Today is the first day of the rest of your life

It’s a total cliché I know. A new year, resolutions and all of that. I’ve been feeling this way a while since I cut myself a huge amount of slack in 2010. I ate what I wanted, worked out when I wanted and didn’t pay very close attention.

And then yesterday I had to try on 3 different pairs of jeans before I could breathe. I’d like to blame the wash but I’m sure it’s a result of no Zumba, no gym and a multitude of french fries.

I vowed I’d never be in this position again. I gave away all my fat clothes. I literally will have nothing to wear if I grow any bigger.

It’s time to do something about it.

This morning – despite the fact I am so stuffed up I can barely breathe I walked to Trader Joe’s to restock my kitchen. I bought tons of veggies and fruit, whole wheat pasta and brown rice. Goat cheese crumbles to add to salads, nuts to snack on and mini chocolate mint ice cream sandwiches to indulge my sweet tooth.

I’m not going on a diet per se. I’m just going to pick up where I left off in June or July. I’m going back to eating half when I go out and measuring EVERYTHING I make myself.

I know I’m not saying anything you don’t know. But it is FRIGHTENING how quickly weight comes back on. 25-ish pounds thundered back in as soon as I opened the gate.

My lovely boyfriend bought me two pieces of jewelry this Christmas. A beautiful silver bracelet and a heart rate/calorie monitor watch. I’ve been wearing it all day and so far have burned about 260 calories just from the walk to and from the store and straightening up my poor neglected apartment.

Dave is heading up a “Biggest Loser” contest at his office. I’m making us pasta primavera with chicken for dinner tonight.

I’m not gonna lie. The holidays were rough without my dad. It feels like I’m in this alternative universe. We basically tried to avoid them for the most part. We did enough that made it feel like Christmas but made it different enough to…well…basically distract ourselves.

I’ll give you a quick recap. On the 23rd we all (me, my mom,.Jen and Dave too) went to Connecticut. We stayed at a hotel down the road from my brother’s house. We had a lovely fancy dinner that night. On the 24th Dave and I did some last minute shopping. He went back to NJ :( and we went to my sister in law’s mom’s house for dinner.

It was very nice. There was an abundance of really good champagne.

On Christmas Day, still in Connecticut, we went to my brother’s to open gifts with the munchkins. Then my mom, Jen and I headed to the airport to Key West.

Christmas in Key West looks like this.

There was a blizzard in New York and chilly temps in Key West but we had a nice few days unplugging a little bit. We came back on Tuesday the 28th.

Dave and Mora met me at the airport. Back to New Jersey I made dinner for Dave, the kids, my mom and Dave’s sister on Wednesday and we had a mini-Christmas. Back to trivia on Thursday (for my last BBQ cheddar turkey burger for a while) where we lost. :( New Year’s Eve Dave took me to a lovely dinner at my new favorite restaurant the Tabor Road Tavern.

The dessert was a chocolate peanut butter sundae. Enough said.

We had visions of going to a movie after but the timing wasn’t right. Instead I fell asleep for an hour while Dave watched a movie on Netflix and we didn’t even open champagne when the ball dropped.

But it was the best New Years ever as far as I’m concerned.

New Year’s Day we headed to Long Island. My mom hosted an Open House where I saw my aunts, uncles and cousins. Tons of kids, tons of delicious food prepared by Jen and a little too much Baileys. :)

Back to NYC last night when Dave dropped me off. He’s such a good guy. I had him running all over the place this past week.

My apartment looks like a tornado hit it, but I missed my little room.

As promised, I’m going to be on a blogging schedule this year. One day I’ll chat about weight loss, one day a recipe, one day something NYC related. I’ll see how it goes. I’ll mostly be blogging during the week and taking the weekends off – unless something spectacular happens.

I hope you all had a very happy holiday.

It’s good to be back. :)