Greetings!
I'm a 34-year old hippie-artiste type with two little girls. The baby pudge from the second little girl (who is now 16 months old) is still hanging out around my middle, and I'm coming off a bad year of slacking off and gaining extra lazy-pounds.
A couple of things happened recently to make me get serious about this. The main one is that I find myself at the doctor more, and increasingly it's for choices I've made--in my case, bad dietary ones. I had metabolism to kill for before I had my first daughter at 27: I could eat nothing but pizza for a week straight and never gain a pound on my size 8. That all changed after the little girls came along, and now I've been plagued with heartburn and all manner of expensive tummy trouble, as a direct result of not eating the right things. I also have a very watchful five-year-old that does everything I do...and devouring a bag of sour cream & cheddar chips while standing at the kitchen counter between meals is not the kind of example I want to be! It's starting to become clear to me that, if I'm going to be around for my girls, and feel healthy enough to do things with them, something's got to give around here.
So here I am, weighing in at 184 at the start of my challenge. My "big goal" is to hit 135, which is just above my pre-baby weight, and a comfortable place for me. I've had good luck with a modified South Beach diet before (after Child #1 was born, I lost 30 of the 40 pounds I gained within a year and a half), so that's what I'm starting with. I've tried a couple times and failed since Child #2 was born last year, so I'm hoping that having some compatriots in the cause will help motivate me!
Nice to meet you all!
Mace
Introducing Mace
You have the best reasons in the world to eat more healthily and to lose weight: your health and your children. Good for you for making the decision to start doing things right! You'll find lots of support here, so browse around and jump right in! Be sure to check out the South Beach Diet forum. I'm sure you'll get lots of great advice, tips, and recipes there: 
