Jen at 11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven, 365 Days of TV-Free Toddler Time, and Mega-Family Blogs is giving away a flippin' waffle maker...

To enter, go HERE!!

I love flipping waffle makers. If I win this one, maybe I'll give it to one of my darling daughter-in-laws who borrows mine. :) I won't actually be able to make waffles for awhile as per previous post about the diet. Tomorrow I'll weigh in and let you know how the first week went.

My exercising is going great. I work out with a personal trainer three times a week. I know. It sounds so la-de-da, but it's the best investment I've ever made. Not only am I gaining a lot of muscle, which, sadly, we lose "as we age" (a phrase I've come to know and hate), but I now have bigger "guns" (upper arm muscle) than my husband and some of my sons.




(OK, this officially proves I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself, and that my husband is a really good sport!)


Seriously, I feel so great. I can do things that I haven't been able to do in a long time (open jars, bend over, lift and carry things, walk upstairs, to name a few). The greatest part is that I am almost totally, if not so, off the medicine I took for fibromyalgia. At one point I was taking 450mg of lyrica (in three doses), as well as another drug and a sleeping pill. Now, I take nothing except multivitamins. Hurray! (Okay, sometimes I still take a sleeping pill, but that's because the c-pap breathing mask I wear at night sometimes makes me feel claustrophobic and thus I can't get to sleep.) I only started the training in November and I'm already reaping all these benefits. By the summer I plan to have lost all the weight and still work out.

So, here's to Victor, my trainer. Thanks!

My quote for the day comes from the wall of the gym:

"The only place in the world where success comes before work is in the dictionary."