I sip one cup of coffee every Sunday morning. Not for the caffeine and not out of habit. It’s a deliberate ritual. These days every single morsel of food I permit to cross the boundary of my lips is deliberate, measured, and recorded.

I’m not trying to lose weight. I’m trying to shed fat and build muscle. It’s a completely new concept for me.

The process is painstakingly slow! But, I’m learning more than I ever have about my body. For the first time in my life I’m not obsessed with the number on the scale. Of course I still think about it. And, I still weigh myself. Thirty year old habits die hard!

My sister taught group fitness classes for a few years.  She taught kick boxing and pole dancing. A couple of years ago she was teaching me some pole techniques and I asked her if she thought someone my age could really get a “hard, muscled, toned-up body?” I was specifically talking about butts, hips, thighs, and the layers of fat and cellulite that surround mine. She said, “Yes, absolutely, I’ve seen people do it!”

The funny thing is, I watched Ben do it!  But, for some reason in my mind I can’t imagine that I could ever get into that kind of shape.

Now, two years later, I’m tired of wondering about me.

I turned forty in September. I want to spend my forty-year-old summer in the best shape of my life.

Ben has challenged me to write, EVERY SINGLE DAY, about my journey. I’m positive the writing will be more difficult than the body transformation!

As soon as registration opens up I’m going to sign up for a figure competition. I want to do one sometime in June.  I need a goal to focus on. I’ve never set a diet and/or exercise goal that had and end point so far away! I’ve never thought about getting “bikini ready” for June in September.  If a body can grow an entire human in 40 weeks surely I can shed a few pounds of fat and gain a few pounds of muscle!