Exposed..

Hi there. It's been a while. I've been quite inattentive to my blog. Only posting for I♥Faces and giveaways. Shame on me. But I don't consider myself a bad blogger; I'm just a busy blogger. A very busy blogger. Who knew that working full time and having two children would be that much busier.

Anyway, I mostly blog about my kids. I'm like most mothers out there in blog land. We love to talk about our children. We love showing them off. We love talking about their funny moments, their cute moments, their horrible moments, their every moments. However, there comes a time when a mommy's blog can take a different focus. Don't get me wrong...I love posting about my kids and I still will. I just want to talk about a little project of mine. Something that I will put my shame aside and hopefully help keep myself accountable when achieving my goals.

I think that everyone at some point in their life has self-image issues. There are very few people in this world that are completely content with who they are, whether it be physically, emotionally, intellectually, and so on. Many of us bloggers can safely hide behind our keyboards and type away about our lives without worrying about being judged (at least about our looks). In fact, most of us put up a picture of our children or some graphic instead of ourselves in our profile picture. I like hiding. It is safe. It is not confrontational.

But who am I denying? Myself, right? Well, recently I decided to take up a new goal. However, before I share it with you, I should present to you the issue at hand. The reason behind this goal.

I'm overweight. If I keep going where I'm currently headed, I'll have health problems and be morbidly fat. I am ashamed of it; however, I'm not one to let it get me down. I'm not going to be depressed and cry over it. I'm not going to binge or starve myself. I do value myself as a good person. However, I think I've been in denial. And I'm lazy - or perhaps too busy to focus on my health.

I've started a poem. Something I'd like to finish later on with a happy ending.

When I look in the mirror
I don't like what I see
Flab handing from my arms
How can that be?

I look at my waistline
Love handles all around
And when I see my profile
A double chin hanging down

A bulging belly
and thunderous thighs.
I look at my backside
to a behind that I despise.

Lugging pound after pound
I find myself out of breath.
If I keep up this trend,
it will surely lead to my death

Okay, so here's the deal. I want to be able to finish this poem on a good note. I want to add in about success and attaining my fitness and health goals. So, here's my project. I am going to get back into shape, lose weight, and live a healthier lifestyle.

So, I've set the following goals:

• 3 months - meet with personal trainer to obtain ideal workout, workout at least three times a week, cut back on fast food (once every two weeks), climb the Incline (a very steep 1-mile hike that can lead you up to Pikes Peak if you transfer trails)
  
• 6 months - increase workout to at least four times a week, cut fast food to once a month, start buying organic when possible and feasible (cost-wise), lose 25 pounds, climb a 14er (I live in Colorado and have yet to climb our beautiful mountain - especially Pikes Peak).
• 12 months - workout five times a week, join a fitness class at the gym, try a new sport (skiing, tennis, snowboarding, etc), lose 40 to 50 pounds.
• life long - continue habit of working out and staying fit, continue to eat healthy and avoid fast food as much as possible, continue to lose weight until eventual goal of being 150-160 pounds is made - then maintain weight, share active lifestyle with my children (encourage them to be active as well)

So, how does that sound? Well, you must be wondering how bad things are for me. Truth be told, I could be much worse off. I weigh about 230 pounds and I am 5'6". Healthy for me should be around 150. I don't know if I'll ever get there and if I should, but I will try. Most importantly, I will try the right way. No diet pills, no diet fads, no eating disorders for me. I will do it by watching what I eat and exercising.

Here's a picture of me and Scott right around Christmas time. Like I said, not too horrible. I'm just overweight. Although, I don't know what I was doing with my face to make it look so flat. And geez, look at my arms and that's after cropping!


I've actually already started. My work offers a free gym membership to 24hour Fitness. Even better, I can walk to the nearest 24hour Fitness from my work. So, for the past three weeks, I've been going to the gym. I went four days last week during my lunch breaks. I averaged 30 minutes on the machines (elliptical, stair stepper, treadmill, stationary bike). I just hope that my enthusiasm doesn't wane and I keep it up.

I want to be able to do a before and after picture. Here's my before pictures:
I can't wait to see my after picture. :)