Next Stop: Diet (Or really concurrent stop. But this isn't a train so it doesn't matter!)

Now, I am 34 years old and I have been battling weight ALL MY LIFE. Anyone woman in her thirties who doesn't have the metabolism that allows her to eat non stop but fit into a size 4 knows how to diet. Knows how to crash diet, slow diet, atkins diet, south beach diet, liquid diet, etc. I gained about a million pounds with all my pregnancies and the time has come to have a reckoning. Do I stay fat and happy and live my life like that? OR do I try to get down to prebaby weight, wedding weight, and really about 20 pounds lighter than that is what I should be living my life at. Well since I want to look BETTER in my thirties, the answer is not to sit and wallow in my fat. I'm also a mother and conscious of my children having healthy eating habits. If I want them to eat well, I need to set a good example and eat with them the foods I want them to eat. I have been doing Weight Watchers Online since I weaned my baby and have lost 40 pounds since May. Being home with my kids, I really can't make it to meetings regularly even though I know that would be more motivational. I have more to go but I'm only a few pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant with #1 so I've seen progress. I've been frustrated with the change to Points Plus because I can't eat a lot of my convenience foods, but that's probably a good thing!

First Stop: Exercise

I have three children and feel like I have been trying to get pregnant, pregnant or nursing for the past 6 years. Because I have been. My body is mine again and I don't have the just had a baby excuse anymore. I'm just too exhausted to workout in the afternoon or evening and have always found that the easiest workout for me is in the morning. Since my older two are in preschool from 9-12 and my youngest one is with me all the time I wanted to find a way to exercise with my children. It's winter and it's Boston so I went with a friend's suggestion and I joined Stroller Fit. (Which was bought by Baby Boot Camp but it's still a work out with your child in a stroller class) I bought a monthly pass membership and I'm going to try to make it at least 3-4 times a week.  I love it so far. My daughter is 13 months and I don't feel like she needs to be in classes more often than once a week and this way she hangs out with kids, we let them out of the strollers after about 30m, and I get to exercise and run an errand or two before I pick up the boys from preschool. When it gets warm it will move outside and we'll take the kids walking in the park and then I can take her to the playground after. I like the idea of working out and being with her at the same time because I've heard too many stories about gym babysitting being a little too germy in the winter. So far I've been able to make it 2-3 times a week since I've joined. I'm not sure it's a GREAT work out, but I do sweat, I'll keep you posted on my fitness levels as I continue to do the class.

One Day I Caught My Reflection in the Car Window - and it Wasn't Pretty

I buckled my daughter into her car seat a few months ago and pressed the button to shut the door on my standard issue minivan. As the door closed I stood there for a minute and caught my reflection in her window. What I saw wasn't pretty. A haggard, tired, pale face with stringy hair. I looked like crap. I felt like crap. And I knew it was time to start working on me again. I had just finished nursing my last baby (of three) and there were no more rules on what I could and could not eat, what I could and could not put on my skin and what I could and could not laser off my body. See where this is going. I'll be 35 soon and I don't want to just be the martyred mother to my kids, I want too look great again and feel great again and with the advent of modern technology, modern dermatology and of course websites like Groupon that can give me discounts to spas - I CAN.