Ready to Crunch It in Panama

Hi to all! I am excited to get going with this challenge. My name is Ruth. I am a missionary wife and momma living in Panama, Central America. I have been married to a wonderful guy for the past eight years and we have three highly energetic, fun-loving children. I have spent time in Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico and now the lovely country of Panama. My life is always busy with lots going on in our family and ministry.

I am currently weighing in at 158-160 lbs. with some variance of a pound or two. Anytime we are in the States for furloughs or other reasons I gain about 10 pounds. Upon arrival back in Panama I usually drop 5-6 pounds fairly rapidly due to the heat and humidity.

My goals for this challenge are as follows:

1) Lose at least 10 pounds

2) Learn better eating habits as well as healthier food preparation.

3) Once and for all ditch the soda habit

4)Tone up and lose inches with exercise

I plan to cut out the "whites", sugar, flour, starchy veggies. I always lose when I do this, the hard part comes with not falling back into the bad habits over time.

As mentioned above, I plan to cut the soda habit. This is for a variety of reasons. I drink diet soda and know that it has horrible health implications with the alternative sweeteners etc. For some reason this is always the toughie for me!

I will be exercising at least 30 minutes per day and lifting weights every couple of days. I am a newbie at the exercise thing, but I have been at it for a couple of weeks now and I do appreciate the "on top of it" feeling that I get when I just do it.

I will be adding a pic as soon as I figure out how to do that.

Also want to say thank you for the opportunity to join your lovely group. Pressing forward....

Ruth