Answer: Wheww! Where to begin??? Okay, okay, let us start at the beginning, with your seemingly low self-esteem. My sistafriend, you must care enough about yourself to get fit, not depend on the encouragement of others. Sure, it would be nice to have the man in your life be on board with your fitness picture, because your fitness indirectly affects the fitness of the whole family, but to be frank, girlfriend, that’s YOUR size 10 and your heart and muscles to account for, and no one, but no one, is responsible for them but YOU! So for starters, thank the Creator that you’ve got those two beautiful queens in training (your four and six year olds). The four-year old alone is enough to get you on the road to recovery and keep you there. Can you say energy-run-a-muck? Kids her age have enough energy just in the normal course of what they do to keep you on your feet. But don’t take her energy for granted. According to the American Council on Exercise, only 37% of American kids are considered physically active by the time they reach high school age. Make your health and fitness a family affair.  If you don’t already have them, get bikes for yourself and your girls. It would be a good idea to get the fiancé in on this too. Go on nature walks with the family (especially the girls) and step up the pace for burning calories. Teach them about new flowers, trees, birds. I still remember the birds from walks with my mom as a kid. It seemed like a drag then, but I came to appreciate the walks as I grew older and understood the true added value. Get your kids help in doing yard work and work around the house, get out of the house on weekends and use it for quality family time to get movin'!

Answer: I love it (actually, I don’t) when people want to work on “just that part of my body that makes me sick”. Listen up, it’s much more useful to work on toning, strengthening, and making fit, your WHOLE body than trying to isolate muscle groups as though the others don’t need development or maintenance. First, you’ll have to do cardio at least 45 minutes a day four-five days a week, to tone and burn excess calories. By the way, this will help to slim thigh and booty “problem areas”. Here are a couple of exercises to let the strengthening begin… leg raises, which can be modified to increase energy output, are a good place to start. First, sit on the floor with your hands slightly behind you, extend one leg and bend the other at the knee. Pull the toes of your straight leg toward you and press the back of the knee down. Raise your straight leg six-eight inches off the floor then lower it slowly. Relax and repeat for a set of 10. Try side leg raises, back leg raises, and inner thigh leg raises for a variation. When it feels too easy and you can do them with little effort, add one pound ankle weights.