I need to lose weight!

I'm starting a new diet, that's my obsession this week. It changes, you know, so check back in a few days and see what new neurosis I have developed since then. If I'm lucky, I'll go back to a previous obsession and save myself some money buying new supplies!

It's called The Abs Diet, and so far I really like it, though it doesn't seem to be helping at all. It's not much different than what I was already doing that didn't work, as is plain to see from my under 150 photo from January, and now I'm just barely under 160! Basically, eat more often, build muscle by working out, and eat high protein, high calcium, high fiber, and no refined sugar or flour.

I'd publish my Before photos in my bikini too, but it might scare off too many viewers, and since this is such a high traffic blog I need to be respectful! Perhaps when the Afters look better than the Befores, I can post them all as a boxed set.

Yes, those are my feet, even the podiatrist says they're ugly!

Starting stats:
height 5'7"...almost, and don't intend to change that much
weight 158
waist 31.5
hips 41.5
body fat >20%

This is where comments such as, "Emma, you cow, go for it! You sure need this!" or "Wow, you're brave to take photos in a bikini, ick!" or other insensitive jeers are most inappropriate. Unless you think it will motivate me, in which case feel free! Just please refrain from putting me on a scale from 1-10...wait, then that scale says I'd be really thin, let's try that!

Let's see...what to say?

My first post should be my life story thus far, right?

Well, who has time for that?! Between kids, the house, hobbies, and work, I'm lucky I have time to type in this at all!

Here we are with our 3 kids. I work teaching digital scrapbook classes at www.dsplace.com, Troy is a semi-conductor technician for KLA-Tencor, and the kids specialize in Grumpy, Whining, and Snuggles. There aren't a lot of career opportunities out there for minors, so it's fortunate most of them are good at these things!

We have way too many hobbies, it's a wonder the dishes ever get done or the lawn ever gets mowed. I sew clothing, scrapbook digitally, have a brown belt in karate, Troy fixes all things broken, does carpentry so the kids have more things to break, and we both love individual sports like kayaking or rock climbing or racquetball, and we sing and play the piano. I said we like it, not that we're good at it!
Like all good parents we feel guilty that we don't spend more time as a family, either together or on kid or couple dates.

It's amazing that with our frenetic pace and busy lives, we still feel we accomplish so little, and that our lives are inherently boring. Well, if you can squeeze us into a nutshell, this is it!