Staci G. sent an email applauding my recent weight loss. When I wrote back to let her know that I’ve now lost a total of 14 1/2 lbs. in the past 30 days, she fired off an immediate request that I share details about my workout routine on the blog.

I’m happy to do so — especially since I didn’t have anything else in mind to write about today — but keep in mind: (a) I’m not a fitness trainer; (b) I don’t claim that what I’m doing would work for you, it’s simply what’s working for me; and (c) I’m not at all efficient about exercise so doing a 90 minute workout actually requires a 2-hour commitment for me.

And, no, that’s not a typo: I’m setting aside 2 hours out of my day to exercise 6 days per week. Before someone wastes time typing in the comments “Oh, I don’t have that kind of time every day” let me just point out that YES YOU DO. If you’ve got time to read blogs and comment on them, you’ve got time you could be exercising. You’ve simply made a choice not to.

It’s no coincidence that I’ve been blogging less while exercising more. That’s a choice I’ve made for my life, and now that I’m seeing the benefits — losing weight without an outrageously restrictive diet, better sleep, less joint pain, clearer skin and seriously lower stress levels — it’s a choice I intend to stick with. Because, as I mentioned before, it works for me… but you may need to find something else that works for you.

That said, here’s what I’m doing:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
• 10 minutes yoga (usually with Wii Fit) to warm up
• 30 minutes “Sweat I/II” from Power90 In-Home Boot Camp
• 10 minutes “free run” on Wii Fit hitting 1.5 miles
• 15 minutes cardio workout with My Fitness Coach
• 30 minutes “free step” on Wii Fit at fastest pace

Total minutes: 95 per day

Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday
• 25 minutes yoga with Wii Fit to warm up
• 15 minutes cardio workout with My Fitness Coach
• 30 minutes “Sculpt I/II” from Power90 In-Home Boot Camp
• 15 minutes “free step” on Wii Fit at fastest pace
• 5 minutes balance games on Wii Fit to cool down

Total minutes: 90 per day

Yes, it’s a lot of exercise. Yes, I’m sore in the mornings. Yes, I get tempted every single day to skip my workout. But I won’t, because giving into that temptation is exactly what helped me get fat in the first place. (Okay, that and a hell of a lot of pizza.)

And what’s really strange about it is that I AM LOVING EXERCISE these days. So, okay, seeing the scale dip lower each morning might be part of it. But the majority of it comes from simply knowing that I’m doing what I know, deep down, is the right thing to do if I want to lose weight.

Which reminds me: it’s time for me to get offline. See, I have some shopping to do now that I need yet another pair of smaller-sized jeans.

Three weeks ago today I got a Wii Fit, mostly in the hope of adding a little more exercise to my day. Little did I know at the time that it would become downright addictive to the point where I’m exercising over an hour a day. Gladly.

In fact, I’ve been enjoying the exercise so much that I also bought My Fitness Coach for the Wii. Let me just tell you, although I’ve been busting my butt doing the Wii Fit workouts — doing both the 20-minute step exercise and the long-distance run daily in addition to the full menu of yoga, strength training and balance games — the Fitness Coach workout really brings on the burn.

Oddly enough, I mean that in the nicest way: after 40-60 minutes with the Wii Fit and a 20-minute Fitness Coach workout, I feel amazing. Or, rather, I get to feeling that way once my breath returns to normal and the sweating stops.

Yeah, it’s a lot of exercise. It’s one thing to say to yourself, “Self, I’m going to exercise for 60-90 minutes today” — the recommended amount for weight loss — and it’s another thing to do it. But doing it I am.

In all honesty, I get out of bed every single morning thinking up excuses not to exercise. (I’m tired. My legs are sore. I worked out plenty yesterday so one day off won’t hurt. I need to clean house. I don’t feel like it.) But that’s the kind of thinking that helped me gain weight in the first place, the kind that led me to believe I could lose weight if I’d just find the right diet and perhaps the right weight loss pills. Three years and countless diets later, and it’s obvious to me that dieting alone (with or without pills) isn’t going to do it.

Surprisingly enough, even though I argue with myself over exercising the entire time I’m driving my son to school, by the time I get home I’m actually in the mood to work out after all. Maybe it’s just that I’m tired of my own whining? Or maybe — just maybe — it’s because I’m seeing great results.

As of today — three weeks after I started exercising and watching what I eat — I’ve lost 9 1/2 pounds. But wait, there’s more! I’ve also lost 1 1/2 inch in my waist and 1 inch from my butt. And my chronic joint pain? It’s gone, baby, gone. (Yes, I still get sore muscles regularly — but so what?)

With results like that, I’m not about to give up. And that, perhaps, is the best response to all of those early-morning “I don’t feel like it” excuses: I don’t feel like being fat anymore, either.

At some point in the past two weeks I started enjoying exercise. No, that doesn’t accurately describe it: I love it.

I love no longer shaking as I hold formerly difficult yoga poses. I chase the burn on strength training and weight-lifting, gladly adding reps until I can’t take anymore… then resting a bit and tackling another set. Aerobics? Bring ‘em on, babe. In the evenings, even though I’ve done my one-hour workout earlier in the day, I’d rather be doing the Wii Fit freestyle step workout while watching TV than just sitting there.

As strange as it sounds, all that exercising lately has translated into serious pain relief thanks to those lovely, lovely endorphins. (Granted, being exhausted by 9 pm may help distract me from pain, too. But as they say: it’s all good.)

So what’s the scale saying? Eh, it depends on the day. At first it frustrated me, seeing my Wii Fit BMI and Weight line graph looking like a roller coaster; one day my weight would be down 1 pound, the next it would be up 2. And, of course, when the thing asks you to indicate the cause of your weight gain, “retaining a hell of a lot of water” isn’t among the options.

But that’s fine. I’m eating right and avoiding booze, and according to my daily nutrition tracker I’m getting roughly 1450 calories per day. As far ax exercise, Between my 60-minute daily Wii Fit workout and the other 20-30 minutes exercising Wii-free, I’m burning roughly 535 calories per day. Weight loss will happen. It’s bound to. Oddly enough, for the first time in my life I can say I’m not exercising to lose weight; I’m just exercising because it’s fun!

Hello, my name is Kate and I’m an endorphin addict.

I stink. No, I mean it. I just finished my one-hour Wii Fit workout for the day and I reek. Of course, being a chubby Mommy, I’m going to be sweating for the next, oh, half hour or so. That means showering now would only be a waste of time — by the time I was clean, dried off and moisturized it would be time to do it all again.

So I’m sitting here doing my damndest to stay downwind of myself. Not an easy task, even if I am getting pretty good at that yoga thing. And speaking of yoga, today’s workout consisted of 22 minutes of it followed by 15 minutes of strength training and 20 minutes of aerobics.

I tried out the “freestyle step routine” for the first time. Basically, it’s 10 minutes of stepping on and off the balance board in time with an annoying ding sound emitted by the Wiimote. The only good part about it: being able to watch a news channel while still getting my Wii Fit credit for exercise time. The entire fun factor was gone, though, so I doubt I make that a regular part of my morning workouts. May start doing it in the evening while whatever my remote-controlling husband insists on tuning in.

Aside: Hold on, let me see if I’m still sweating. Yep. Eww.

While we’re on the topic of my husband, tomorrow he’s heading to Korea for some stupid business trip or another. Why, no, I don’t have many more details beyond that. What more do I need to know than he is once again going to be traveling, and I am once again going to be solo-parenting.

Another aside: Yes, I realize many of you are single moms, and I feel for you. I did that route myself for 8 years with my daughter. And while it may sound like I’m whining about spending the next few weeks doing what you do every day, keep in mind that I scrub his underwear, pick up his socks, wipe his balls of phlegm off his clothing and our furniture and generally tend to all of those other wifely duties that are part of my deal for not having to solo parent a/k/a marriage.

Anyway. The nice part about VH’s trip this time is that I have a Wii Fit to entertain me in the evenings. Also, I can stop recording all of those stupid shows he insists on watching every night, and maybe even I’ll get a chance to catch the finale of Real Housewives of Orange County (the women I so love to hate).

Oh, and in case you’re curious, I am STILL sweating. Also, I’ve lost 5 pounds in the 2 weeks since getting my Wii Fit. Which means that despite the stench of my armpits I can still savor the sweet smell of success.

As you know, I was quite excited about my Wii Fitness board and disc finally arriving. Finally, I thought, a fun way to work off those extra pounds and, hopefully, get rid of my saddlebags (which are starting to resemble Delsey luggage).

You know those screens on exercise DVDs that warn you to see a doctor before beginning an exercise program? Yeah, I don’t read those, either, and that goes for the Wii Fitness warning, too.

So, Day One on Wii Fitness went something like this:

• Weigh in.
• Groan.
• Made a fool of myself doing various games for a while.
• Was stunned to find I’d worked out for almost 90 minutes.
• Felt proud.

Day Two on Wii Fitness went something like this:

• Weigh in.
• Groan.
• Did the Super Hula Hoop game for six rounds, huffing and puffing but still having fun.
• Decided I’d do just one more round before quitting for the day.
• Threw out my back.
• Spent the next two days taking pain meds and wimpering.

Tomorrow I plan to get back on the thing again now that my back is done spasming. So, although I don’t have any weight loss to report yet, I do have something to share: the combination of Flexeril and Vicodin is goooood.

We’ve all heard it: the best way to get into an exercise routine is to find an exercise that you love.

So, I tried loving my exercise bike but I just couldn’t escape the fact that its seat made my ass hurt. Then I tried loving my treadmill, but it’s so unbelievably noisy that I couldn’t hear my iPod even with the earbuds shoved in as far as they’d go, and forget about trying to hear the TV across the room.

Come to think of it, there are a lot of styles of exercise I’ve tried to love over the years. Tae Bo? Oh, no. That bulked up my legs. Step aerobics? Same deal plus I twisted my ankle. Regular aerobics? By the time I’ve learned a DVD well enough to go along with the routine it’s usually no longer much of a challenge. After that eye full of crotch I got the last time I tried walking in my neighborhood, I’ve pretty much given that up, too.

But I *heart* my Wii. Seriously. Oh, I know: it’s a video game, for chrissakes, it doesn’t “really” count as exercise. Yet it does, at least according to my scale. That half-hour a day I spend playing Wii tennis as if I were on a real court? It leaves me drenched with sweat and feeling well worked-out… without the annoyance of having to wear one of those stupid skirts. (And did I mention that I bought it on sale?)

Now I’ve decided to take the plunge and buy a Wii Fit. I’ve heard and read about so many people who’ve found the Wii Fit to be the answer to their hate-to-exercise problem. In fact, some of them claim that because it’s a video game you don’t even realize you’re exercising (though a few who’ve been going hardcore on the aerobic games say otherwise).

The only downside about ordering one is that I really don’t have any motivation to exercise until it gets here. But that’s okay: I’m pretty certain I’m still getting a workout dashing to the front door every time I hear a car drive by in the hopes that it’s finally the FedEx guy bringing my Wii Fit!

Having spent a small fortune on various pieces of exercise equipment only to watch them gather dust, laundry and pet hair, I’ve decided I’m not spending a dime on that sort of stuff this year. Not one dime. Instead, I’m hopping on the “re-purpose, recycle, re-use” band wagon by turning household junk into exercise equipment. Sure, it makes my exercise area look a little junky, but so do the piles of potato chip wrappers that sat on my treadmill over the holidays.

Some of the stuff I’m using:

• Old water bottles – Although I stopped buying bottled water, I hadn’t yet taken the empties down to the recycling center. Last week I grabbed a pair and filled them with rice for instant 2 lb. hand weights which comfortably fit my hand.
• A hard-sided suitcase – After reading that I can burn close to 500 calories while watching TV by doing step exercises, I decided to try working step exercise in throughout my workday, too. So I grabbed my old Samsonite suitcase — which is currently filled with books — and have been using it as an exercise step in my office. (Of course, this won’t work if you’ve got soft-sided stuff like Swiss Army luggage).
• My son’s beach ball – Five minutes squeezing this thing between my knees while working at my desk gives a major inner thigh workout!
• My cat – As anyone owned by cats knows, they want to be in the middle of whatever you’re doing. After nearly hurting myself hurdling over my cat repeatedly, I decided to work with this habit of his, particularly when I’m doing more challenging yoga poses. Just knowing that I’m likely to squash my furry best friend, who loves to lay on the floor beneath me while I do the bridge pose, gives me a serious incentive not to wimp out.

I stopped using my upstairs office over the holidays, in part because it was needed as a spare room when we had house guests. While they were in town I kept my laptop on the kitchen table, the place where I most often worked for the past four years until getting my own home office last fall.

Once our house guests left, well, it just seemed convenient to keep my laptop in the kitchen while my husband and son were both home all day over the winter break. I also gained 6 pounds over the holidays, and I am absolutely convinced these two things are related.

Now, to be honest, I’d managed to unexpectedly drop 7 pounds in mid-December in part because I was unbelievably sick. So gaining back 6 of those pounds while disappointing, still means that I ended last month with a net weight loss. For that I have to once again give the credit to Sensa, which is by far the easiest diet I’ve been on.

But a lot of the reason for the gain is obvious: stationed in the kitchen, snacking was all too easy and the fridge was all too close. When I’m in my office on the top floor of the house, it’s just the opposite.

Having to walk up and downstairs from my office to the kitchen definitely reduces the number of snacks I eat throughout the day, as I find myself weighing goodies with the time and effort it takes to get them. Even when I’m not raiding the fridge, I still have to run up- and downstairs to do laundry or answer the phone, even to go outside to the deck for a cigarette.

So as of today I’m back to working at the desk in my office. I’ve managed to do four loads of laundry. I’ve gone downstairs twice to eat meals: sliced fruit and scrambled egg whites for breakfast; a tossed green salad with fat-free dressing for lunch. Oh, and I’ve run down two other times for cigarettes. That makes for 8 round trips with a total of 8 trips with 13 steps each way, or 208 stairs altogether. No, that doesn’t sound like a lot but I guarantee you that my thighs feel the burn. Something else I guarantee: I ain’t leaving my desk until it’s time to go get my son from school!

Best thing about my new office space: having plenty of space and my own TV. Now, instead of tripping over the theater seating in our family room, I can lock my door and do aerobics and Pilates.

Not that I am, mind you. But I could.

Come to think of it, I may have to move my treadmill desk upstairs now. Heh, I may never come out!

Nope, I am still not exercising. That 20-minute walk on the treadmill I took last night while my husband watched TV? That wasn’t exercise, I informed him.

See, Halloween is just around the corner and that means the rest of the holidays are on their way, too. This year I think my mother’s coming for Thanksgiving, and since she’s never visited us in this house before I want the place to look perfect. Or, at least as perfect as I can get it without having to tear the place down and rebuild.

So, knowing I have plenty of cleaning, de-cluttering, reorganizing, vacuuming, mopping, polishing, painting and drinking ahead of me, I figure I’m going to need all of the strength and stamina I can get. And don’t get me started about the near-marathon sales shopping I’ll be doing come 2008 Black Friday, the one day on which I’m guaranteed my mother won’t be interested in “together time” since she can’t stand crowded stores.

Those dumb bells I dusted off this morning and moved downstairs near the TV? The exercise bands I took back from my kid who’d been using them as tethers for the fort he’d built in the guest room? The sneakers I finally fetched out from under the bed and wore for the first time today? Those have nothing to do with exercise.

I’m training for all of that work and shopping the holiday season will require this year.