Hello September! This is the only time of the year, besides New Years, where a fresh start feels possible, which I will attribute to the end of summer vacations and the start of a new school year. While I’m not in school myself and haven’t gotten much time away, I definitely feel the affects of the end of the season through my students and their lives.

Summer is such a nice, relaxed season, but everyone gets lazy during it. I am no exception, as you can see from my blog hiatus. Time to get back at it! And time to get in shape, finally. Ok, I’m not in terrible shape. I know plenty of people who would love to have my body. I’m 33 years old, 5’4″, 130 pounds, and a size 4. Sounds pretty good, right? Except I have 24% body fat. I’m what they call skinny fat. I’m a decent size and can make it through a workout, but I’m flabby and soft in all the wrong places. In normal clothes its not so bad, but put me in sparkly spandex dance costume and you see every little bit of pudge. I would love to be able to wear any dress, but many of the ones my boss has offered for me to borrow from her look terrible on me because of wear I’m holding fat. My goal before my next competition (Halloween!) is to lower my body fat and start getting cut.

Here’s the plan:

Reduce bad carbohydrates (so hard! sugar always tastes so good and is in everything!)

Drink more water (65 ounces each day!)

Exercise! My exercise plan incorporates cardio and weights. A good variety of exercises should keep me from getting bored, and having numbers to challenge me I should stay motivated. I’ll be mixing Zumba, T-25, weight training, and some basic treadmill running to go along with my already established yoga and dance training. Wish me luck! I’m hoping to have results like this: