Hold the Milk

Lately I've been doing rather well with my mission to eat healthy. I slipped up a little bit the evening of the Super Bowl, but it was only a few hot wings and three lite beers. That's not too bad, right? Well, this morning I totally blew it! Why didn't anyone ever tell me how FANTASTIC children's sugary cereal tasted? As a kid I hated cereal. I never liked anything mixed with my milk, especially little crunchy bits that turned soggy in seconds. I only had to taste it once to know dripping, wet, cardboard was not my choice for breakfast. I never in my life ate dry cereal.........that is, of course, until today. This beautiful, crisp February morning, as I was slowly pouring Cinnamon Toast crunch into my child's bowl, one just happened to fall on the table. In the blink of an eye I picked it up and popped it into my mouth before I could even think twice about it. I'm sure I only did it out of natural reflex but OH MY GOD, THAT TASTED SO FREAKING GOOD! So I tried another, and then another, and then just one more, and then a handful, and then another handful.....well you get the point. I am now addicted to dry Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Thank you General Mills. No wonder my kid's love this stuff and even eat for a snack. It is pure crunchy, cinnamon heaven! Do all cereals with bright, kid-appealing boxes taste like this? What have I been missing? Do Reese's Puffs taste like candy? How about the Cookie Crisp....are they really mini cookies? Fruit Loops...candied fruit? Frosted Flakes....please don't tell me icing flavor! I obviously need to call my mom and thank her for buying those generic, sugarless cereals years and years ago. She probably saved me at least 20 extra pounds that I would be carrying around with me today.

Unfortunately that is all I have time to post for now. I have to run to the store, a big snow storm is on the way and we are out of cereal!

If You Give a Mom a Muffin

Motivate - To provide with an incentive; move to action; impel

The first time I was motivated to do something was about seven years ago. It was the first time I heard the term "Muffin Top". I was positive I knew what a muffin top was but I never could have imagined what it truly would come to represent. Over the past few years our pants had been made to sit lower and lower on our hips(I still wish they would have stopped at the first lower, I'm getting really tired of seeing ass crack). As the waist of our pants traveled further south our stomach was pushed further forward, creating a muffin top effect. Seven years ago these were still little puffs on the side of my body but "oh horror" there was now a name for them. At first the name sounded cute; muffin tops, muffin tops, muffin tops, muffin tops. Now it makes me want to run for the hills......okay walk to the hills. I don't run for anything! That summer a long, long time ago, this now vulgar term motivated me to do something drastic. I bought a dangley belly button ring! Surely, if my belly button ring dangled my stomach would have to stay flat. I'm pretty sure you can imagine how well that idea worked for me.

The following year I had what I call the Aruba motivation. My husband's company was sending the top performers off to Aruba for a five day, all expenses paid vacation to the beautiful, sunny island of Aruba. There was no way I was going to go to Aruba not wearing a bikini. I also definitely didn't want to be the wife with the largest muffin top. Bring on Weight Watchers! Lucky for me, my husbands generous company had recently had a wellness trailer come in to check their employees blood pressure, cholesterol and hand out some Weight Watchers paraphernalia. I read that tiny WW pamphlet cover to cover, threw the point sliders in my pocket book, created a weekly points spreadsheet and started my unofficial Weight Watchers month long escapade. For a month I held myself to 12 points. To this day I'm not sure that was my correct allotment, but I was sure I could do this with out joining, or paying one red cent to WW. I also remember reading about bonus points in my WW bible. If I remember correctly I could have 32 bonus points a week, but not me! To hell with the bonus points, I had a month until Aruba and a cute little bikini hanging in my closet. This is my official apology to my husband and son. I am so sorry I was a miserable, hungry, possessed bitch, but it worked! Fifteen minutes on the treadmill every day for 32 days, barely any food and I hit 115 pounds and wore my bikini with pride. I looked awesome! Needless to say, I came back home, never thought of weight watchers again and it has unfortunately been the last time I have ever seen 115 pounds.

Enough for today, now where the hell did I put that booklet and slider!

Day One

This is Day 1. Day one of what I'm not sure. I want to be healthier and begin some sort of exercise routine. I'm going to post about my progress here. Feel free to follow along.

I'll share a little background. As a college student I never had to worry about what I ate or make an effort to exercise. At 5' 3", I held steady at 105 all through school, life was good. My diet consisted of Chef Boyardee, tater tots, popcorn, mac and cheese, cheap beer, Mad Dog and cigarettes. In my mid twenties I married, eventually having two beautiful boys. After both children were born I was able to shed the pounds and not worry about what crossed my plate. In fact at age 31 I got my belly button pierced thinking it would always look good......what a stupid thought! I'm now well into my late 30's creeping ever closer and closer to the dreaded four oh and the pounds have been adding up. I can no longer ignore it!

I'm blessed to still be at a manageable weight and some people still consider me "skinny". I'm unfortunately cursed with German genes that seem to only make my belly and thighs gain weight. I'll admit it, my calves and feet look great! Plus, with the proper clothing camouflaging my problem areas many people probably don't realize how much weight I've gained over the years. I always thought a pound, or two(or three) a year is no big deal. Well, it becomes a big deal when you, multiply those two to three pounds over the course of eight to ten years. It is time to do something about it!

Please join me as a chronicle my adventures as a confessed slug tries to motivate her ass. Wish me luck!