Introductions First, Some Light Whining Second

   I feel as though you should all know some things about me before I start writing and sharing my darkest and brightest thoughts with you. That's how proper relationships begin, right? First things first, I'm not a writer, it doesn't come naturally to me. Prepare yourself for grammatical errors that will probably drive those in my family who work in the education industry crazy. I am more of a talker; that is to say, I really like the sound of my own voice. Sad, but true. When I do write, I tend to write exactly how I talk. So, if you know me, you will probably find this more entertaining than most. If you don't know me, Hi nice to meet you. I'm Dani. I am a mother of a beautiful eighteen month old girl named Michaela and a wife to an amazing and handsome dude named Jimmy. I haven't really asked them if its okay to be writing about our life in detail on here, but only one of them can really speak up for themselves at this point in time, and he's put up with twelve years of crazy so far, so I'm pretty sure he's on board. Right, honey? I will take his silence as an okay to proceed. Our family resides in beautiful and smoggy Los Angeles. Both my husband and I work in the entertainment industry. My daughter works for the Elmo fan club. I know, pretty impressive for eighteen months old. But seriously, she's obsessed with Elmo. And that's pretty much me in a very abbreviated nutshell.

   All of that said, I'd like to share with you my latest struggle. Some of you may remember my last blog was all about losing weight for my wedding. It was a fun journey and I was glad to have all seven blog readers on the journey with me. Well, a funny thing happened after the wedding. Not funny, ha-ha, more like funny sad. I gained back about twenty-five pounds in the year or two after marriage. It crept on slowly, and before I knew it I was back up to about 153 pounds, ten pounds shy of my pre-wedding weight, which doesn't look great on me. Then I decided to try to lose that weight and almost as soon as I decided to get back to being awesome, I found out I was pregnant. So fast forward through nine months that involved a lot of eating ice cream (like, a LOT), about two months on bed rest before Michaela arrived and then some breast feeding for eight months that helped me lose the fifty more pounds I put on while pregnant, and here we are today. Now, I am not at 153 lbs today, but close enough to make me want to cry. Lately I teeter totter around 148 and 151 on the scale. I keep asking myself why I can't get past this point? Why was it so easy to lose fifty pounds in six months, and then it just came to a staggering halt for an entire year? Oh, what's that? You're saying I'm lazy? Yes, yes I am.

   So, a few weeks ago I woke up and said to myself, fuck that. Sorry, Mom, I know you hate my language. Why did I say it? Well, I found myself in my pole dancing class on Sundays and I was struggling to do tricks I used to be able to do with ease and it made me sad. Unfortunately pole dancing alone does not help keep me fit. I knew I needed to add back in cardio some how, some way. It's what worked for me before the wedding, so if it ain't broke don't fix it, right? I started on what seemed like a silly routine at first. I read an article somewhere about how to change your routine. It taught me that in order to find time to work out, I was going to have to wake up early to do so. It also taught me that it wasn't going to happen over night. My inner fat chick monster self was all, "WHY NOT?" Seriously, though, why CAN'T Rome be built in a day? It would be nice, right? Since it's not possible, I started small by telling Jimmy I was going to start going to bed early. If I said it out loud, it had to be so. Then, I started just that, going to bed early and before I knew it the following week, I was waking up early. That would bring us up to the current week, where I have finally started waking up early AND working out in the morning. I have to say the only part that feels good is the accomplishment of it all. I have already started whining to Jimmy that I've not lost any weight yet, and he reminded me that I just started and to not lose patience already. He knows me so well.

   And now here I am, exhausted, and probably making no sense since I woke up at 5 AM to attend a power cycling class this morning. Tomorrow, I plan to put my body through the same punishment. I really hope that I can make this dream of looking fit again a reality. I don't plan on making all my posts about losing weight, but for right now, this is what I am dealing with. I hope that through my constant whining on here, that those reading will push me to keep going, or better, that some of you are inspired to be whiners with me. And if I ever get brave enough, also known as fit enough, maybe I'll start sharing some photos of my body before and after. Don't hold your breath, though.