Being the daughter of a teacher and a student myself for 17 years, my new year always seemed to start in September rather than January. With my dad retiring after 40 years, and myself being done with school for the better party of 15 years now, January has once again rightfully established itself as New Year.

As is the resolution of many people, my first and primary goal is to lose weight. It's been a VERY long time coming, but I am truly dedicated for what I'm guessing is the first time ever to this endeavor. This has much more to do with the stiffness and aches and pains I'm waking up with these days than any real "fitness Epiphany," but better late than never as they say.

So without further ado, I've decided to put the Weight Watchers membership I've been paying for for the past few (seven) months to use and get on with it. I've also vowed to make this journey public. I need to be held accountable for my actions, and so you, lucky people that you are, get to be the ones I confess my sins to (for the record, I haven't confessed since 1989 when I made my confirmation which is probably why I haven't been struck by lightning yet). 

After a rather daunting shopping expedition to every woman's favorite store (Target) last night, I returned home armed to the teeth for this latest adventure. Smart Ones' were on sale 5 for $9 (and for those of you Southeastern Michigan locals, Hollywood Market has Lean Cuisines on sale 5 for $10), Kashi bars were on sale, and scales were on sale. Like I said, armed to the teeth…. Anyhow, I stood on my brand new scale last night and weighed in at (a whopping) 257.4 pounds.

Challenge accepted.