Last year sometime, my son and I were discussing something..and I don’t recall what. What I do recall is that at the end of that conversation, my son looked up at me with his big brown eyes (think about the cat from Shrek LOL) and innocently said, “Mommy, can you do some exercise? I don’t want you to be fat.”

WOW.

I told him sure, we’ll see, something like that. But what he said stuck with me. For the last half of 2007, I’d been very displeased with how I look. I normally like pictures of me, but I haven’t liked one in at least 6 months. I don’t like what I see in the mirror. It’s not like I suddenly gained weight. I suppose it’s that I FINALLY am seeing what’s in the mirror versus the self-image I have in my mind. It didn’t help that I have Type 2 diabetes that was not being easily controlled. On top of THAT, my doctor has me taking Zocor for my cholesterol, which he says is “not bad”, but he wants to get it in check now.

I am 36 (soon to be 37) years old. And I felt like an old lady. I have to take a pill and a shot for my diabetes, both twice a day. Gotta take the Zocor at bedtime. I had no energy, and I hated looking in the mirror. Something had to be done!

On January 10, I walked (yes, walked!) right on down to Weight Watchers and signed up. I had done it before and lost 30 lbs., so I knew it would work for me. Back then, I did the Flex plan and counted points. This time, I didn’t have the desire to count, so I chose the Core plan. Eat what I want of foods that are Core foods. Works for me. I started the plan on January 12. I didn’t exercise that week…I can only do one change at a time. Core isn’t that hard to do, it just takes some getting used to, as it was a complete change from the way I had been eating.

Fast forward to yesterday, January 16: I went to my meeting a day early because I had a Dr. appt. today. How bout I lost 5.4 pounds!!! That’s in 5 days! Without exercise! I couldn’t believe it! When I went home and told my son how much I lost, you would have thought I’d just bought him a Wii or something. He was so happy and excited! Now he checks up on me: “Mommy, did you take your pill? Your shot? What are you eating?” I don’t mind though.

Today, I went to the Dr. I knew he’d check my blood sugar levels. In the past 3 months, it’s been coming down, but it still wasn’t down low enough. Still over 200. Last month, he said he’d check again this month and increase the dosage of my shot if necessary. So..the nurse sticks my finger, and the glucose monitor read: 97!!!!

97? Say who? Say what? That’s NORMAL! I was SO excited! Needless to say, my shot dosage was not increased. In fact, I now have to monitor by blood sugar to make sure it’s not too LOW!

I decided that it was time for me to take this weight off. But if I needed any more incentive, this week was IT! The look on my son’s face ALONE would keep me going for months. He has no idea how much he pushes me.

5.4 down, 94.6 to go!