"You're at the age where we should start looking into anti-aging procedures"

It's been a rough few months for my body.  First my facialist told me what sort of precautions I should be taking to prevent my age from showing on my face- I heard the work botox and wanted to cry, regained composure and told her I'd be happy to continue my chemical peels and see how the next ten years go before trying anything radical.  Then just this week my OBGYN told me that I was no longer at the age where I could avoid weight gain.  He politely told me that I would have to work out more each year than I had the year before just to maintain my current weight.  He then told me that my drugs were not causing me to gain weight I was just lazy and happy.  Everyone seems to be blaming then crazy thing called happiness for the extra pounds.  Then as if in cahoots with my facialist and OBGYN the gym I signed up for 3 months ago and have only attended maybe 4-5 times called to tell me its time to come in and get weighed and measured. Just shoot me now.

So I took a step back and really looked at myself in the mirror and saw that my body really has gained some new curves.  I decided to step on my Wii Fit for the first time oh in a few months too- since before we moved and it tells me I've gained 7.5 lbs- since April.  My BMI is 26.4 and it should be between 18 and 24.  Now this doesn't sound like too much but I'm at least 8 lbs overweight and I'm supposed to be between 98 lbs (in someone's dreams) and 132 (which is more than I'd liked).

I enjoy exercising I've never disliked it, I'm just too tired for it.  I love healthy, fresh good for you food, I just don't always feels like cooking.  But as Dr. Troy pointed out what I used to do is no longer working and so it's time to at least begin to change.  I always start with food because obviously that is my biggest problem.  I love to eat and I love to eat rich and creamy pastas, with custards for dessert.  Mmmm that flan I had for lunch was delicious!  So I need another food makeover which luckily Bruce is fine with since I'm the one doing the cooking...

So ten hour days at work are really not my thing and there are usually at least 2 hours of those ten hours where I'm just useless, so I search online for interesting articles or videos.  That's when I ran into a Good Eats episode called "Live and let Diet".  Apparently Alton Brown (please tell me you know who he is) gained  alot of weight during the last twoish years- 90 lbs to be exact and as a food host on the Food Network he didn't have the most time to exercise so he drastically changed his diet (eating habits).  His food plan sounds like something I could very easily do except for one part you'll see-

Things to eat daily:
Fruits
Whole Grains
Leafy Greens
Nuts
Carrots
Green Tea

This seems pretty easy cause I can combine a lot of those into smoothies like my green smoothie- fruits and leafy greens right there, and carrots with almond butter for a snack and then some brown rice and green tea.  DONE!

Things to eat 3 times a week:
Oily Fish
Yogurt
Broccoli
Sweet Potatoes
Avocado


I really like all these things, I just don't eat sweet potatoes and broccoli too much cause it's more effort but hey I'll put that effort into it and see what happens.  Avocados YUM! and yogurt and fish are good too.  DONE!


Things to have ONE time a week:
Red meat
pasta
desserts
alcohol


OMG what the hell? Who do you think I am? I can't possibly have only one alcoholic drink a week! That makes me sound like an alcoholic when really I'm just a normal member of my family- we don't do that.  And Pasta really? What about Wheat Pasta? I promise to just eat wheat pasta and how about we move that one up to category two- just three times a week!  Desserts fine, I can do just once a week and then I don't eat a lot of red meat to begin with so that will almost be a challenge to make me do it once a week.


The hardest will definitely be the once a week category- I have family dinner every week with booze and my hobby is karaoke which alcohol is a requirement for.  This is gonna be tough.  But I'm determined I'm just gonna keep looking at this picture to remind myself why I need to do this...