Status Update

Bonjour, Blog Fans! It's been a couple of weeks since the Holidays and all the joy and calories that they bring. Let's see how far we've come since starting this healthy journey way back on November 21, shall we?

To recap: I started out slowly - just 15 minutes on the treadmill, 5 days/week. A short time later, I bumped it up to 20 minutes/day.

I've left it at 20 minutes for now, but I've just this week started doing some strength training - crunches, rear leg lifts, modified push-ups, side push-ups to start. Again, I've started off slowly - just one set of ten reps to begin. I've been kicking around the idea of getting a home gym, but I have very limited space in my home, so I was thinking about one of the Nautilus BowFlex machines - maybe the Blaze. I like this machine because the bench folds up, so when not in use, it has a relatively small footprint. If anyone has any opinions on this (or the other folding BowFlex home gyms), I'd love to hear them.

On to the progress report: Since starting this workout routine 7 weeks ago, I have lost...
* 1" off my bust
* 1 1/2" off my ribcage
* 2" off my waist
* 2" off my tummy (I can't wait until my waist and my tummy are within a couple inches of one-another!!)
* 1" off my hips
* 1/2" off each thigh
...for a total of 6 inches overall.

Not too shabby, considering I'm not exactly taxing myself here, and my diet has remained relatively unchanged. With the exception of the 2 weeks during the Christmas/New Year Holidays, I've kept to the small (individual serving size) bags of chips, I'm taking in more water than soft drinks, and I've tried (with some small success) to include more fruit and veggies in my daily food intake.

As time goes on, I'll be adding some reps to the floor routine, and maybe eventually upping the time on the treadmill ... although I don't want to make this an all-day event, either. I gotta go to work at some point!

We enrolled my oldest (you'll know him from my earlier posts as MiniMe) in junior Taekwondo classes, and he has been having an absolute blast! So have I. I've been helping him practice his patterns and moves every night ... and I do mean EVERY night. We've been having a lot of fun with it, and even though it's only been a couple of weeks, he seems to really be enjoying it and I've noticed a difference in his attitude and self-confidence level. I know that there will come a time when he will lose interest. I'll deal with that obstacle when we get to it, which hopefully won't happen for a few years.

In the mean time, I'm going to enjoy his enthusiasm. Who knows? If the financial horizon gets a little brighter than it is right now (which is a dull shade of midnight blue at the moment), you just might be reading a post in the future about my quest for a black belt. ;)