I've been going to the gym really regularly for a few years now, but the extent of my gameplan has been "upper body today, lower body Wednesday, everything Friday."

At first I saw progress, but I haven't really seen much progress lately.

Then today, I decided to work out and lose weight FOR something. 

This fall's high school marching band season.

(But wait, aren't you a 53-year-old mom?)

Yes I am, but I have a son in marching band, and my husband and I recently stepped up our band parent game and joined the board of the band parents association. The past two seasons our participation consisted of mainly watching the games with the other parents, but our high school band is also stepping up its game and likely will be needing more help in the field crew, ie: band parents who schlep equipment around the fields.

Here's video of a field crew (not ours) in action:

If you haven't watched a marching band halftime show lately, it's far more than a bunch of kids marching in circles playing music. There are platforms, huge drum sets, speakers, marimbas, props, and screens involved, and the parents are the ones doing the work.

I've found my inspiration. 

This fall, I will not be sitting on the sidelines. I'll be schlepping.

I downloaded bodybuilding.com's BodySpace app to my phone and scheduled Jamie Eason's LiveFit workout schedule to it. Today was Day 1 and it was great to have a plan to follow. The workouts start off with four a week, then five, and finally six. The great thing is the app and the plan are free.

There's an eating plan, too, but I haven't looked too far into it yet. It's basically clean eating, which is what I'm already doing. 

It occurred to me that perhaps I need a reason to get the weight loss going again, and this summer training plan is just the thing.

I've just been going through the motions with no real reason or goal in sight, and now I have one!

Band parent shirt in a smaller size this year!