Changing your life

For the last two years I've been enjoying life. Too much apparently.

I've gained 15 pounds, outgrown most of my clothes and not exercised. I was kind of okay with all of that until my stomach started bothering me. I went on-line to see what the web doc had to say. Big surprise. Eat less. Exercise more. Drink water.

Ugga bugga. As if I haven't heard this before. But sometimes I think our bodies have to give us that little extra push to start believing it. So...I'm eating a lot less and enjoying it even less. And I'm trying to learn to drink water. I swear it's a family thing. My family never drank water unless it was in what we in Montana call a "Ditch" -- whiskey and water.

I'm not a fan of alcohol, but I'm also not a fan of water. I love my Coke Zero. I've been drinking some form of Coke or Diet Coke now for years. I know I drink too much of it. So yesterday I cut my intake to 2 -- and dozed off. This is not going to be easy. But I do believe that diet foods and drinks are making us all fatter. That and no exercise.

I know I have to add exercise into the mix. I spend a lot of time at my desk sitting. It's the nature of my job. Years ago I made a rule: No Eating at the Computer. As any writer will tell you, snacking at the computer while writing is dangerous. I have a friend who had a bowl of dried bananas next to her computer. One minute it was full, the next it was empty without her remembering she'd even taken a bite. She panicked at the thought of how many bananas she'd consumed.

While I don't snack at the computer, I do, however, drink pop, lots of it, and the only exercise my body gets is my fingers when I pound the keyboard. By late afternoon though, I'm exhausted. Mentally, that is, and the last thing I want to do is move farther than a chair beside the fireplace and in front of the TV.

But my body says it's time. So I'm getting out my Richard Simmons Sweatin' to the Oldies video tape and I'm going to start movin'. No more watching Biggest Losers from my armchair and thinking I should be a contestant. Actually, thinking it would take someone to force me exercise like they do on the show.

Well, apparently that someone is going to have to be me.