I did a little dance when I got off the scale this morning.

I'm not a morning person. The Hubs will confirm this. Little is helping me to be, but sometimes it's still a struggle so the Hubs had a look of shock when I literally jumped off the scale and did a little dance. Have you seen Evan Almighty? That kind of dance.

I lost 5 pounds, ya'll.

Now, I don't typically ya'll. I lived in the south for a great many years, but have lived in the Southwest for a total of 14ish years. I have no accent. This, however, is worth a ya'll and perhaps a holler.

So 5 pounds when compared to the big picture of 73 total (now 68!) is small, BUT it means I'm 9 pounds away from my first goal. Considering this was in less than a week (since I technically started last Wednesday), I'm thrilled.

What's worked so far:

• Keeping a food log. It keeps me accountable.
• Sticking to Weight Watchers points.
• Drink lots of water.
• Eat better. I'm transforming my breakfasts from carb-loads to be more balanced. On Saturday, I had hard-boiled egg whites (I don't like the yolk part), strawberries, and a slice of whole grain toast.
• Take the stairs as much as possible.

I had hoped to get started with the 30 Day Shred and some walking after Little's 6am bottle on the weekends, but it turns out, we like to sleep. Plus it's hot. Like Good Morning, Vietnam "damn hot, real hot..." Oh well. I'm hoping that eating better and walking the stairs at work will naturally progress toward me wanting to do more exercise-wise.

So this morning I got to thinking about motivation, specifically why is this attempt at losing weight going to be successful. I've tried to lose weight before. I've gotten on a workout kick before. So what's different about this time? Honestly? Kaelyn. I want to do this for her. I want to easily keep up with her. I want to have energy. I want her to have a healthy mommy. I want to be a good, healthy example for her. I want to feel good about myself--for me and for her. I've read about passing insecurities onto kids and it led to an extended conversation with a coworker about it. Kids are very observant about their parents' behavior, if they put themselves down, if they're a little, shall we say, over-confident, and so forth.

She told me about how her boys watched her weigh herself. Everytime she got on the scale, she'd make a comment about being fat or huff out of frustration. She didn't even notice she did this or think they noticed until one day her son got on the scale and asked her if he needed to lose weight. Now, of course, she watches what she says. This hit home with me because I definitely have my share of insecurities (not caused by parental influence so relax Mama). I hate the feeling of being self-conscious and I absolutely do not want Kaelyn to inherit those feelings from me.

So I can do this. For me, for her.

Oh and I'll be posting progress photos each time I meet one of my goals and measurement updates will be approximately every month, or whenever I'm curious.