First Post! Woooo!

...and hopefully not the last. I think we all know by now the road to the Blogosphere is paved with good intentions, and innumerable abandoned blogs. I may or may not, at some point in time, have possibly contributed to abandoned blog detritus myself. You have no proof it was me!

Anyway, I'll try to keep my plans for this blog scaled back quite a bit, and maybe it will seem less like a chore and more like something I look forward to updating every week or so. No promises of daily updates - seriously, my life is not that exciting. If I can toss up an update once a week or so I'll be happy with myself.

So what ARE my plans for this blog you ask? Well, for quite a few months now I've been crocheting up a storm. It was a craft I learned a while back, and only recently picked up again. This time though, I'm really enjoying it. I've made a couple of neat gifts for people already, and I'm starting to tackle clothing. There's a pile of patterns I have that I want to make so it should keep me busy for a while. One of the things I plan on using this blog for is to keep track of my projects and show off the stuff I've made. I know there are a bunch of sites out there that do this as well (and I probably belong to a bunch of them), but those are really for other knitter/crocheters. I want a place to put up my creations that everyone will have access to. I'll even put up pictures & stuff. It'll be great - you'll love it.

I may also use the blog to track my healthy living progress. About 6 weeks ago my husband and I made a commitment to lose weight and get in shape. We decided to change our bad eating habits, got a Bowflex & a recumbent bike, and bought a scale. So far, so good. We do strength training on the Bowflex 3 times a week. I also do cardio on the bike for 30-45 minutes 6 times a week. It's been a big adjustment, everything from my daily schedule to shopping and meal planning, and of course eating. But we're managing, and hopefully it'll become less like conscious effort and more like habit as time goes on. So far I've lost 16 pounds. Yay. It's hard to maintain the momentum but we really did make a big investment in this, so I'm going to try my hardest to keep it up.

I owe it to my family and myself to get in shape, and keep my heart healthy, and do anything I can to stave off the genetic timebombs lurking in my DNA. The reality of the situation is every successive generation of my family is dealing with debilitating and terminal health issues earlier in life. I don't particularly relish the idea of having hit (or passed) the midpoint of my life at the ripe old age of 30. I don't know if losing weight will keep cancer at bay, but it will definitely help me break the Type II diabetes cycle, and that's a big deal to me. The thought of being blind or incapacitated because my feet were amputed scares the hell out of me, especially if the cause was 100% preventable.

With that in mind, I will also make the occasional post about my health accomplishments. I have a lot of weight to lose, so I'm going at it 10 pounds at a time. I've already done the first 10, so yay for me. If I keep on doing what I'm doing, I should be done with the next 10 by Memorial Day. Mondays are usually weigh days for me - I figure Monday morning already sucks, weighing myself can't make it any worse, and if I've lost a pound or two, it'll brighten my day.

My short intro post is getting out of hand, so time to wrap things up. In the next few weeks I'll start adding links & pictures and maybe even more posts - wouldn't that be nice? So be sure to check back.

-S