3 Pounds, 17 more to go..

It's been 10 days, and I've lost a grand total of 3 whole pounds! (if I can trust the junky Wal Mart scale that reads something completely different everytime you step on it, even 30 seconds later).
It's mega birthday season, with Jake's, Jacob's and various family member's birthdays all falling within a short period of time. With all the cake and crap food circulating around, it's a wonder I've lost anything at all (if indeed I really have...).
I threw a healthy food birthday party for Jacob, which was fantastic: snacks were grapes, 3 types of melon, those Flat Earth chips, and low sugar (aspartame free) juice drinks. The kids could have cared less than if it was Doritos and dip, they loved it anyway. My mom threw the tiniest monkey wrench into the mix by offering coney dogs (??), chips, and broccoli-cauliflower salad (which I love, but is full of FAT), but I abstained fairly well. Jacob's cake was probably the best I've ever made, with a new recipe of milk chocolate meringue frosting I made up (tastes like the filling from a Milky Way candy bar), and I only had a little tiny sliver, which was painful as all get-out.

I worked my ASS off yesterday in the gym; I was nasty sweaty and actually kind of smelly after 45 minutes on the elliptical (Thusday night TV is the BEST for mindless exercise, as is the B-52's "Private Idaho" and the Prodigy's "Voodoo People"), 20 minutes of weights, and another 10 on the slidy thingy before they kicked me out at closing time. Man! I love to exercise! When I think of all the things I could do if I only had the time, it blows my mind: I could be buff and slim, speak several languages, go back to school (I'm thinking Nurse Anesthetist these days... I love to put people to sleep. I think I'd also like to work as a NP/PA in the ER/Urgent Care, as I love to suture and deal with bloody messes, too. Decisions, decisions...)

Now that the kids are getting older I can see the fruits of my labors and see my way to the finish line, where I can spend more time pursuing the things I put on hold to raise them: hobbies, exercise, self improvement, education and career; things I knew would interfere with my being fully there for them while they were young. I am soooooo ready to get some of those things back, my lean, muscled body being one of them.