It starts today

Today is the day I start getting ready for summer. It's time to take charge and get serious about losing those extra pounds that have found a home around my waist since November. It's time to get serious about running so that I can feel good about my races this summer. I've also decided to take it a step further this year. For the last 8 years I've either been prego or losing baby weight. But since I'm not prego right now and I lost my post-Sophie last year I'm going to try to get 5 pounds below my normal goal weight. My goal weight before now has always been my wedding weight but I want to get below that. I think for once I can do it since I'm starting at 4 pounds above my goal weight. I can totally lose 10 pounds....if I work at it.

So here's the plan:

I will be counting my calories and tracking them daily on sparkpeople.com. I have to eat between 1400 - 1700 a day to lose the weight before the end of May. I plan on making sure I have lots of protein packed meals and snacks and eat lots of whole grains.

I am going to drink a minimum of 64 oz. of water a day but my goal is 100 oz.

I want to try this new program I found on Saturday for really burning the fat. I'm a little embarrassed to admit the program I found and the fact that I'm so excited. But the truth is that when I was shopping on Saturday I found a book called "Fit over 40" and it talked about how to get your body back. I'm not 40 yet....I'm only 37 but the book just drew me in and I do feel like at this point I have to fight the fat in a different way than when I was younger. The program is all about building muscle fibers - but not just any of them the "fast twitch" ones. It talks about how those are the ones you lose as you age. So it has this program to build fast twitch muscles 3 times a week. I really want to give it a go and still do my cardio on the other days.

I'll admit I didn't kick start the day how I wanted to. I had a bad night last night - I got 2 different calls from work and had to actually get on my computer to fix some stuff at 12 and 2, then Tayson had a bad dream and came up to sleep on our floor around 3, and then Sophie woke up crying at 4 because she's getting 3 molars. So needless to say, I didn't get up to go running this morning. I have however eaten very healthy so far: oatmeal for breakfast, yogurt and cottage cheese for my mid-morning snack and I've had 32 oz of water so far.

Feel free to check up on me and ask me how things are going so that I'll stay on track.

2009

This year instead of my typical New Years Resolutions I'm doing the following.

1. Setting a theme for the year. My theme is "Embrace your crazy". Everyone has their own brand of crazy, some are more pronounced and others are so similar to mine I don't even think they are crazy. But really we are all crazy at some level. When I look at other people's "brand" of crazy and see it as just that I am much less judgemental and enjoy other people more.

2. Sign up for races/events. Instead of setting a weight or workout goal I like to find races or events to do and then I meet any fitness goals while training for them. Here is what I have in mind for 2009.

• Moab Half Marathon (already signed up....now I must train)
• 2 Centuries (Little Red Riding hood and Heber most likely)
• A marathon (maybe Top of Utah or Deseret News)
• Run at least a 5K every month of the year