Being Trained By Jillian Michaels

Just when I thought that I had all I needed, I watched a Jillian Michaels Body Revolution infomercial.

This is what I get for waking up before the Today Show and having some time on my hands.  I'm not buying this, but it is tempting.  It looks amazing due to the exercises and Jillian's power to motivate me.  When I do her other DVDs (Cardio Kickboxing, Frontside, Backside), she has this strange power over me to do my absolute best no matter my discomfort.  I can't let her down...even if I realize that she is a flat character on a television screen that cannot actually see me.

Or can she?  I think one of the things that Jillian Michaels has over other fitness gurus is the fact that we have seen her in action with all several personality types and physical abilities of people on The Biggest Loser.  We sometimes share similar personal narratives with some of the contestants on the show, and due to that connection, we feel as though a part of us is being represented and seen.  Oh, the glories of reality TV - love it or hate it, it brings out commonalities and differences between all of us.

The bottom line is that we know that her method delivers results and she has extremely high expectations no matter who she trains.

Maybe at some point I will buy this system - it is kind of pricey, but not when one considers that it comes with 15 thirty-minute workouts and other side items, it's only about $8 for each workout video.
If you're interested, you can get more info and order it at www.jillianbodyrevolution.com.

If any of you have this already or try it out, I really would love to hear what you think of it!  Perhaps I am in a morning fog on this one...which could be why infomercials aire when they do.

Damn them.

I'm a Wannabe Ice Diva

So what is all of this health stuff for?  What is all of this exercise for?  Inspired by my Momalah learning a hobby and some lady on an Oprah rerun, I now have a goal that will give me some direction.  I'll give you a hint...

Please excuse the aerobic exercise musak and the commentator..."Look at the position in that camel...that's good."

Debi Thomas was a favorite in my family - I remember my Mom and especially my Aunt Corrine rooting for her during the 1988 Olympics.  This is when I became a fan of figure skating.  All of this time I thought that I had missed the boat.  I thought one needed to be training at five years old in order to do this, and then I saw the lady on Oprah who began figure skating in her 40s or 50s in order to lose weight and get healthy.

Well, cheers to that!

I have decided to begin adult figure skating lessons in March or May (depending upon financial budget)!  Triple Axl, here I come!  Okay, perhaps one needs to learn how to skate first...but I am extremely excited and feel that the exercising that I'm doing now is going to contribute to getting me ready for this learning experience.  Thank goodness I love everything about falling too!  I'm sure I will get quite a few time-outs due to my laugh attacks...hopefully I will learn to contain it a bit, but then again, if I haven't learned how to do that for the past thirty years, how the hell am I going to learn how to do that now?...Perhaps, I will fashion some sort of mask and gag so they cannot hear or see my face contorting into hysterics.

Until then, my exercise will have a new meaning as it prepares me for the skating lessons...you know, so that way I don't break an arm or leg in the first week...if this happens in the third week or after a month, I will feel quite accomplished indeed! lol

...please knock on wood...   :)

Exercise - It's What's For Dinner

As you know, I've been doing the myfitnesspal thing in order to keep a food diary and understand calories better.  My calories are quite low - 1200 daily target in order to lose 1.5 pounds weekly.  This has been difficult to accomplish honestly.  The only way that I have found to be successful is by burning some calories through exercise.  Right or wrong, I am exercising so that I can eat more and still be successful on reaching the target without going way over it.

I've always heard that if one eats less than 1200 calories daily that the body's starvation mode is activated...then I heard that it was eating less than 800.  I really don't know which number it is, but none the less, I do make sure than I have ate at least 1200 calories so that I don't run into this.  Don't worry, y'all, anorexia does not live here!

Antoinette, one of our readers, wrote about great success with her Jillian Michaels DVDs, and this encouraged me.  I had just dug them out of hiding and have used them quite a bit over the past month.  Thanks, Antoinette!  I mean, why did I bother to buy all of these DVDs if they are only to be piled away gaining dust?

The following DVDs are ones that I have been doing lately and have enjoyed for different reasons:

Jillian Michaels: The Biggest Winner - Shape Up Backside:  AKA "The Orange One" in the Set
* Burns a lot of calories so I can say yes to a cookie.

Jillian Michaels: The Biggest Winner - Shape Up Frontside:  AKA "The Red One" in the Set
* Again, burns a lot of calories and both of these dvds will help me create more muscle...I need it!

The Tracy Anderson Method Dance Cardio
* Intense cardio that challenges me enough and stays interesting and humorous.

Crunch Fat Burning Pilates (Featuring None Other Than Little Miss Poised- Ellen Barrett)
* When I get done with this, I feel great!  Better posture and I feel extremely ballerina like...not enough to try out for the Nutcracker, but you get my point.  I feel taller, leaner, less clumsy...even if it is only for a day, it's worth it.

Walk Away the Pounds with Lesle Sansone - 1 Mile and 2 Mile
*  I use these when I want a little more cardio that is easy-going, or for days when I don't want to exercise.  There's no excuse to not do one of these workouts.

Prevention Dance It Off! Express Workout with Jennifer Galardi
* Different dance sections...It's fun, gets me sweating, and despite some of the cheesy espressions and enthusiasm, I like it.  I have future plans inspired by this workout DVD that you'll see soon...heeheehee...

The Tracy Anderson Method Mat Workout
* This one is EXTREMELY CHALLENGING to me, but I have future plans of incorporating it more often once my body is a bit more conditioned.


So there you have it.  I am kind of a workout DVD junkie because I prefer tripping over my feet in the privacy of my own home and can get as cheesetastic with the moves as humanly possible.  Have you done any of these workouts too?  Do you have any suggestions or ones that you really love?  I would love to know!  Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic weekend!

Speedo Man and Outsiders/Insiders

Last night I was inspired by a man in speedos.  His name is Jerry Davis and a local news station in Portland showed this scantily clad man jogging between the piles of snow on the streets of Chehalis, Washington.  This is the genius that inspired me - he said that if he's not improving himself, he's working on dying and he's too young for that.  He is almost seventy years old and there he is, jogging much further and faster than I could dream.

People in the town have not always been very supportive of Jerry, but that has changed over time.  Some were disgusted by his presence, while others were accepting from the start.  A quick youtube search about this man will reveal what I'm talking about.  We can be so judgemental about each other until we take the time to get to know each other.

Which brings me to something that has been on my mind.  I noticed a large amount of complaints on fb about newbies populating the gyms to the tone of "Damn them with their resolutions!  They're taking up my space and time!" and scowling remarks as the resolutionists walk, instead of run(HOW DARE THEM!), on the tredmills.  This evidently has the same effect on the regular gym goers annually as they eagerly wait for the resolutions to fail after a few weeks.  I know because I was one of the regulars one year.

I had joined the gym in November and had been going regularly enough by New Year's that I considered myself to be one of them...kind-of.  I was somewhat between the two groups.  I simply began my resolution a couple of months ahead of New Year's crowd, so I was somewhat of a resolutionist-in-disguise as the hardcore regulars accepted me into their group.  Well, should I really say accepted?  It was more like the trainers would call me by first name and acknowledge my presence, I recognized the faces of the men who loudly grunted in the far corner with the free weights, and I was acquaintances with the guy who looked like Nino from the movie Amelie and an old man named Charlie.  None the less, it was significantly different from my previous gym going experiences (I did an ethnography about joining and going to the gym as my thesis for an Anthropology class a couple of years before this and had an extremely different result).  Anyway, I felt this time around that I was entitled by New Years.  Entitled to scowl at densely populated gym as I went inside.  Entitled to getting my time on the tredmill without such a long wait.  Entitled to see these new people as a passing fad.  Entitled to see them as outsiders and not belonging.

It felt good to feel this way.  I felt better than them.  It was ugly, hateful, childish, and false, but it felt good to my weak confidence.  It declared that I was one of the group, an insider at a gym!  WOW!  What an amusing thing this was!  Yet, I had to shun these feelings of entitlement out, because I knew what a lie it was.  I knew that I was one of them and they were me...I had only got lucky for the time of year in which I had joined.  It was as simple as that.

True to fashion, guess what happened?  I came down with a horrible cold mid-January and stopped going.  The end.  I followed my old pattern right along with the some of the resoltionists, and confirmed to the regulars that I was laboring all that time in a disguise.

So anyway, the whole point of this long post is to bring up the myth and reality of Outsider/Insider mentality.  It is a real division if we believe it is.  It is a cohesive social device in a group.  One of the ways in which we establish this social glue is to exclude others.  It is an ugly device in human nature, but it's there.  The bottom line is that this is all false thinking.  We know it is.  We know there are no outsiders and there are no insiders if we use higher thinking.  Jerry Davis is a spandexed one of us.  The resolutionists are only the regulars in an earlier form.  We need to have patience and handle each other carefully.  They are us and we are them...yeah, the ending of V for Vendetta thing.

After all, if we're not supporting each other in improving, we are supporting each other in dying, and we're all too young for that.

The Biggest Loser Finale!

Tonight is the finale!  The end of it all!  I don't know if you've been watching this season of "The Biggest Loser", but I know I'm not the only one of my friends who promptly reaches for ice cream or a candy bar on Tuesday nights to make the viewing that much more enjoyable.  Wrong?  Yes, but for crying out loud, during those certain challenges with mounds of doughnuts and all the talk about food isn't just tempting the contestants!

Last week, we found the final three contestants:  Ramon (won his spot on the finale through winning the marathon), John, and Antone.  I guess it is the battle of the boys this season, and I was sad to see Becky and Vinny not in the final three.  The two of them just seem like such big-hearted people, but of course it's only reality tv.  Do we really know these people?  No.  For all we know, Becky and Vinny could be evil-doers in their communities by nightly dumping over  Miss Mabel's trashcan, taking bats to mailboxes, egging the Reverend's house, and setting the town square on fire.  This behavior surely wouldn't warrant a prize of such grandeur.

Then again, the title of "The Biggest Loser" and the cash prize isn't exactly determined by good behavior.  (Oh, we love to hate and love the contestants of reality shows and label them as "good" or "bad"!  In fact, I still harbor animosity towards the ultimate villain, Omarosa, from The Apprentice and that was years ago!  Lame, but true.)

I don't want to damn any of the contestants, but I would like to post what Antone said last week.  He said, "I'm really sick of John to be honest with you."

I'm excited to see what happens!  Cheers to our journeys and finding inspiration (even if it comes with a side of ice cream every now and then).

A Sampling from a Smorgasbord

Exercise TV on Cable...a blessing from above found on On Demand.  Seriously.  There is about every kind of workout found on this On Demand channel.  There's walking, kickboxing, yoga, cardio, dance, and weight training/toning workouts.  Some of these are almost a full hour, and others are ten minutes.

It is an exercise smorgasbord!

Lately, I've been trying out the "10 Pound Slimdown Kickbox" and the "10 Pound Slimdown Yoga" that are led by Chris Freytag.  The kickboxing surprisingly doesn't have a lot of kicking...hmmm.  It is a 40 minute workout and I know this because there is a daunting little clock in the corner of the screen that counts down the minutes.  Here is my experience with the workout...

Minute:Second/ Thought
39:14  Okay, here we go...so glad I'm making myself do this.
38:05  This feels great - not bad at all!
36:33  My legs do not want to stand after those squats and lunges...
35:28  Chris Freytag is crazy - appears to be on crack.
34:00  I look like an ass.
28:00  I'm going to die.
23:12  Pretty sure I shouldn't have heard that sound coming from my ankle.
18:29 Jiggling, jiggling, jiggling...again, so glad no one is watching.
16:00  Water, water, water
13:21 I am POWERFUL!
11:33  Did the music just speed up?
7:45  Dear Lord,...!!!
5:32  I AM IRON MAN
4:13  Shouldn't we be cooling down, Chris?
2:20 Cool down...finally.

I DID IT!

Within five minutes of finishing, I suddenly forget that it was challenging at all, and say, "That wasn't bad at all."  I don't know if it's my ego at work, or convenient amnesia so I do the workout in the future.  This is why I decided to break down the minutes so you have an honest perspective. 

I honestly love the Extreme Yoga workout - the one that is 20 minutes.  It's perfect and feels great after the kickboxing.  It makes the total workout last for a full hour and is a great stretch after the kickboxing since the cool down is lacking.

What workouts have you enjoyed...or have been making yourself do lately?  Any suggestions?

Barbara Is A Goal-Making Guru!

Somehow, some way, I have not completely ruined the progress.  I have gained 1.6 pounds, and I am now at 167.6.  Not as bad as what I thought it could be...(I was imagining 20).

As you can tell, a lifetime spent of going mostly up on the scale and rarely ever down has messed with my head.  I am out of tune with my own body.  If you told me that I weighed 50 pounds more, I would believe you.  I am out of touch with weight and what I feel like...especially since I've been ignoring exercise and eating mindfully for about a month now.

I don't really know what my weight goal even should be.  I have "wobbly bits" that I would like to get rid of, and the cellulite fairy definitely has blessed me with all sorts of fun celestial designs.  I feel as though I will know my goal when I reach it, which I'm thinking will be around 150.  I will not be defeated by a number though - in the grand scheme of living, who cares?  As long as I feel good, energetic, healthy, happy, balanced, I wouldn't care if the scale told me 350.

 Somehow, someday, somewhere we shall all feel amazing and healthy in our own skins.  There's a place for us - we'll be in tune with our health and bodies.  We all need hope for whatever we are needing or wanting from life.  Oh, dear friends, this is to you! hahahaha!  Enjoy the laugh and/or singing this loudly at your computer screens!

As Barbara sings, perhaps I will answer those questions...

Somehow:  Exercising 5 days a week however and whenever I want (including Dance Central!woohoo) and feel more connected.

Someday:  I shall set a bit of a goal right now - lose ten pounds by January 12th (birthday present to myself) in hopes of feeling more energetic, healthy, connected and confident.

Somewhere:  I shall climb the overlooking hills over Portland and throw my arms up in Rocky style celebration.

How would you answer those questions for your goals, whatever they may be?  You may have been knocked down before too, but forget about that nasty self-talk that many of us are so good at.  Let's do this!  Who knew Barbara was such a goal-making guru?

Dear Susan Anton, You Awkward Diva, You!

Oh, Susan Anton and the Slimatics videos of my youth.  Somehow we had a couple of these Slimatics videos in our house when I was growing up, and I believe that this is how I got hooked on Dance Cardio workouts.  I had a love/hate relationship with them.  I loved them and hated them for their outrageously cheesy saxophone music, obnoxiously shiney apparrel, and Susan Anton's wannabe-Mick Jagger moves.  Her moves gave comedic relief, and I couldn't help but giggle a bit during the workout. 

I hated the cool-downs though.  She always looked at the camera and adjusted her hair as if she was the sexiest thing since...sliced bread?  It was awkward and uncomfortable.

Anyway, she was a nerd for sure, which was comforting to a chubby ten year old.  I loved when she made mistakes.  That was the best part of the whole thing.  It was hilarious.  I coveted those parts of the workout.  "Silly fool.  Everybody knows that the grapevine move is next."

Perhaps we should bring it back so exercisers will not feel inadequate next to the fitness goddesses in videos today.  The shiney, annoying spandex.  The sweatbands.  The awful saxophones.  The awkward sequences.  If only Samm and I lived closer.

If you asked me at the time if I worked out to those videos, I would have denied it with embarrassment.  I knew it wasn't a "cool".  But you ask me this now, and I will stand up and cheer!  Susan Anton's Slimatics videos were the bees knees of humourous workouts!  Hellz to the yes!  

Drum roll please...


Hold onto your hats!


I'm down to 168.8!!  That's -4.0 impossible pounds! (5.8 since Aug 14th)

No, I will be one of those people who tell you "this week was better because I did everything right.  I kept track of every calorie!", because that would be a lie.  This week was similar to the ones before.  I cannot explain to you why all of a sudden a body wants to function properly.  It puts up quite a fight sometimes when we are doing all of the right things and still do not see it reflected in emperical progress.  Our bodies can be so stubbornly resistant to change.

Fitness gurus get my [insert "feathers ruffled", or "panties in a bunch", or basically any polite way of saying "pissed off" or "-ing annoyed"] when they make losing weight seem so simple by saying, "It's all about burning more calories than you take in.  It's a numbers game."  Really?  Is it?  Because my body does not go by that simple formula.  It holds on.  It resists.  It fights to keep every calorie packed onto it for an energy savings account anywhere it can fit.  Sometimes it feels like a two-year old with a death grip on a sucker.  You know you're stronger than the two-year old, but it takes a long time to finally pull the chubby, sticky, clenched fingers off the little stick. 

Not that I'm running around stealing suckers from two-year olds world round, but you can imagine...any red flavor especially.

Do I feel different? Yes, a little.  I notice in the mornings that I physically feel a bit lighter...not as much gravity weighing me down I guess?  I've noticed that my stomach has lost some of it's padding.  I don't feel as fatigued during the day as I did before I started exercising more (about 6 weeks ago).  I don't have to rely on afternoon coffee for energy, though I enjoy it when I can.  I have slept a lot better and haven't had any insomniac spells since I started this, which truly is saying something.  There's less time of laying my head on the pillow before I am asleep, and I haven't had to do my countdown trick to get to sleep either....more on that later. 

Bring on Week Six!

Refried Beans and Weight Loss: Krystal's Week One Results

The goals for week one were:
*  Exercising 5 days this week (3 cardio and 2 for weights/toning)  CHECK!
*  Achieve Weight Watchers points 6 days and can use extra points for one day if I want to - (There's a theory backing up this choice- the Wendie Plan)  CHECK!
*  All days multivitamin/fish oil pills and water intake.  6 out of 7 days


I lost 80 pounds of gravity, and am now waif-like.  Thank you, Weight Watchers and Tracy Anderson!
(Insert plastic smile with a gleaming teeth here, complete with sound effect of "ding!)  Okay, now for the real numbers...I lost 1.6 pounds this week and it's a good start. 

I worked for that number.  I mean WORKED!  It definitely made me realize that it's going to take a lot of dedication and determination.  That's alright - I'll do this.  It's time.  I will be like a slug crawling up your arm - slow, focused and consistant.  (NOTE:  I will not be like Mike Tyson and be ferocious with impetuous style and eat your children.)

Relevant Good Thing of Week One:  This burrito-

Made with the following ingredients:

 and

I can't say enough about the Rosarita No Fat Chile and Lime Refried Beans.  They are a true godsend of fiber and refried bean bliss without saturated fat.  Hats off to this little can!  I think it will be on our grocery list frequently in the future.  Matt and I loved it!  SO GOOD!  Also, I have to confess that I'm addicted to Mexican food and if I could I would eat it daily.  This is why I'm so happy about this little burrito of bliss.  You see a simple bean burrito, I see a revelation.

Goals for Week Two:
 *Exercising 5 days this week again, however 2 of the days I will do both the Mat and Cardio workouts back to back (this is what she suggests, however I never did this in the past).
* Achieve Weight Watchers points 6 days and can use extra points for one day if I want to - (There's a theory backing up this choice- the Wendie Plan)
* All days multivitamin/fish oil pills and water intake.
 
Love to all, and thanks for reading!  Now go find those refried beans!  Cheers!

The Wrath of Water (End of Adjustment Week)

The Week of Readiness has ended...

Exercise: 4 days (Tracy Anderson Dance Cardio 3 times and Tracy Anderson Mat Routine once)
Days of Weight Watchers Zen (achieving 23 points): 5  (I used the 35 points on the other two days, and then some possibly...)
Water Intake:  5 of the days very good, other two just okay.
MultiVitamin/Omega 3 Pills:  4 days yes,...


Goals of the Official Week One will be:

* Exercising 5 days this week (3 cardio and 2 for weights/toning)
* Achieve Weight Watchers points 6 days and can use extra points for one day if I want to - (There's a theory backing up this choice- the Wendie Plan)
* All days multivitamin/fish oil pills and water intake.




Readiness Week in Summary:  The Revenge of Water
Water...I know you are necessary and I know I haven't drank you enough, however you were pretty full of revenge this week. 

First incident of revenge -  I was on the phone with a good friend who was having a rough day.  I was listening thoughtfully when all of a sudden I had to go to the bathroom, and there was no waiting about it.  I only had time to say quickly and in a stressed out fashion while cringing with my hand on my head and sitting on the porcelain, "I'm so sorry, I have to pee."  I was hoping that it would not be loud, while also thinking how rude it was and how rude it would have been to abruptly end the phonecall in the middle of her confiding in me.  It was rude no matter what I chose.  HORRIBLE.  AWKWARD.  EMBARRASSING.  Thankfully, she is a good friend and she understood.  Thank goodness it was not a phone interview or something of that manner.

Second incident of revenge - (this made us even)...I had a physical this week and I was fully expecting to have to do the urinate into a cup trick.  I dutifully drank 2 glasses of water before I left.  By the time I walked into the office to do paperwork, I had that feeling that no one would be delayed because I could not fulfill their requirement.  It was another 15 minutes before I was called...and then after realizing that my eyesight sucks now, it was another session of waiting in a tiny white room with a fancy hopital gown and sheet.  Every minute became more and more unbearable.  The room suddenly was getting warm, I was beginning to sweat as I waited patiently.  All I could think about was my bladder as I pushed back my cuticles and sat there trying to distract myself by looking at the digestive tract poster.  The room was getting smaller.  The lack of color difference between the walls, floor and ceiling made it seemed to want to mess with my equalibrium.  I realized it was all because my bladder was full and overdue.  What was regularly a nice, quiet, calm experience turned into a chamber of Hell. 

The doctor came in after 30 minutes with an apology for taking so long.  I smiled and told him that it was fine, though every question he asked I spoke quickly and urgently.  Finally he asked me to lay back because he had to push around my bladder/stomach area.  I panicked and rapidly blurted, "Okay, but I have to pee right now super bad and it's excruciatingly uncomfortable right now.  I'm so sorry."  That quick slur of words made the doctor move in fast forward and as soon as he pushed on my bladder he knew I had to get thee to a restroom!  Thankfully, within a minute I was dressed and on my way to the bathroom.  They ended up not needing the cup trick at all.

Lessons Learned: 
1.  Warn all people I talk to on the phone at the beginning of the discussion to get that out of the way.  If they hear a tinkling of water and flush and faucet it will be of no shock, and no interruption in sincerity.  Even if it has been awhile since you've talked to Aunt Gladdy or Cousin Mabel - it makes no difference.

2.  A full bladder being pushed on is a way to make hell on earth.

Some People...

Some people make working out look so easy. We've all seen them in gyms and running down the sidewalk in their vivid workout attire. Perhaps you are one of them. They seem to hardly break a sweat, breathe silently, and their complexions seem to go unchanged.

Several workout videos feature these amazing people.

This is not one of those videos.  Enjoy!

***Oops!  We're not a ".com" yet!  It should read www.fatisntfunny.blogspot.com!

There's a Monster in our Way

So now the quest for fitness begins! Day ONE! Oh, Day One, I know you well, dear friend. You have given me all the hope and promise one could ask for. Glad to meet you again.

I exposed my body to fitness yesterday and it didn't really love it. It was like a rebellious horse, or a stubborn mule, or a mentally challenged dog. It was trying to keep up with Tracy Anderson's endless energy on her Cardio Dance routine.  I often wonder what types of drugs she takes to have that boundless energy or how much editing is going on...because it is teetering on unnatural. (Dear Tracy Anderson, I don't really mean that you are on drugs. I just don't understand how you do what you do. It is supernatural perhaps? Did you sell your soul to the devil in order to never get winded or tired? Just wondering, Krystal)

Have you ever seen any of the Tracy Anderson Dance videos? Well, if you haven't, let's just say that to call it "dancing" is a bit of a stretch. It is more like jumping or skipping nonstop and then doing Michael Jackson twirls and jumping jacks every now and then. But I have to tell you - I LOVE it! Why? Because it makes me laugh while I am working out. I do not labor under the pretense that I look fantastic doing the moves. I do not. I look like someone drowning above water with flailing arms, kicking legs, a drenched torso, and a burgundy face. I laugh when physically able to breathe.

MAYBE I exaggerate.

But here is something I cannot exaggerate : BEGINNING MEASUREMENTS.

They are the inevitable monster at the beginning of this journey and they need to be dealt with.

If you have no interest, no need to read further. Thank you for reading! I appreciate all of the encouragement we have recieved so far from each one of you! THANK YOU!

But if you're like me, you require the info. I look at fitness mags and get annoyed when they fail to deliver the starting info...especially on height.  A person could weigh 500 pounds and be fit if they were 12 feet tall.  Likewise if you weighed 100 pounds but were 1 foot tall, you may need to workout a bit.  Height is everything.

Height: 5'7"
Weight: 174.6
Fat: 31%  (I like to say I have comfort when I bump into sharp corners.)

Some may say that is not fat, others will think that it is pleasingly plump, and still others will say I need to get to the gym immediately.  Well, this journey isn't about being mean to my body and judging it.  It's about eventually feeling good in my own skin, and being fit...so losing weight does become a part of it.  I simply don't feel comfortable at this weight, and yes, I have weighed a lot more than this in the past.  I just don't want it to get out of hand again. 

BRING ON DAY TWO!  :)