First, to introduce myself...

First to introduce myself. My name is Theresa, I'm a 32 year old mother of one son, and I am a Jillian Michaels maniac.

I did not come to this by watching The Biggest Loser. I actually LIKE that she's so hardcore. When I can keep up with someone that's so hardcore, it makes me feel hardcore too, and that's really motivating. :)

I didn't come by way of Jillian lightly.

My memory is fuzzy on if this happened in 2010 or 2011, but I was in line at Wal-Mart with my son, and we were discussing that I had started a new workout tape. He remarked that he thought that was a good thing for me to do, because, and he held his hands out in a circle, and his voice trailed off.

I responded that I didn't know what that meant. He shyly commented that he didn't want to say, and we both shrugged, and carried on with our conversation. In short order, we were back at the same point in the conversation. He again held his hands out, and again said he didn't want to say what it meant.

I sort of twisted his arm into it. He was visibly uncomforable having to repeat himself, and I made him do it anyway.

He said I was fat.

If the Wal-Mart floor could have opened up and swallowed me at that moment, I would have been perfectly OK with that. Fat? FAT?! I'm the FAT mom?! I was horrified. I'm OK with being alot of things - I'm OK with being the mom with the messy car. I'm OK with being the mom that never gets her roots touched up in a timely fashion. I'm OK with being the mom that never remembers to wear her wedding ring. But the FAT mom?! Oh, heck no. That is not OK.

And I KNOW. He didn't want to say it, and I twisted his arm. Plus, I also know that "fat" isn't a word that holds the same malice for kids that it holds for adults. But it was out there, just like a little verbal atom bomb, and oh no, that was not going to be the way that this thing was going down!

So it took me some time of bumbling around, begging for a Weight Watchers membership (which I still haven't gotten, on my husbands assertion that it's too pricy, and can't pay for myself, given that being a stay at home mom doesn't pay much...), and trying to figure out what on earth I was going to do to fix this problem, before I came up on the wonder that is Jillian Michaels.

I flirted around with 30 Day Shred a handful of times. I'd start, do pretty well, and sprain my ankle and have to stop. Or I'd start, do pretty well, and tweak my knee and have to stop. So I spent alot of time flirting with it, but never finishing. Probably four or five months, anyway.

Well baby, I'M BACK.

I'm going to work my way through each of Jillian's videos, and post the results, complete with Before & After pictures, for everyone to see here. I'll post my honest thoughts about each video as I do it, and you can see real results for yourself.

I have become kind of obsessed with looking at other peoples Before & After pictures, but I never see them for people my size. Take heart, people that are my size - here's the pictures for you! :)

Like I said - I am OK with being alot of things. But I am not OK with being the fat mom. Fat mom, get out of the way - the Jillian Michaels Maniac is HERE! :)