Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Years.  I know we did.  Every year we have friends over for a do here at the house.  We used to go to Jeremy and Ginny's but since the boys were born it's just been easier to do it here.  Of course, the boys stayed with Grandma & Grandpa last night and Eden got to spend quality time with Emily and David.  No pesky brothers hoggin' her mom and dad and her friends attention.

The kids played games, watched tv, played with Eden's art set and just generally had a good time.  The adults played several versions of Rock Band.  Just let me say, it's a lot easier to see those "notes" when you are sober.  It's a little more difficult once you've lost count of the pudding shots and the buttery nipple shots.  Three margaritas might have been a mistake as well.  Needless to say, I was feeling just fine!  Now, when I woke up this morning... not so much.  A glass if water and a few excedrine later and I was all better.

We took the kids to see the Chipmunks movie today.  Michael wanted to "do something" since we cleaned the house and usually we come home to a mess, he said he wanted to go out for a while so that we could truly appreciate coming home to a clean house.  You know....I'm glad we did.  He's right. (did you see that??  I just admitted my husband can be right.)  It did feel really good to come home and open the door to a clean house.  Granted, there is still some work that needs to be done.  Our bedroom is not an inviting place to be right now with clothes stacked as tall as I am, but it's more than a good start and the room is my next big project.

By the way.  I wanted to put it out there so that I have blogging friends and family to help hold me accountable, I'm starting a "diet" and workout routine as of today.  I spent about 10 minutes on my brand new elliptical machine today and I have had three glasses of water today.  I know that these are not major accomplishments, but they are big to me.  Especially the water!

I will be adding a few more "workout" songs to my IPod and getting on the elliptical every day for the next 30 days.  I don't know how I will feel about continuing that trend once the 30 days are up, but I'm hoping it will be more of a good thing I do for myself than the chore it feels like now.  I'll also be starting one of the three workout games we have for the Wii within the next week.  Wish me luck and if you're the praying kind, pray for my will power to be strong.

Beth requested "before" pictures.  Here are a few of my least favorite pictures of me.

This one was from the other day when we made cookies.  I look pregnant.

This picture was taken back in September.  I hate EVERYTHING about it!   

In 30 days I'll take some more pictures and I hope to see a big difference.

Dear Lord, I'm fat!

I know that weight is a touchy subject and I know that hearing someone say they are fat, even if you too think they are, kinda puts a little discomfort into any conversation. With all of that said, the reason I didn't post a blog yesterday (Beth, where was my email? Do you not care what I have to say? j/k) is because at the time I usually sit down to do my blog, I was in my basement playing a video game.

Now... what does being fat and playing a video game have in common. >:o/ <~~ supposed to look like he's concentrating on the answer. The answer is, we have a Nintendo Wii and a friend of ours has lost 13 lbs in a week by playing Wii Fit. Here is where weight and video games come into play.

I am a HUGE fan of Celebrity Fit Club on VH1 and of the Biggest Loser on ABC. I love the Biggest Loser. I watch it every week and dread when the "season" comes to an end because I know it will be at least a month before it's back on again. I mention CFC because they had the girl that played Alex Keaton's little sister on Family Ties on there, I think her name is Tina Yothers. The season that she was on there, they introduced the Wii Fit game and I remember thinking to myself "that looks so cool!" Of course, when the game came out it was kind of expensive so we just held off buying it. Well, tax time is a rough time around here. Michael owns his own business and usually we pay in, but this year we got a little back and we used some of it to buy this game.

This game has a board that you set on the floor and stand on. It measures your balance, weight asks for your height and birthday and then determines your BMI and your "Wii Fit age". I have lost almost two pounds in just 3 days. 1.8 to be exact and I have lost a few percentage points on the BMI. I started out at 37.83. In case you didn't know, and ideal BMI is 22.00% so, I'm not just overweight, I'm considered obese. Let me tell you. That was a punch in the gut!

I'm loving this game, I like doing the workouts on it, it feels like more of a game than it feels like a workout, but let me tell you. It kicks my butt!!! I really for real sweat during the workouts and for the most part all of the activities are low impact, which is good for me because my knees are a mess and the past three nights I have put in at least 45 min. a night. You have so much fun, you lose track of the time, thankfully, they provide you with a "time bank" and it keeps track of the length of your workout for you and even suggests when to take a break.

Here are a few screen shots from the game.

Step aerobics. I'm pretty good at this one, but, I tend to want to go faster than the game does and to get a better score you have to be perfectly in rhythm with the game.
Here is a perfect step, while playing the game and snapping photos for the blog tonight.



This isn't a great picture, but for the strength training and yoga moves, you have a personal trainer. I'm doing lunges here. They hurt my knees like crazy, but I'm hoping that in the long run, after I have dropped some weight and done these lunges that it will have improved the muscle around my knee enough that they won't hurt so much.

And last, but not least (there are a ton of exercises that you can open) this is one of the "balance" games, for this one, it's a long ski jump. You squat down on the board and you fly down this slope and at the right min. you extend your legs, as if you are jumping, and you fly up into the air and the idea is to keep your red dot in the blue circle and see how far you can stay airborne and on the track. I tried to get a picture of the Mii, that's what the Icons are called, in the air, but unfortunately wasn't skilled enough to make the jump and take a picture at the same time. Maybe tomorrow night I'll have Michael take pictures of me doing the workouts.

So, sorry I missed posting my blog last night, but you see, I was just a little busy working up a good sweat and trying to drop some of this weight that I have let hang around for FAR TO LONG! Wish me luck and continued success!