Chocolate in my cupboard

Yes, there is too much chocolate in my house. In addition to all the chocolate in the photo in my last post, there is a ten POUND bar of chocolate in the basement . . . The good news (for my hips) is that that very large bar of chocolate, which was a present from some relatives at least 3 years ago is still untouched. Well, it's not dark chocolate, so what's the point? You'll notice that all the chocolate on 'my' shelves in the cupboard is dark chocolate. (The top shelf is DH's and I truly would not dream of taking any of his chocolate. The shelf in the other cupboard with the chips/crisps is another matter!)

The bad news is that since we got married I have put on just over 30 pounds. When I got pregnant with DS, I weighed 5 pounds more than I do now. However, this time last year (when I hated my job and was on antidepressants to make it through each day) I weighed 20 pounds less than I do now. I could blame my weight gain on DH's wonderful cooking, but it's simply a case of too many calories and too little exercise. When I was in my twenties I worked at a boarding school where I was actually paid to do an hour's exercise every day!

Much as I would hate to be working the kind of hours I put in back then, the idea of being paid, indeed being required, to exercise is rather nice. It seems so hard now with a husband and kids and a full-time job to find time to work out. I specifically remember running five miles one Friday afternoon with the kids (which for me was a very long run) and deciding I wasn't done yet, so I headed off to an hour-long Jazzercize class. I was very aware of the effect it had not only on my weight, but also on my health. My cholesterol dropped from 350 to 240 without medication, I was much less moody, and I had no trouble at all keeping my weight down. For a very brief period I was an American size 5, but fortunately for me my love of food outweighed my love of exercise as a size 5 is not a healthy size for me to be.

I thought I was being so American back then, so conscious of my fitness and my weight. I went to an aerobics class when I was back in the UK and was not impressed - they actually stood still between the songs, whereas in Jazzercize we never stopped moving. Now I'm the other kind of American - the overweight kind :-(

I made a small move in the right direction last weekend - I bought a bike. I wouldn't ride my bike on the roads around here, but we have a nice park nearby where I could ride my bike with the kids and there are some rail trails not too far away too. DH has a bike rack for his car, but I may need to get one for mine too. Unfortunately that will entail getting a towing hitch installed and, having just bought the bike, my budget is shot for now!


I also need to make more use of my YMCA membership than just walking around in the small, warm, pool when we take the kids swimming on a Sunday morning. DD had a swimming class last Saturday and I swam in the lane next to her. After 4 lengths of the pool I was out of breath and feeling, quite frankly, knackered. I made myself keep going though, figuring that so long as I was moving it was better than sitting on the side of the pool watching her. By the time her lesson was over, I was actually sorry to get out. Unfortunately, that was her last class until the fall and without the incentive of swimming alongside her during class I probably won't swim very much over the summer.

I 'only' have 30 or 35 pounds to lose. Having been reading some other blogs recently where people are documenting their efforts to lose over 100 it made me realize that if they can do that (and many have, and kept it off) then surely I can lose a mere 30?! Thanks to bloggers like Sharon for motivating me to get started again - now I have to get on with it.