Holiday Slim Down

We all know by now that there really is no quick fix for weight loss. Trust me - I've tried almost everything. Pills of all shapes and sizes, soup diets, cabbage diets, meat diets, veggie diets, diets, diets, diets..... and the only thing they've done for me is really screw up my metabolism. There was only 1 true wonder drug out there, and they took it off the market and stopped producing it because too many people were abusing it. It did wonders if used correctly! By the time Hunter was 1, I weighed less than before I got pregnant with him!! But once off of it, I realized that my body had relied on it. Trying to get my metabolism going on it's own again has been an uphill battle, and one that I'm slowing losing over the years. Here I am, quickly approaching my 32nd birthday, my children are 9 and 6, and I weigh more now than I ever have.

I can hear some of you now..... "what are you whining about?" "you don't need to lose weight!" "you're fine the way you are now". Here's the thing: I do need to lose weight. Most of time I do a fairly good job of hiding it, but believe it or not people, my midsection is mush! And I have the right to whine because my midsection continues to outgrow my clothes.

So here's the plan: An old friend from school, Natalie, has this awesome blog that I follow and she's recently started a Holiday Slim Down, a 15 week program with goals to help support and motivate one another to lose weight. I'm a few weeks behind the band-wagon, but I'm joining now. I've been running off and on for the past few weeks - I even ran on vacation! So now it's time for me to get serious about losing a few pounds and toning up this midsection of mine.

Here are my goals for the 15 (now 11) weeks:

1. Ideally, I'd like to lose 15 pounds. This may be pushing it, and I would be pleased to just loss 10. Anything over would just be like a bonus!

2. Fit into the jeans I wore 1 year after Hunter was born (that would be a 2 size difference).

3. Tone and firm my arms - they're beginning to look like old lady arms! And I'm just not ready for that... =)

So, wish me luck! And please be supportive. I really cannot do this on my own, which is why I'm looking forward to the HSD group support. Also - kudos to my sister-in-law for motivating me to run more! I'm like the little engine that needs encouragement - "I think you can, I think you can....."