You know you're in your 30s when...

...your metabolism rebels. From ages 13 to 26, I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and not have to deal with consequences. I could shake a leg at the treadmill and keep it moving. The little bit of weight I gained after college wasn't that much. I didn't even get the Freshman Fifteen. I actually gained it my senior year, but I was still a size 8. I got out of school and joined Gold's Gym. My trainer was awesome...I saw his before and after pics, and knew that he knew the deal. I got back in shape. Everything was gravy. Then I moved to the good ol' Dirty South.

If you don't have some meat on your bones down here, they think you are sickly! All the women at my job made it their mission in life to feed me. I was eating things I never saw up north - squash casserole, broccoli casserole...they pretty much make a casserole out of everything down here. Don't even get me started on the sweet tea. Everything was still gravy, until age 26 - that's when the bottom fell out.

I started dating KappaC when I was about 25 or so. He loved to cook. His dad had a restaurant back in their home town, and when he was younger he used to help with the cooking. I worked a part time job back then, and wouldn't get home until almost midnight. If I went to KC's house, he usually had some type of gourmet deli sandwich or SOMETHING waiting for me. The pounds sought me out with a vengeance, and I didn't fight them.

We broke up when I was 27. I was going through back then, probably depressed, but I didn't try to do much about it. The pounds kept coming on. I didn't think much about it, because I was gaining gradually. Around this time I cut my hair off and went natural. My dad and my brother came down so that we could all go to Savannah to see my dad's side of the family. While there, we took all kinds of pictures. When they got home and showed the pics to my mom, she did not recognize me! That shoulda been a clue right then. By this time, I was up to about 170 lbs. I am not sure how high I got, because at some point I stopped looking at the scale. 170 lbs might not sound bad, but at 5'2", that was just too much on my bones. My knees hurt constantly. Not good for me at all.

I look back on pics and I can definitely see how much I gained. I probably would have continued down that path, but my best friend decided that we should all go to Hawaii, in celebration of turning 30. She challenged me to be able to wear a bikini while we were there. This was October 2004 - the trip was in August 2005.

I had been working out sporadically, but I wasn't changing my eating habits, so it was basically useless. In January 2005, I decided I'd had enough. A group of co-workers were going to start doing Weight Watchers. I knew I didn't want to go for weigh ins, or anything like that. I gave a co-worker the money to get me the menu books and the ruler to calculate the point values of every food I was eating. I was on a mission. I dropped about 20 lbs, and my best friends and I were stylin' and profilin' down in Hawaii!

I have been able to keep this weight off, for the most part. Actually, when I started skating 4x a week when I was in GA, I lost more weight. I came back to Charlotte for a visit in spring 2007, and my friend Ron told me I needed to mix in a steak. LOL! Once I moved back in fall 2007, I started to get back into old habits, and I gained a few pounds back. Luckily, I can recognize when I'm going to far, and I know what to do to get back in gear.

However, I have noticed in the past couple of years, it has gotten harder to take it back down. Back in October, I weighed in at 151 lbs. I knew that I had lost muscle mass because I wasn't working out. If I had the body fat measurement calipers, I would not have been happy with the results. I hit the treadmill again, and did some weight lifting, and I have been able to bring it down. My goal was to get down to 135, but I don't think I have the dietary discipline to do so. At this point, I'm trying to make sure I maintain muscle, and get my cardio on. I have scrapped my plan to do the Peachtree Road Race in July, but I may try to run the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure in the fall. I figure if I put that in writing here, I'll have to try and live up to it. LOL!

Right now, the plan is to do cardio/weights on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I skate on Thursday evenings and Sunday evenings, and I bowl on Wednesday nights after I work out. If I had been doing all this in my 20s, I'd probably be a size 4. Right now, I'm just lucky to maintain what I've got going. My ultimately goal is to burn fat and increase muscle mass. I was doing well, and then I got bronchitis in February, and a nasty ear infection last month (I wouldn't even wish that on my worst enemy, if I had one!) We shall see! If you've got health and fitness endeavors, I wish you well. While we are running around taking care of everyone else, we need to remember to take care of ourselves. :)