Did you say donuts?

So this is me. I'm married to a wonderful (pretty damn hot guy) husband, Jerry. We have two kids, Gianna who's 5 and Anthony aka Big Tony who is almost 3. Again, this is me at home, working and watching my kids play. If you are like me and run around all day cleaning, working from home and taking care of your kids...then you too may be making very unhealthy choices for yourself. Usually the kids, husband and house come first before me. STOP! This has to change.

So I have a TON of excuses of why I haven't lost the baby weight and I had a TON of excuses before the kids to be "FLUFFY". Let's see ummm...I like drinking wine and beer. I am a food lover. I am a stress eater, its how I handle stress and loss. At least I have my pretty face, my husband loves me for me. And my biggest one, my back. After giving birth to two toddlers (just ask my OB he'll tell ya) by having two c-sections my back has been toast. Years of physical therapy, shots, hospitals, chiropractors, MRI's blah blah blah. I FINALLY found someone that fixed my nerves (without surgery) and I started to feel good. I got myself a FitBit and decided yep I'm FINALLY going to lose the weight. Had a sllllooooowww start on my own of course.

Then I got a call from my cousin Jess asking me if I wanted to be a part of an 8 week weight loss challenge with the Steve Harvey Show. Ummm YEAH!

I've recently lost a colleague of mine to cancer and her mantra was "NO EXCUSES". She was such an inspiration and her loss hit me in the gut! No more excuses Nicole, time to get healthy. Love and miss you Lynn McDonald.

So, with all that said I am partaking on this crazy weight loss journey with 2 of my cousins and 2 other amazing individuals that I've just started to get to know. Jess Loren, AJ Popov, Ric Gruber Jr and Katie Price are my teammates. We have the MOST AMAZINGLY POWERFUL trainer, Lacey Stone from Lacey Stone Fitness. Lacey has graciously paired us up with Candy Morales from Flywheel to help be her eyes and ears here in Chicago. Lacey of course is an LA Superstar! Together we 7 are a fierce bunch!

You'll have to see who the competition is and what the prize is to be won by watching the Steve Harvey Show this Friday, January 8th at 2pm CT on Ch 5. Check your local listings if necessary.

Then head on back here to get inspired, see my food plan, exercise plan, struggles and victories! Hopefully I can inspire more than a few Mom's out there that its never to late to make some changes and get healthy.

Here's to a healthier and improved ME in 2016!