Why I do it for her

Look at this face, and tell me it's not irresistible...

This is my daughter, Angelica. She was two months old when this picture was taken. On Thursday, she'll be three months old. I love her more than anything else. You never know until you're a parent how true your love for your child can really be.

The problem that Angelica has is that her mommy (me) is incredibly out of shape and very overweight, which means that the likelihood that I'll be in her life to see her high school graduation, college graduation, wedding, and my grandchildren is significantly diminished.

Started my pregnancy with her at 244. The day before she was born (via c-section) I was 300.

Now, three months after her birth, I'm at 273, and at 5'6, that gives me a BMI of 44. The BMI range for "morbid obesity" is anything over 41.

Frightening.

So, going forward, it's time to start doing better for myself. In the past, this has been my biggest pitfall. I start a diet, make big plans, but never seem to completely follow through - I didn't really have it in me to care one way or another what happens to me.

But now things are different. Now...she needs me. She'll need me to be there to cry at her graduation and jump for joy at her engagement and melt at the joy of holding my first grandchild. She needs me to be healthy enough to hold her for more than an hour without my arms aching and strong enough to run around like mad with her once she gets to be a toddler. She deserves that.

So, from this moment on, my lack of motivation be damned, I'm doing this for her.

My goal weight is 150. That will bring me back into the healthy weight range. Ideally I'd like to get down to 135, but will be happy just knowing I'm healthy. That means I have to lose 123 pounds.