Introducing Fitness Fridays

Recently I have decided to get into a more regular fitness routine. A little backstory before I dive right in:

I started dancing when I was three - tap, jazz and ballet. I traded tutus for cleats when I was 11 and started playing soccer. When I got to high school, I played three sports a year - swimming in the fall, indoor track in the winter, and soccer in the spring. I also kept with tap in the evenings. Even then, I was never totally happy with how I looked, though in retrospect, I must have been in great shape!

I got to college and basically stopped doing any physical activity. However, I moved into a 5th floor walk-up for my junior and senior year, and wound up losing a few pounds and finally felt pretty good! (But man, those were a lot of steep stairs, especially with laundry or groceries!) And THEN I moved to Syracuse to work full time, and though I was a member of the JCC, and played some sports recreationally with friends, for the first time, I found myself in an almost totally sedentary lifestyle - wake up, drive to work, sit at work, drive home, sit on the couch. Combined with a job that I spent a lot of time cooking and eating at, I gained about 25 pounds in the three years that I was there. At my June 2010 wedding, I was actually at my highest weight ever. I didn't love the way I looked in my wedding photos, all of the sudden I couldn't really deny it anymore. Last October, I decided to make a change. I joined Weight Watchers online and began spin classes. Over the next 6 months, I actually lost 15 pounds! I plateaued though, and with a very busy summer job, and a negligence for WW, I gained almost 5 pounds back.

I made the decision this fall that yo-yo-ing is over. I rejoined Weight Watchers online, I bit the bullet and joined New York Sports Club and I have committed to making a real and lasting change. Also, I will be participating in a 12-week program that my friend is piloting - she is a personal trainer and creates online plans with fitness and nutrition and I am happy to try it out. I'll be blogging out that more soon.

So what is Fitness Fridays? Every Friday I will check in with my workouts from the week, and anything related that came up through the week, including any weight changes. Since my last weigh-in on Friday, I have 11 pounds to go to my goal and I've been pretty stuck for a while. I've also taken "before" photos, but I'm not confident enough to share them yet! I hope that you'll share some of your fitness and nutrition tips with my on Fitness Fridays, and hopefully I can give you some ideas about working out for the week as well!

What do you think? Have you had your own up and down experience? What have you done to make a lasting change?