This weekend we settled our Christmas plans: meeting my family in Maui for a week!  I have visions of bringing my running shoes for a few jogs along the beach, getting up for yoga at sunrise and getting some use out of my bikinis.  Even though I live in California, the beach always seems like too much of a pain and I don't really like to swim, so they get relegated to occaional hottub wear.  Tropical beaches with nice warm water are a whole different story though. 

But of course to actually make any of that happen I need to plan it out and stay motivated.  I could easily bring my running shoes and end up sleeping until noon every day, especially if I haven't been running consistently.  Yesterday I went jogging with a friend of mine.  We kept it very slow (16-minute miles) partly because we're out of shape and partly because my friend has knee issues and needs to be careful.  Even at that pace though I was feeling tired.  When I'm in the habit of running consistently I usually settle into a comfortable 12-minute mile.  Which means I need to do more running!  If I could get it up to just a couple of times a week that would be a massive improvement and would help me a lot on all fronts--weight loss, fitness, making my ass look nice.

And there are other things to look forward to.  A close friend of mine is getting married at the end of November and I'll be a bridesmaid.  I'm the fattest bridesmaid.  Now it's not realistic for me to try and not be the fattest bridesmaid because these girls are all size 4 (except one who's a size 6, but she's a lot taller than I am so basically just as skinny as the size 4 girls).  My goal weight won't make me that skinny and I've never really wanted to be that skinny, I don't need a gap between my thighs.  But if I could drop a dress size over the next two and a half months I would probably be hot enough that it wouldn't matter. 

So focusing on looking forward to motivate me to keep up the work.  This week I let my calories slip a little bit a few days (though exercise should have balanced it out).  But I will lose the weight much faster if I keep my intake under tighter control.  I've still been very good about not eating pastries and candy, which makes a huge difference alone.  And I just need to pick up the exercise and specifically the running.  No sweat :)