Jeezeola! In April I weighed (gulp — I try never to announce the real number but here goes) 143 pounds. And I was feeling better about my body. I fit into clothes easily and was determined to get back down to 135 or even 130 by the end of the year.bathroom scales

After I sat around motionless for a week following my kidney stone surgery and sat in the hospital with Victor when he was deathly ill and sat with my mom and sat while I flew to Australia and Illinois and Detroit and Grenada and sat while I drove 2500 miles back and forth to Illinois and DC and sat motionless again while my poor toes healed after surgery, well, I gained a bunch of weight.

It wasn’t all lack of activity. It was food, too. I ate and ate and ate. Nerves? Stress? No excuse. I can usually push away from the table and be OK with hunger rumbles but not lately. I am insatiable. And 161 pounds. Do you know how much I hate saying that? I weighed 163 pounds when I delivered my first baby for Pete’s sake!

So this has to stop and stop right NOW. First things first — I have to get moving again. Move, move move. Get up from the computer. Stop watching reruns of “Restaurant Impossible” and “The Newsroom.” Get on the treadmill if it’s raining. Or the elliptical. Or the recumbent bike (see? I have all the tools I need, just not the push to use them).Go run agility with the dogs. Take them on a walk. Buy a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps a day (or one of those tempting new fitness bands).

Maybe I should even join a gym again (dread and horror). I bought the treadmill, elliptical and bike so I could stay home and work out, But let’s face it, I haven’t really been in good physical condition since 2002. OMG. That’s a long haul of flab and disintegrating muscle tone. Ugh. I need some encouragement. But not the kind that says “oh, I just went to Curves and I love working out now.” I will never love working out. I will not go to Curves (I disagree with the politics of its male owner). I need some ADDiva friends.

So here’s what I am going to do: create a special Healthy ADDivas group in Gentle Nudge Me (that’s the online accountability program). I am asking five more ADDivas to join me in this down and dirty group that will actually get healthy in 2014. It’s a year long commitment. Seriously. It will take a year to set these new habits in cement in our lives. Food. Exercise. Water. Supplements. We’ll even have a guest nutritionist on board (she’s an ADDiva, too). I’ll bring in some resources but for the most part, I’m not the expert here. I am just part of the group, struggling with my own issues of non-compliance and inconsistency.

Wanna be part of Linda’s Heathy ADDiva group? Email me (’cause this is a spur of the moment idea and I haven’t set up anything yet). Is it free? Well, no ’cause I have to pay license fees for Gentle Nudge Me — I can’t afford to lose money while I lose weight! Anyway — email me at linda@addiva.net – The first five ADDivas who sign up will get to be in the group with me.

Can I/we do it? Can I wear size 12 without holding my breath? Will I dare appear in a bathing suit at the ADDiva retreat? Can I keep up with Milli when she runs the agility course? Stay tuned. There are a lot of days ’til January 2015!