I have been working out about 4 times a week for SEVEN months now!  This is a lifetime record for me, working out consistently for so long.  I'm really starting to see a difference, and as soon as I figure out my health-care strategy, I expect to see results via my A1C test.  I have reached one goal already - the ability to play tag with my son until he gives up, not until I collapse.

I have found there are more downsides to getting fit than I expected.  Time, money, and physical effects are all turning out differently than I expected.   

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I am going to begin this, my very first blog post here, with a confession.

I have fallen off the wagon.

Not the booze wagon; even before my type 2 diagnosis in February 2006, my drinky drink days were mostly behind me. (College was fun, from what I remember.) No, the wagon I have fallen off of is the healthy living, weight-losing, diabetic-under-control wagon.

When I was diagnosed last year, my a1c was hovering above 10, and I was about 35 pounds overweight. I was also terrified. I was 38 years old, with that big number (let's call it "thirty-ten") lurking in the near future. My own father died at the age of fifty-one after about twenty years of poorly managed diabetes. I was determined that this wouldn't be me. (READ MORE)

I have a confession: I haven't exercised since before Thanksgiving. E-gads! Ugh, and I'm so feeling it. My pants are feeling tighter, I'm more tired, I'm more cranky, it's harder to bend over and tie my shoes, blah, blah, blah.

There are so many excuses I could hand out for this (stress being a big one), all of which would come back to me staying up later (right now it's almost my bedtime and I should be getting ready for bed and not writing, for example) and, therefore, having trouble forcing myself out of bed in the morning. I tried blaming it on my alarm clock, too, but I think even that is a cop out.

I absolutely hate making New Year's resolutions. I can never stick to them and I never have really taken them seriously. I don't really know how to get myself to stick to that kind of goal. (READ MORE)

Tara Bartal

Each Saturday morning I head over to our local Weight Watchers office to weigh in and attend the meetings. The week was not good for yours truly. I gained and of course was not happy but what made it worse was my attitude all week and frankly for the last several weeks.

I am tired of counting. I feel like the Count on Sesame Street. "9! AH AH AH. 9 Points! AH AH AH! And 27 CARBS! AH AH AH!" (READ MORE)

Last week, I started a new "game" with myself. I call it Five For Five. I focus on five healthy habits for five days, earning points as I go and working toward a reward. Each week, the points accumulate for an even bigger reward.

I'm proud to report that I earned 23 of a possible 25 points last week. My daily habits were drinking three liters of water, exercising for at least 30 minutes, doing 25 sit-ups, testing my blood sugar three out of four times and not eating any junk. I expected finding 30 minutes to exercise each day would be my biggest challenge, but it turns out that wasn't the case.

The two points I missed last week were for sit-ups. The first one, I'd gotten as far as 15 when the little boy started having a melt down next to me. I thought I'd get back to the other 10 in a little while, but the day got away from me and I forgot. Then on the last day of the game, I didn't do them at all. (READ MORE)

Thanks to En Vogue for those lyrics. We got back from vacation late Friday night but I'm still feeling my way back to my "new normal".

10 days in New Mexico in a travel trailer with kids (ages 4 & 1) - it went really well!  Yes, that's shock you see in my punctuation!  We went places and saw people and ran, ran, ran.  The weather was beautiful, highs hovering around 80.  They have gotten a lot of rain and some Dolly-effect flooding this summer, so it was quite lush by New Mexico standards.

Unfortunately, I didn't replace my workouts as I had hoped I would.  Read that as "hoped, but didn't make definite plans for ahead of time." I need to remember that for the future.  On the plus side, I was much more active than usual.

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