there's my own laziness factor as well. But I'm trying to motivate myself by thinking back to this time last year, when I had (once again) given up my gallon of sweet tea a day habit, was exercising at least three times a week, and the pounds were melting off like butter. I'm renewing my commitment to stick to the low-cal frozen lunches at work, which, combined with my daily granola bar for breakfast, allow me to sit down to dinner having eaten only about 500 of my allotted 12-1500 calories a day. That said, I also need to watch my portions at dinner. I love my own cooking. It is a curse.

If I need any more motivation, I can always bust out the pictures of me in my grannified, looked-like-a-house-dress bathing suit from beach house '07. Because I won't have a one-year old, adorable baby girl clinging to me and cleverly disguising my bulging midsection so much this year. And I need to save up calories for the week of mojitos.