Clarification and Intro to Me

A quick clarification on the rules. Someone pointed out to me that as LDS people we fast once a month, which means skipping meals. If you do fast, go ahead and give yourself the point for not skipping meals since you are exercising self-control and living your religion. :) Yes, that's one free point a month you can get! :) Also, you have to post on Mondays to get the bonus point. That point will list your points for the week and then the point will be added into the next week's points (since the points go from Monday to Sunday). Please let me know if you have any other questions.

So, here's a little about me. I am Denise, and I started this fitness challenge as a way to motivate me to FINALLY lose weight and be healthier overall. I have been overweight basically all of my life, but weighing in at 231.4 this morning means I'm at my biggest ever. What an accomplishment! ;) I did the fitness challenge during my last pregnancy and after I had the baby I was down to 221. I felt great (comparably). Then stress/life happened and I gained 10 pounds just like that. Why do I think food is such a stress relief?!? I have five children, and you'd think that'd keep me busy enough to get plenty of exercise and not enough time to snack so much. Having no treats -- especially after 8 p.m. -- is going to be hard, but I'm really going to dig in and see what I can do.

This summer I had a little mini mission reunion with some women from my LDS mission. I didn't like how the picture turned out:

Bet you would have guessed I'm the one on the far right, huh? ;) Too bad I happened to stand next to her. I feel huge! Doesn't help that these women are all thin, but I really didn't like the look of myself in this picture. I'm hoping to lose 20+ pounds over the next 12 weeks so this year's family pictures look great. :) Good luck to you all -- I'm excited for this challenge.

Please post a little intro to yourself so we can all know who we're supporting (or, rather, who the competition is ... ;) . Remember this post doesn't count as a bonus point (you don't get that until next week's points), but it'd be great to get to know everyone better.