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Introduction Text Hi, I'm Valerie from Portland, OR. The quick low-down on me is that I'm a mom, a wife, a quilter, and a martial artist. And most recently, I've also become a runner! Quite an interesting combination, don't you think? LOL! My journey with SparkPeople has been an amazing one. When I started, I was about 40 pounds heavier than I should have been. Two young children and a lack of understanding of my bad eating habits left me overweight, out of energy, and wondering what had happened to me. About 4 or 5 years ago, I decided something had to change. That I was doing something wrong. After all, I was taking Taekwondo classes and exercising 3-5 times a week. There was no reason I should still be overweight! Or was there? I finally realized that all the exercise in the world won't help you unless you are also eating right. If calories in is greater than calories out, you're in trouble. With the help of SparkPeople's nutrition tracker, I began to watch my food intake. What a wake up call this was! It's so easy to underestimate the number of calories in food. Now that I have a better understanding, I'm confident that going forward I can maintain my weight and my health.

My goals include: * Maintain my current weight and health. * Gain muscle tone and strength, especially in my core. Gotta have awesome abs! :) * Continue running and increasing my speed and distance so I can run in a 10K in November 2010.

My exercise program: * I go to the gym 2-3 times per week. I worked with a trainer to develop a program, which I'm now following. * I continue to go to 3-5 Tae Kwon Do classes every week.





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