My family has gone on a health kick together. The galvanizing moment is so silly I can hardly admit it: My friend suggested for Halloween that I go as Britney Spears on the VMAs. I thought it was hilarious, but then realized that as much as people sniped about her being out of shape, she was still in WAY better shape than me. At the same time, I found a 28-day tone-up plan in a recent issue of SELF magazine. So I began the next week, and NT and AS have joined in whole-heartedly. We do cardio Monday, Tuesday and Saturday, and weights on Wednesday and Sunday. We've cut down a little on food, but decided not to do the calorie-counting thing because it took forever (and it was really hard to get our intake down to 1600 per day).

I can already see the difference in all our physiques after only a week and a half! It's so encouraging! I've also been logging my workouts on the self.com Web site, which helps me see how many minutes of exercise I've accumulated, and stay inspired.

Though the costume idea was the spark that got us started, we've also been watching makeover shows like How Clean Is Your House, Tim Gunn's Guide to Style and You Are What You Eat. We've got a handle on the housecleaning, and we recently pared our wardrobes down to only what fits and looks pretty good on us, and I'm fairly sure the shows affected that. So it's no wonder that we've focused on food and exercise as well, because of that third show.

And, since I've implemented the $5-per-workout reward program into our budget, sticking to the program means $75 more spending money between us per week--about 50% more than what we each normally get!