Kaizen

Hi everyone! I am new to this blog so I thought I would share briefly who I am and why I need this blog! I am a 33 (almost 34) year old stay at home mother of three. My passions are reading (everything and anything), writing (I am working on a novel), movies, music, and plays(watching and listening to the last three not participating in :)). I recently went back to school after a ten year break, am a member of my church's activities committee and a bona fide soccer mom (seeing as all three kids play soccer and the oldest just started traveling to out of state tournaments). So all in all I consider myself to be a pretty busy lady.

Unfortunately staying busy doesn't always coincide with staying fit. Ten years ago when I got married I was 5'9" and 150 pounds. Today I am still 5'9" but on January 1st of this year I realized that I had added 38 pounds over that time. In addition to that, last year I added something else not fun and very much weight related to my scale...type two diabetes.

2010 is my year to reclaim my health. To lose the weight, or gain the muscle. And to be able to run that 8 minute mile with my 9 year old without having to stop after the first lap because I can hardly breath.

The Japanese have a word "Kaizen" which literally means improvement. They use this mostly in business, but my sister taught me to apply it to every facet of life. It kind of reminds me of baby steps. We need to spend time everyday improving ourselves. I have tried to diet so many times without success that I just want to give up, but this year I am trying to baby step myself to improvement. So for this month I am simply cutting out all sugar, but once a week allowing myself a small guilty pleasure.

I started the year at 188.7 pounds. As of today I am 182.3. So I would call the cut back on sugar a great way to start losing the weight! Thanks for letting me share my story, and good luck to everyone striving to regain their health this year. We can do it!