THE DAY AFTER So after last night I laid on the couch watching Biggest Loser thinking how the heck do they do it? Here I am after 30 min of running, dying, and these guys, most bigger than me, are running at record speed and working out for hours. They inspire me. Today, I woke up and I didn't feel too bad! A little tightness in the back of my calves but nothing that hurts. I hear its two days after when it really hits you! I have redesigned a corner of my bedroom to become a circuit training session. I brought up my exercise ball, my hand weights and have temporarily stolen Hannah's step stool. I printed off pictures of exercises and created a spreadsheet with a circuit on it. Tonight will be day one of home made circuits. We shall see how that goes! On the eating side of things, I cannot tell you how hard it is to be at work and be on Weight Watchers. I bring my lunch so that part isn't a problem, the problem part is that we use edible reinforcements, and therefore have drawers of candy and chocolate treats. It's keep the hands out of the cookie jar, so to speak, which is the most difficult. When I am at home I don't have this stuff in the house, no temptation, when I am around it I lose all control. I am not hungry- sometimes I don't even LIKE the candy. I just have a problem. I am still working on fixing this broken link inside my brain, but its really challenging for me. In order to be successful at this life change I have been really thinking about how I became so fat, so overweight. I look back and I can't pinpoint a time when I wasn't fat,. It all started at puberty, and went down hill from there. I take most ownership on this, some comes from lack of knowledge and understanding from my parents as well- although they get it now, as they are all working at losing weight too. I give them credit though, how hard is it to be a parent- its friggen difficult, add into it my parents owned and ran a business therefore my teenage years were spent being fed a lot of fast food, and little support on learning how to eat well. It's something a lot of kids from my generation went through, the first real generation to have both parents out working full time. An adjustment for sure, for everyone. Now as a working parent myself I have had to think about how I could incorporate the strategies I have learned into my daughters life. It's awesome to see how much she cares about healthy eating and exercise. We go grocery shopping now and she asks for each item- mom that is healthy eh. its a vegetable! And she always wants to go out. Last night she asked me (after my run, close to her bedtime) "Mom can we go out to the park, you will get lots of exercise and be healthy!" She is a fantastic motivator- But unfortunately for her, we didn't go out. James struggle with his weight and healthy constantly too. It's been really difficult for him to balance well being and changing his life. As I have been losing weight though I notice he has taken more interest and seems to want it too. How he gets it, or when, will have to come from him. He will eventually make the change, I have faith in him, he just needs to come to terms with it himself. I know I had to. If anyone would like to contribute some tips and ideas about stopping the snacking I would appreciate it!