To my trainer, Kyle,

Thanks for the crack-of-dawn workout today. I'm sorry you had a cold. Maybe all the congestion in your head kept you from being able to hear my moaning as I attempted 24 ab crunches with my feet up in the air. I am typing this with a pencil held in my teeth because my arms are aching from the 60 push ups -- or was it the 72 dead lifts?

I am so sorry that I was MIA from the gym last week. I think the snow made me get in touch with my inner bear and go into hibernation mode. But thanks to your encouragement (read: guilt trip) and my desire to be smokin' hot (ok, I'll settle for mildly warm) at the Go Red for Women luncheon on February 26, I left Lifetime Fitness this morning re-dedicated to the cause of my own physical fitness.

And it was all going well until the doorbell rang tonight. The neighbor girl -- the cute, sweet little girl with curly brown hair and glasses -- was there to deliver my Girl Scout cookies. Girl Scout cookies?! Acccckkk! (Which reminds me that I ordered from two other Girl Scouts as well).

I admit to caving, just a little (to the tune of 3 Thin Mints and 2 Lemon Chalet Cremes). But it got me thinking. Could you come up with a conversion table of Girl Scout cookies to workout reps? You know, something like 2 Thin Mints = 6 walking lunges? Maybe that would be enough to scare me onto the straight and narrow.

Sincerely,



Amy Magan

PS -- I'll bring you a box of Girl Scout cookies at the gym tomorrow. That would be one calorie-free way to get rid of them!

Confession

Bless me Father, for I have sinned...

Oops! Wrong venue. But I am here to admit to falling off the wagon. You can read the details of my transgressions (donuts were only part of the debauchery) at the FitCity Moms blog. Here, I want to talk about how it happened.

As I told you last week, I've been working on losing weight since September and exercising to go with it for about six weeks. Well, I must have hit some magic number because last week people started to notice.

I walked into a meeting at work, the first day back from Christmas break, and someone said, "Wow! I can tell you've lost weight."

At my son's basketball game, a woman I know from church stopped me and said "What are you doing? You look great!"

Even my husband said, "How much have you lost? I can really see it."

What did I do with that? I let it go to my head. I started walking around feeling almost like a skinny person. Like I was all that. Too bad I didn't look in a mirror, huh?!

So I let my down my heart healthy guard. I ate too much of a good thing and plenty of bad things. I took a mini hiatus from the workout. It was a weekend of both excess and laziness. Then yesterday, I stepped on the scale.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Nothing that I can't correct by getting back on track (and on the elliptical). But it was a good lesson that a big head can lead right back to a big butt.

I have to remember that I am in this for the long haul. This Better U challenge lasts through the end of March, but I'll have plenty of work to do after that. Even after I reach an optimal weight and cardiac risk profile, it will take determination and dedication to maintain that for life.