118, 119, and up and up again..I blame them. I blame my child in terrible twos for making me savor that half eaten cookie, or than half eaten bowl of Fettucine Alfredo. I blame my dear husband for making me drink just another drink with fat beyond recommended intake. Whatever the reason was, I did gain a few pounds since last September. Not too many that I have to run to the mall for a quick next size shopping, but just enough to give me a nice muffin top when I wear my skinny jeans. Just enough to make me hold my stomach muscles tight occasionally.. Just enough to push all those too tight tees on a side of the wardrobe.. A little flesh between bone and skin is always desirable, but a little more than that is definitely not. Still, I didn't care much. Winter was in and I could hide under jackets and high heels. But reality sunk in when I saw that dear husband was also gaining with me. And I read that men have problems losing weight unlike women. Read about the health risks each pound brought in. I had take charge of the family diet and exercise habits, and become the diet manager.

Spousal competetion is a big thing when it comes to exercising. We bought bikes and free weights, and started working out together. It is easy to give up when you are alone, but when it's the two of you, you kind of push each other to limits. There are moments when my dear husband tries to sabotage everything by eating out, and eating good. There are times when I feel that life is too short to be dieting at this age and suddenly go back to eating whatever I see. Cookies and icecreams are hard to control.

I made a diet plan for us, and stuck it on the fridge, and followed it. I cooked for the entire week, and packed our lunch boxes so that we don't end up eating out which can add on a lot of fat. I made portions of fruits and snack veggies, and put them in ziplock bags so that we only took how much we had to eat, and didn't feel bad to do so. I put a box on the dining table and told my husband that anyone who messes up the diet, or misses exercise without valid reasons will put twenty dollars in that box, and it is for the other person to spend however they want to. Shoes, CDs, wahtever, no questions asked. That has worked like a charm. SO far no deposits.

We are back to our normal shapes and sizes as before now. And the diet has become a boring regimen. Recently we tweaked it a little and stopped counting calories. But it is still made up of greens and leans. No soda, no extra salt on anything. Friday dinners out are not monitered- means you can have your good dessert after dinner, and a drink before. But we have stopped buying any kind of junk food to keep at home. If you have it, you will eat it. Now, no matter how much I crave for an icecream, I have to go the fridge and make do with fruits, or some kind of smoothie with those fruits. There are no chips at home, so I have eat those veggies for a snack. Terrible two eats a lot of fat filled food, but I have made a rule to dump it immidiately after she is done eating- I don't eat any left overs, or put them in the fridge for later. I drink icewater a lot of times in a day with some lemon juice.

Another spicy drink I take everyday these days is V8 with 1 tsp lemon juice, a little crushed pepper, a few springs of fresh mint or coriander with same amount of water and ice. It is hard ot dperive yourself of all the goodies in life, and also beat the blues from diet food. But if you make a little effort to make it a life style, not a punishment and give yourself a little wiggle room every now and then, you can make it...

Oh, another thing I noticed is I bought a whole lot of junk snacks when I went to Costco/ Trader Joes with my husband and kids. If I went alone, I brought in only what was needed. I hear boos when I open only one type of desert for the lunch box, and nothing for after dinner, or when I bring in soy milk and not the juice, but I am not giving up or giving in.