Lola Loves to be Cozy and Warm!

Lola is that a cigar?

Look at that wagging tail!

Lola Hard at Work

Lola is Ready for Her Close-Up

It's been forever, but I've been busy

Okay, so this blog has gone completely ignored for the last year. Well, can you blame me? This year has been one of tremendous change! I met my sweetie in July 2008, we got engaged on Christmas 2008, married on 5/23/09, and moved into our new house!! Whew! Then, I decided that being in love is grand, but the extra pounds I had packed on during our courtship had to go! I joined Weight Watchers on June 2, 2009 and I am happy to say that as of November 25, I am officially 30 lbs lighter!! Yahoo!!

Why 30lbs? Good question!! My dearest hubby, tired of me complaining about my chubbiness-- asked me "Well babe, how much do you want to lose?" I replied, "It would be great to lose 30 lbs and be back to how much I weighed when I moved here." To which he said,"Lose the weight and I will quit smoking." Now, my hubby does not care at all about the number on the scale or whether I lost weight at all, but knew I detested his habit and also loved a challenge! Well, our wager gave me the motivation and inspiration to see this weight loss journey through! It has been tough, but well worth it! I now feel much healthier and happier!

Now the tough part starts where I actually have to keep the weight off! Hopefully, I've learned enough along the way to keep up the good habits! I would definitely recommend WW has a weight loss tool. I had tried numerous "diets" before, but this one finally stuck. Perhaps, it was just that I was ready?

Something that helped me considerably during my journey was the message boards on WW for both camaraderie and accountability. I started to exercise in July (about a month after I started WW). I began by walking and then wanted to up the ante. I found a message board that followed the "Couch to 5k" Running Program that can be found on: http://www.coolrunning.com/

It is a 9 week program that takes you from the couch to running a continuous 30 minutes. I completed the program in September and ran in the Iron Girl 5k. I feel that I can now call myself a "runner" as I generally try to run 2-3 times per week for 2-3 miles each time. I also added exercise videos, the Nintendo Wii Fit, stationary bike, and pilates to my regimen. I don't belong to a gym, but need some variety to keep me from getting bored.

So, there "in a nutshell" is some of the highlights of 2009. I hope to update this blog more often!