PhitDiva debuts

OK, I admit it: for years, I was a workout junkie, strung out on the endorphins, high on Cathe.Com and VideoFitness. In other words, I had no life (LOL!). Seriously, last year when I worked in Chicago, my life consisted of work, working out, walking to Starbucks for my daily Venti Green Tea Latte, watching Gray's Anatomy, and sleeping. Then true love knocked on my door. (Among other things.)

Now I'm back home in NC, sharing a home with my Darlin' Companion, and doing the 50-50 custody 2-step with my ex. I loved my time in Chicago, but it was really, really, really the pits being without my DS except for one weekend a month. I now have a whole household, including my DS (eo week), my DC, his dog, Huckleberry, and his two cats (Elsa and Sienna). Poof. Instant family. Now I'm cooking at least 5 days a week.

I love to cook. I mean, I really, really love to cook. I had not really cooked for so many years I had forgotten how much I enjoy feeding people. Now I am totally addicted to cooking delicious dish after delicious dish.

Shoot, I'd pretty much dispensed with the entire notion of dinner, except for when DS was with me, and I'd make something for him. DC's bachelor diet pretty much consisted of Mountain Dew, chicken wings and pizza, so when we moved in together I set about to improve his nutrition, but enjoyably. I figured if I cooked it at home, and could get him to eat it, it was bound to be more nutritious than what he'd previously been eating. So that he wouldn't feel "deprived," I tried to cook all his favorites, including homemade desserts. And overall, he eats much better now and is feeling better, too. Unfortunately, all of this cooking has brought back my appetite and I've actually been eating for the first time in years.

Normally, this would not be a big deal, as I generally burn anywhere from 1000-2000 calories a day working out, depending on what I'm doing. Seriously, my young & hot Dr. in Chicago said my good cholesterol was 3 times higher than his and he was envious! However, between this and that, I started missing workouts so they became much less regular. And of course, last year, not being hampered by the possession of a car (YES!! I HATE having to maintain a car), I walked everywhere. Real fast, since I live my life on "Indian time" and am constantly late. I am now as sedentary as a sloth, since I work at home. Whole days go by when I don't even leave the house. (I hate to admit this, but sometimes I don't even bother to get dressed, and spend the whole day in my jammies.)

The coup de grace to my fitness routine came in August, when I broke my foot, and really could not work out for 6+ good weeks. Then of course, things started heating up at work, my travel schedule picked up, and our TV bit the dust, the birthday/holiday season was coming, and I was always going to get back into exercise "tomorrow," "next week," "after this next business trip."

You can guess the result. I, the Library Diva, Fitness Addict, and formerly fat person, have become a currently, well, let's just say, fluffy, person. I can hardly squeeze a toe into my size 2 jeans... my size 4 too-cute-for-words denim miniskirt is but a distant memory... (dang, I was SO looking forward to violating the office dress code with that thing) and even my size 6 "fat" jeans won't come anywhere near fastening. In short, we have a crisis. This Diva will NOT put up with this. I must shrink. Instantly.

I'm at the outer limit of what my wardrobe can contain. I actually popped a button off a skirt while on a client visit and spent half the day praying my zipper would hold and surreptitiously looking for stray safety pins. As I was shrinking, on the journey from my formerly fat self to my recently sassy and cute self, I saved a few favorite outfits, so I have clothes in various sizes. But I'm now down to one pair of extremely tight jeans and 2 or 3 shirts that fit. At least, without making me look like a hoochiemama. And I REFUSE to buy new clothes in jumbo size.

So today, I put on my workout gear, strapped on the old heart rate monitor, and broke out one of my favorite Cathe DVDs, which includes a "low intensity" step routine. I figured I would "ease" back into things.

Ha! Holy cow, that thing totally kicked my big (but still cute and sexy) butt.
I made it through the whole routine, by stopping numerous times to let my heartrate drop and to guzzle water. I'm in my personal anaerobic zone at anything over 175 and can't be happy there for long.

Tomorrow I'm going to do either kickbox or high-low (aerobics). So this blog is really about keeping myself motivated, and maybe finding a few kindred spirits in the fight against flab. And while yes, I certainly do want to lose the fluff, my major goal is to get into the best shape of my life, ever. I have a whole new pack of strength training DVDs that I can't wait to break into. I lost the weight before, and I can do it again.

But it will be a real challenge, because I am a cooking and food diva too. I refuse to eat "diet" food or anything that does not taste good. Life is too short to avoid eating good food. I don't believe in doing penance at the table.

So can this FitnessDiva balance fine cooking with weightloss and everything else she has to do? We shall see. One thing is clear: I'll need to be creative and find my own way, as conventional weightloss wisdom has never worked for me, yet I lost 70 lbs. and kept it off (kept shrinking, in fact) for 5 years. I do not own a scale and don't believe in them; if you do strength training the BMI is a joke, but I'll measure progress by how I feel and the difficulty level of the workouts I can get through. I know I can do this! Yes, we CAN! And we WILL! Life is also too short to go through it without awesomely cute clothes.