It's been a long time...

like, too long. But some things happened (health-wise), and it took me off plan for a little bit. But here I am, back again. And ready and focused, just as before. I'm ready to take control and finish this journey. I'm ready to be in the maintenance phase. So starting today, I'm counting points (even if I go over) and writing down what I eat. I'm going to also go back to Fitday.com (or another site like it) and enter my food so I can see if I'm meeting my nutritional needs. So let's make a list of things I need to get done.

1. Read Body-for-Life for Women again. Take notes. Create a plan (eating and working out).
2. Plan meals for two weeks. Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Pay attention to portion sizes, nutrient amounts, and POINTS values.
3. Schedule work-outs. 6 days a week, 3 cardio and 3 weight training.
4. Take all measurements: weight, inches, BMI, % body fat
5. You may need one appointment with a physical trainer to get some of the tests ( like %bf)
6. Make a doctor's appointment to get numbers: cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose levels, etc. Compare with last year and go again in 6 months.
7. Go through past issues of Fitness and WW magazines to find different fitness tips to try out every now and then to add variety to your workouts.

I think that's a good start. I'm going to look at different sites like Fitday today so I can make sure I'm able to start this week. I'm really excited! I'm a size 12 right now. I went thrifting yesterday, and I got a Limited skirt, size 10!! It fits, but it is a little tight. I give it a few weeks, and it should be much looser. I think I want to get down to a size 8.

At first, I was gonna do FS to give myself a weight-loss boost, but I decided against it. I really want to build muscle and tone my body. I really, really, really do. So I don't want to lose the weight too fast, because then I'll just have flab or skin left over. And I definitely don't want that. So I'm really going to work on building muscle.

So I'm taking a 12 week challenge (BFL). That's only 84 days, barely 3 months. I can't wait to see what my body looks like at the end of the 12 weeks. Then I'm going to do another 12 week challenge right afterwards, to make it a full 6 month process. I'm hoping to drop at least 25lbs over the next 6 months. I'm sure I can do it. This morning, I weighed in at 175.5lbs. I've been fluctuating between 173 and 177 the last week or so. But I'm using 175.5 as my starting weight and 150 as my goal weight. But I don't just want to lose weight, I want to gain muscle!!!

I saw an interval training (cardio) in the most recent issue of Fitness that I want to try. It's on the treadmill, and it seems really intense. I wanna see if I can do it. That's yet another challenge! That's going to be my exercise on my cardio days. Oh, and I'll have extra exercise, too. On Mondays, I'm going to start going line dancing with my FMIL. It'll be fun exercise and I'll get to bond with her, too. I'm going to start back at Pilates, most definitely. And I'll probably take two more dance classes, belly dancing and salsa (or some type of ballroom dance). I have to budget for the dance classes. I'm also going on a financial diet as well, so budgets are a must.

Well, that's all for now. More later, I'm sure.