Accountability

ac·count·abil·i·ty

 noun \ə-ˌkau̇n-tə-ˈbi-lə-tē\

: the quality or state of being accountable; especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to accountfor one's actions

I am beginning to understand why I am failing miserably at loosing weight. I am not accountable to anybody but myself for what I eat or the exercise I do. So that all changes today. I am not going to keep a food journal, though I am turning my eating habits around, my fridge is fully stocked with lettuce (seriously if I took a picture you would think "wow that is a lot of lettuce") and other more healthy things for myself to eat. I am banning myself from "kid food". No more mac-n-cheese or corn dogs. No more fruit snacks or rice crispy treats (though I am still allowing myself graham crackers - they are a much better alternative to Oreos, and fulfill my cookie craving). I'm going to eat lots more veggies (which my diet currently lacks in greatly), drink a ton more water and a lot less soda, and find balance among the other things.

But my biggest thing is exercise. I've seen evidence that even without diet chances exercise can make a HUGE difference in my life. Last summer I went on a lot of walks with my older daughter to keep us both entertained. A LOT of walks. Not even brisk walks and the pounds started falling off. Of course I got pregnant and that all went down the drain. And I had every intention of getting back out there for LOTS of walks this summer, but I was surprised to learn that 2 year olds have short attention spans even in the great outdoors, and babies don't like wind/heat/their sister poking them/poopie diapers/being hungry/etc. so we've hardly hit the pavement at all this year.

Exercise while they are awake...yeah not so much. My 2 year old ejects my workout DVDs about 10 minutes into each one, just when I am warmed up and getting into it. Out comes the DVD with pleas for Kai-Lan or Curious George. The treadmill with her around? I don't even dare. And with the baby? We'd probably still be dealing with their sister poking them/poopie diapers/being hungry/etc. And of course their naps overlap by about 20 minutes sometimes. So after bedtime it is. And half the time I'd happily climb right into bed after they are tucked in. But I can't do that and succeed at this. And I know I'll have a ton more energy if I do.

So today will be officially Day 1 of my new plan! And I am off to a great start. I hopped on the treadmill and did Day 1 of Couch to 5k. I have 16 weeks until I will see my husband for mid-tour leave. 9 weeks of Cto5k (plus some crunches and things like that to do some toning) then I think a round of 30 Day Shred, and maybe finally get started in his workout program of choice P90X....or maybe I'll be a happy runner by then. We'll see. All I know is that I have 4 months and if I work hard I believe I can meet my goal of loosing 30 lbs dropping my BMI from 28 to 23. I CAN DO IT!!

And so now for my accountability. Each Monday I will weigh in, and I'll post it on my sidebar. And for even more accountability I am going to show a little skin and post my before picture and then on the 1st Monday of every month I will post an update picture. I will update occasionally about how my workouts are going, how I am doing with the diet, etc.

Don't look if you don't want to, but here they are. The dreaded before, taken July 6th, 2010. Black and white makes them a little less scary, and definitely masks the stretch marks quite a bit.