In the beginning...

Once upon a time I was physically fit. Then I got married, began teaching, had three kids, got busy, got stressed, got fibromyalgia, and basically ate my way through two-and-a-half decades. The toll has been high...as in high cholesterol (271 total), high blood pressure (175/90), highest weight ever (190 lbs), and a very high amount of stress. Like everyone else, I've dieted and regained more than I lost. I've tried Atkins, The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, Weight Watchers (twice), protein powders, and more. Finally, I decided I would never, ever go on a "diet" again.

How, then, am I going to lose 50 pounds before I turn 50 without dieting? By eating less and exercising more, of course! Sounds simple. Sounds reasonable. Sounds nearly impossible to me! But that's what I'm going to do. My 49th birthday is June 11, so that gives me a 60 weeks to lose 50 pounds. Fit by fifty - that's my mid-life goal!

Over the weeks (I think it's best not to think of it as months or a whole year!) I'll post my weight loss stats and pictures, along with strategies and recipes that have worked for me. My plan includes eating healthy "power" foods and slowly putting exercise into my everyday routine. I'm also planning on keeping busy with more than just Facebook and Bejeweled Blitz - I have a book to write before school starts up again, my 4th sinus surgery to weather, my daughter's return to the nest before she heads off to college in the fall, the vegetable garden to tend, and lots of math tests to write to better prepare my 3rd graders for the iLEAP test. Busy can equal stress and stress can equal eating, I know, but this kind of goal oriented busyness has built in rewards along the way, will keep me occupied rather than bored, and taps into my creative side. All of that ultimately feeds the soul. Perhaps "soul food" will fill me up quite nicely so I won't feel the desire to give into earthly temptations.

The next few weeks will be filled with goodbyes. Goodbye to Cheetos, goodbye to McDonald's sausage biscuits and sweet tea, goodbye to unhealthy post-dinner snacking and, hopefully, goodbye to lethargy, this double chin, and the Carol barrel middle I'm carrying around.

I'm motivated and ready to get started...right after I clean up the dishes from our yummy dinner of Southern fried chicken, collards with bacon, cornbread slathered in butter, and semi-homemade coconut poke cake. What can I say? I live in the South. How am I going to eat healthy when I'm surrounded by such delicious temptations as boiled crawfish dipped in melted butter, Sam's Southern Cooking with my favorite deep fried oysters, Joe's Crab Shack, and every food chain restaurant known to Western civilization?

I have no idea.

Scarlett had it right when she said, "I'll worry about that tomorrow."