Ringing in the New Year: To Thine Own Self

"To Thine Own Self Be True" goes the line in Hamlet. For in being true to yourself, tho canst then be false to another, it goes on.... Sounds like "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy," doesn't it? Because as moms, we often do take care of ourselves last. Enter "babyfat" with the baby, and when do ever get it off again?

The new year for me brings a new project, that will be true to me by being true to you - the readers and lurkers out there who may have found this site as a place to learn how I lost weight and how you can too. Because I made a decision about this blog, and it will affect you as well as me. I hope that you will get more out of this than I have done for you in the past.

In 2008, my resolution was to get more financially secure. What happened in the past year might be just the opposite. Because I'd gotten the weight off the year before 2008, in 2008 I only wanted to maintain my weight and argued that would support my financial goal because then I would not have squandered the money losing weight (on foods or the gym membership I bought) by regaining.

I fell in love in February. Yes, in February, as I was struggling to build up a repetoire of zumba choreographies for more than one class, and to build up a class, I flew to NC from Ohio to meet a man I'd been talking to since the summer before. At my age, something had just seemed right about him and despite migivings we both had on "oh no, no more long-distance romances," we met anyway. I guess we both felt that since we tended to know someone was wrong pretty quickly, we could get through that and move on with our lives. Didn't turn out that way.

So, now distance began to be a problem with several things:

• My ability to build a class - not even that, I couldn't guarantee availability except during the week.

• I began travelling - we often couldn't go more than 3 weeks without seeing each other and I did most of the traveling due to better flexibility with my work (and the fact that I like driving). Yet, still, that much driving wore me down. Less time to exercise, more boredom than I could deal with.

• My metabolism was still up there: good news! ~ wait - bad news! That meant that I didn't notice my metabolism dropping off as quickly as I should have.

• New boyfriend means eating out a lot.

Great! I know how to eat out on my plan (Atkins)! Yet, there are the strawberries dipped in chocolate and fed by hand. What? I could say no to that?!?? Not in my lifetime (nor in yours, be honest!) New relationships always mean eating foods together.

• He likes to dance, too.

GOOD NEWS! Er, Bad news: not enough time to get out dancing, and he is not an outdoor kind-of-guy who likes to go hiking, camping,and whitewater rafting, much less rollerblading or bicycling. Okay, the place where he lives doesn't have nice flat bike paths like Ohio, so I am at a disadvantage here. Time to find dancing classes together

The end result? You guessed it - I started slowly regaining weight.

I was up 10 lbs by summertime, still fitting in my smaller sizes, but feeling them a bit more now. By the end of the summer, I was starting to panic. We'd spent a lot of time together in the summertime and were sure now that what we had was worth the effort we put into it.

My focus on finances was still working out solutions to have a better position, but I had not found any real solutions other than realizing that working at my current J.O.B. was not going to allow me to retire in my lifetime. This was before the massive melt-down of the economy, but signs were very strong then.

My 401k, which had gone up 30% the year before, had struggled around the new year, then in the summer tumbled 17% in one week, then dropped by 30% for the year during the summer. I locked it into cash while I looked for a better investment, but also because I was looking at using the deferred income (which is all a 401k is, really) to pay off debt before it snowballed.

Then in October, after conferring with my fiance (yes, we were engaged by this time ~ thanks!), I decided to make the move to NC. My bosses unfortunately did not want to be quite that flexible and so I - with mixed emotions - resigned my job and moved....just in time for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Chanukah and Christmas, and New Year's.

Has the food fest stopped yet? Almost and yes. Our BDs both fall later this month and there is Superbowl Sunday and Valentine's coming up - and the anniversary of our meeting, if we decide to do something then.

So, my weight has gone up because

(1) I've been eating more carbs
(2) my metabolism dropped (more on that in other posts) and
(3) less exercise - most of this affected by time.

Now is the time to take things in hand and to dedicate this website to you guys and to a public move to shed these added pounds, get my metabolism back up, get my energy level back up, and to get flexible and strong again.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that in this past year, I hurt my left shoulder somehow and after suffering for six months or so, had an MRI in late October that showed tendinitis as well as on-setting arthritis (which I already have in my feet and hands, now it's in my shoulder, too).

Sometimes I think I am falling apart and wonder if I can make it again or if these old bones are older than I am wanting to admit.

Then I know that I can. There really is not that much to it once you set your mind to it.

So, I will have a lot of posts coming out daily now. If you'd like to lose weight and get your health back this year, follow along.