OK, I've obviously going to have to take a cue from the blogs of some of my blogging compatriots and start posting every day to keep myself honest, because so far nothing else has worked.

A week and a half ago I posted a dramatic entry detailing my successes and failures over the past twelve months. I was rededicating myself to the goal of losing another thirty pounds or so by August of next year. Seems like a good goal. But, to quote myself from that very same post: DIDN'T HAPPEN.

If you read my next post, you know that right away something happened to disrupt the routine I was hoping to set for myself. So November 1 I didn't make it to the gym that morning. I didn't make it that afternoon, either; I've let myself get REALLY behind in my grading, and I spent the entire time trying to get a foothold in the mountain of papers and files I need to wade through (let's just say that eleven days later I'm still not completely caught up--I'll be working on that today and tomorrow; my intention is to go back to school Monday with all the work totally graded). I did make it to the gym the next morning, but again I failed in my goal for the afternoon and again I did not work out before going to swim practice. My husband went out of town for the weekend and left Thursday afternoon, and I didn't sleep well without him, and sure enough I didn't get up Friday morning to work out. I managed a brief workout Friday evening, but I was lonely and just wanted to go home. Saturday was spent in the car driving all across the state to attend various state championship competitions that our school was competing in, so no exercise there. Sunday and Monday we had a state teachers conference to go to, and I had no enthusiasm either before or after the workshops to go to the gym. I just wanted to go home and not think for awhile. My husband came home Monday afternoon, and I just wanted to stay in bed with him Tuesday morning and snuggle. Tuesday night he had to work late (like, midnight late), and I didn't sleep well before he came home, so again with the no morning work out. I was still trying to get caught up on the grading, so no afternoon workouts this week. Friday afternoon I should have hit the gym to get some of my pent-up anger out (read my previous post), but traffic was horrific and after 45 minutes stuck on the interstate I surrendered and went home.

So here I am on a Saturday morning, having not worked out ALL F&$^#%* WEEK. Not good. I really need to refocus. So I guess along with my plans to work out every morning and afternoon, I need to blog every night to document what I've eaten and how I've exercised. I am not doing Weight Watchers or eating any specific diet where I can really easily count calories, but I can at least keep track of what I'm eating so I can take note of anything that might be a red flag.

So this is my new goal: I still want to lose enough weight by Christmas to be at or below 170 (may be much harder to get now that I'm almost two weeks late in getting started), but I also plan to make at least a short blog entry each day documenting my exercise and eating habits. I'm grading today, but I'll hit the gym this afternoon. We'll see how it goes...