And so it begins...

Can I just say that everyone should be really super crazy mad jealous of me?  For realz.

I have awesome friends.  I swear that my friends are more awesome than your friends...unless you are friends with my friends...and then you are super lucky too =)

Consider this my shout out of proud-ness to all the ladies in my life who have decided to make a change.  You know who you are.  You've kicked your booty for the past few months or heck, even weeks and have really been an inspiration to the rest of us.  Soooo...

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?  I'm totally going to copy you.  All of you.  That's how much I've been inspired and that's how much you mean to me.

I have a meeting with a personal trainer tomorrow to help me kick-start my inspirational story.  We'll see how that works...but right now I'm just excited and feeling incredibly motivated by witnessing what my awesome friends are doing =)

For those who don't know me (this is where I talk about myself for a sec - sorry), I have never really been one to struggle with my weight.  Growing up, I was incredibly active and did lots of "one on one" combat with my brothers, who were mega-athletes.  Sure, I dealt with insecurities like all teenage girls, but I was active and fairly fit.  Don't hate me, but I thought I was fat in a size 2 - seriously.  How disgusting is that?

Then in college, I did a TON of research about food and fitness.  I actually thought about becoming a personal trainer or nutritionist for a while (still sort of thinking about it).  I have been eating very well since about 2004 (when I finally learned that drinking beer and eating Krystals every night was probably not the best thing for my waist line or my heart, arteries, lungs, etc.).  I know what to eat, I know what to avoid, and I know that I HATE diets.  I have my occasional splurge, but I also know that if I run an extra mile, I could have 2 pieces of chocolate cake and my life would not fall apart (and more importantly, my size 2 pants would still fit...).

Bottom line - I never needed a lecture about calories and whole grains and complex carbs and organic food.  I get it.  And I've gotten it for a while.  I have the pants to prove it.  And those pants would fit, as long as I got myself to the gym 5-6 times per week.

Yeeeeah...about that...

Well, now here I am.  Post-college, post-life-changing-events, post-marriage, post-job...I have fallen into the dreaded comfort zone.  I've heard it called the "happy fats" (hahah...you know who you are!).  I'm just happy with life right now and lately, I've had ZERO motivation to get my booty to the gym. 

Oh, I still have a gym membership, but have I gone?  Nope.  Not for about 8 months now (I lied when I told someone this story earlier and said it was 4 months.  But then I did the math...I'm embarrassed).  But I went skiing, like, 4 times this winter!!  That totally counts as cardio, right?  Uh yeah...but I'm pretty sure you have to do cardio more than 4 times a season for it to mean something...

Well, now I've had it.  I'm done.  I said that I had lost the motivation and I'm very happy to say that the motivation has finally found me.  And the motivation slapped me in the face two times.

The first time was when I bought my first pair of double-digit work pants.  Now...granted...they are a bit big (I could have probably purchased the next size down, but I wanted them to be loose so I felt smaller...sad, right?).  But still - going from where I was before to a double-digit pant size?  C'mon.

The second motivation is much more positive.  It's come in the form of awesome friends.  Friends who have changed their lives on their own, shared their story, and inspired me to change mine (I need a thesaurus for "inspire" because I feel like I'm using it too much!).

So let me just say.  This weekend is the beginning and these peeps have been my kick-start.  I don't plan on logging the details of my return to fitness, but I feel like I needed to say something.  Those of you who started this on your own deserve to know that you have touched and moved me, and I know I'm not the only one. 

Thank you for being awesome.  Thank you for being you.  And thank you for sharing =)  You have no idea how much it has helped me find the motivation and get that kick-start going.  I know I'm not alone when I say that you are all ROCK.STARS and please keep it up. 

And that is all =)  Happy Friday, my loves!!

Things I Learned Today

• 1.  I heard somewhere that illness can fester for 48-72 hours.  This has proven true and my Saturday night gallivanting has let me feeling like pooh.
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• 2.  I'm very thankful I have a roof over my head and a heat blanket on my bed.  
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• 3.  Shoveling snow is not fun.  Especially shoveling 8 inches of snow that has fallen on top of the 3 inches that didn't melt before.
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• 4.  Shoveling snow is even less fun when you're sick =(
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• 5.  I finally understand what Marc was talking about the other day when he said his back hurt from shoveling snow.  It's only been like an hour and I'm in quite a bit of pain...
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• 6.  ...most of the pain is probably due to the fact that I'm sick.
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• 7.  Snow shoveling is the perfect chore for children.  Maybe we should start trying to have kids soon...
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• 8.  ...or maybe we will just adopt a 15 year old male athlete who gets straight A's and has an affinity for the arts.  That seems easier than growing one ourselves =)

Standing by my car in what should be the driveway.  Just how deep is it, you ask?

This deep.  That's a snow shovel standing on it's own in powder.

"Before" shot.  Standing in the street - you should be seeing a driveway, walkway and sidewalk...

My first pass.  This took about 45 minutes and I had to stop for a little "tea and tylenol" break =)

View of where I stopped on the sidewalk.  I was stressed that I didn't finish right away because the mailman was coming soon!

One more..."Before"...

...and "After"!  What's sad is that I took this picture about 30 minutes after I finished and there's already a little layer of snow covering my work.  But still...I'm quite proud for my first time shoveling and feeling under the weather =)

And one last shot of Polly playing in the backyard...frolicking over the walkway I just cleared =)