The beginning of this particular journey

So I thought I would back up a bit, since I did not start chronicling this most recent health and fitness endeavor when it actually began. For the 5 of you who are following these ramblings of mine, I named this blog sort of randomly because at the time I had no inspiration about what to blog. So the name primarily hinted at my birthday. Strangely enough, that is where this tale begins.

You see last month I "celebrated" my 39th birthday. And as all women will, began to evaluate my life seeing as how the big one is just around the corner. I was 8 month post pregnancy, and although I was back into "regular" clothes, I was in a size 14, which is my "big" size. I was only 3 lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight, but still a size larger than I was pre-pregnancy. Truth be told, I was anywhere from 15-25 lbs overweight even then. I have a chronic eczema problem that has steadily increased over the last 10 years and my once youthful skin, now looks more like a 50 year old's, due to all the steroid creams that the dermatologists have prescribed. I felt like I woke up suddenly and looked my age if not older. (I have always had a baby face and been mistaken for a younger age). Not only that, but I used to have a waist. Now having 3 children would be enough to challenge even the flattest of waists, but having two at once will downright destroy it. I am actually one of the lucky ones whose ab muscles are still in tact, but they have been stretched way beyond reasonable. Due to the extremely high cost of infant daycare (x2) I quit my job to be a stay at home mom, but found I had no energy to do more than the absolute basics. This led to guilt for not being the perfect housewife & mom I thought I needed to be.

I began doing some reading about eczema which led to research about raw/whole food diets and whole living. So I got on a healthy food kick that lasted about 2 weeks. But my lack of energy made it hard for me to expend energy to even think about and plan a healthy meal inbetween all the baby activity, much less actually do it. Then I went to a zumba class. I'd wanted to try it for more than a year, but was pregnant most of that time, so it was out of the question. Well, I loved it. I was hooked. So I started looking into other classes, and then decided that I would like to have the opportunity to weight train too.
I was very fit and active in my twenties, participating in spin classes, weight training and ballroom and latin dancing. I decided I wanted to be that again. I was inspired by all the actresses and models in the fitness magazines who were 40-ish and over. (Now I don't expect to look quite like that, as I have a much more limited budget and cannot afford a constant trainer or childcare to look after the kids while I train, but it gave me a goal.)

So I decided that by my 40th birthday, I would be 15 lbs lighter, 2 pant sizes smaller, more healthy, more fit, have more energy to be with and take care of my kids and maybe even clean the house! So I joined a gym that offers childcare and made a commitment to go 3-5 times a week, since I was spending my husband's hard earned money on dues every month. Since early December, I have averaged 4 60 min workouts a week at the gym. I still plan to add time on the elliptical machine at home on the weekends. Then I took advantage of a couple of other amenities and met with a dietician a handful of times and began a TEAM Fitness training class. Now, almost 2 months later, I am down 8 lbs and 1 pant size and already have more energy! (although haven't quite gained enough to tackle the much needed housecleaning! :-) )

So that is the gist of where this blog is going....I will post before/during/after pics eventually. And hopefully, something that I learn on this journey may help or inspire someone else.