My quest for fitness

I decided about a month ago that it was time for me to get fit, partly for health reasons but mostly as I have booked a holiday abroad this year (long overdue) and want to look appropriately dressed.. not covered up in winter clothes! Although I don't think any amount of exercise will get me into a bikini just being able to get into a swimming costume without looking pregnant would be nice.

I wouldn't say I'm overweight but it did dawn on me that I actually weigh more now than I did when I was 9 months pregnant with my first son, although that was 15 years ago!

First to tackle the diet. As someone with a very sweet tooth I thought the first thing to give up would be biscuits, cake and chocolate. I started off well until my children bought me the biggest box of chocolate for mothers day and I'm sure I would've offended them if I didn't eat them all.
I must say I have done well on the biscuit front, usually I can't drink a cup of coffee without dunking but I have shown great willpower and have even started drinking green tea as well!
We have got this new found love for baking in my house and now everyone wants to bake cakes (they would now I've given up eating them) but I've decided that every girl needs a treat once in a while so a small slice here and there isn't going to harm me, is it?

Now for the hard bit, to actually get off my butt and move it! I'm on the move all day, I mean I've got 4 children and I work in a school so I don't know why everyone (including myself) has this perception that I'm lazy. I could happily walk for miles but nobody sees me running, if you do it probably means someone is chasing after me! So to start my exercise plan I've been using the children's Xbox Kinect to do 'zumba' and 'just dance' which is a pretty fun way to work out and the kids can join in with me.
Back to running. I don't know why I find it so difficult, it's the breathing, I seem to get out of breath after 2 mins and have to start walking again but I will conquer it and as I've signed up to do a sponsored run (on my bucket list)  in a couple of months I seem to have left myself no choice.

I'm pleased to say that I've gone from 10st 13lb to 10st 6lb so far and once I get the hang of running the fat should just fall off (here's hoping) and I will get down to my target weight of 9 and a half stone (also on my bucket list)