The Countdown Begins...

We are now less than 6 months away from my 40th birthday. When I started my weight loss blog back in 2003, this particular milestone was so far away I had no doubts I would meet my goals in the interim. I was going to sell a script or a book, have another child, own a home, travel the world and of course, meet my goal weight.

As far as the writing goes, I was published in the best selling memoir collective "Not Quite What I Was Planning", optioned a script and finally made some money from my writing by selling several freelance articles. So I do feel like I've made significant inroads there.

I haven't had another child, but that's just nature - not a matter of will. I haven't used birth control since about 2000, if it's meant to happen it will. If not... well... I guess I'll live with it.

I tried the whole own a home thing but it didn't work out. Now I'm back to apartment living but I think there was a specific reason for that and I'm quite confident I am where I need to be right when I need to be here. More on that later...

As for travel, in the last five years I've been to 24 states, including nine state capitals as well as our nation's capital. I've seen NYC, Nashville, crossed the Mississippi River at Memphis, done the Disneyworld thing at Orlando, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Four Corners (or what passes for it), Monument Valley, the arch in St. Louis, even the race track at Talladega (and I don't even like Nascar).

I've also been to Cancun, Mexico, my first adventure outside of the states.

All of which I figure a pretty big accomplishment for someone who always wanted to put off doing anything until goal weight was met - and as is pretty obvious, that hasn't happened yet.

Which brings me back to the reason for the blog.

I'm having a little trouble facing 40 and feeling like I haven't done the things I wanted to do yet. It dawned on me about a month ago that I still had six months, and a lot can be done in six months.

You see it happen all the time on those Biggest Loser shows - so why can't I, even if I can't reach my ultimate goal weight, do what I can to get where I can by the time I hit 40?

The short answer is there is no reason I can't make the changes I need to make. Whether I can reach some kind of deadline is a moot point. Every single day we are all given a chance to change our future by the choices that we make today.

The sum of bad choices - a bad result.

The sum of good choices, then - good result.

That being said, I have no real concrete weight goals to reach. That always gets me into trouble. I don't deal with disappointment well, and no matter how simple the weight loss equation might look there are always all those variables that can derail even the most dedicated plans.

I will lose what I lose and weigh what I weigh when November 21 comes.

The idea is to make significant changes to how I live my life each day. I can't help get a significant result.

Now, I had mentioned already that we had to move back into an apartment. Not only does it cut down on our monthly costs by about $500 (not counting any kind of surprise maintenance costs that always seem to pop up), but this complex also has a fitness room and a swimming pool.

No longer can I use the "I don't have money to buy exercise equipment OR a gym membership" excuse, nor can I blame the weather or how far I'd have to go to actually do exercise, like the parks, the mall, etc.

And given that the fitness room is right next to the laundry room, it actually gives me an excuse TO do a pretty extensive workout.

So my goal every day is to get at least one hour of exercise in. It's a 24 hour fitness room so I can't even use my vampire hours to excuse not being active. In fact, that's even less of an excuse for me since I prefer to work out alone and it's generally empty all night.

Thus begins the era of "No Excuses".

Therefore, I once again need the public blog of accountability in order to keep my ass in line.

So here we are again.

In keeping with this new era, I no longer have any excuses not to learn how to swim. I am extremely phobic of water, granted, but I think it's high time that I conquer this particular fear. Truth is I want to learn how to swim because I'm tired of watching certain things from the sidelines. My entire family knows how to swim, and if we go anywhere on vacations all the water related activities automatically leave me out.

Not to mention, it wouldn't hurt me at all to conquer this fear and thereby learn that I can do anything I put my mind to.

It's time to "feel the fear and do it anyway".

As far as food goes, I haven't made any significant changes to the diet per se. I still eat pretty much what I want and pretty much whatever I want for the time being. I'm doing my very best to put as much healthy stuff in there as possible, but right now I'm focusing all of my energy on breaking two very bad habits that always derail my weight loss plans.

1. Stop eating fast food
2. Stop drinking soda

Both of these are painful for me to say goodbye to, but there was a time there on those last few sodas where they actually tasted gross to me. I just kept thinking what I was putting into my body and it just didn't fit with the new healthy direction I wanted to take.

It was like pouring syrup into a Ferrari.

Even though I only drink diet sodas and have for many years, I just couldn't justify drinking so much of something that a.) has no nutritional value and b.) has the unfortunate side effect of making me want to eat badly.

When I drink water, I want to eat fruit and veggies. When I drink soda, I want chocolate and fast food.

So in order to cut down on eating out (for cost and for nutrition), it makes sense to say goodbye to my last dietary vice.

So far, so good. I woke up with a headache, and I predict it won't be the last, but the idea is to go all the month of June without a soda.

The thought triggers all my deprivation issues so I better just say, I'm going to go TODAY without a soda.

Baby steps...

So that's my plan and this is my journey.

I can't promise I'll lose fifty pounds by my 40th birthday, but I can promise I'm going to do what I can to make my next birthday the healthiest milestone yet.