3 AM is a hope/despair sort of hour.

Maybe it’s the hour your eyes crack open in suffocating black, just the digital countdown glow of nine-to-five doom, just tick-tock gremlins and accumulated adult fears in the head with no stimulants or white noise to tune them out.

Or maybe you find it easier to conjure ethereal hopes out of the harsh light of day, easier to challenge Reality (the big-big R) past the witching hour, easier to nurture dreams in the gentle dark.

I tend towards the latter.

Which is good, because I need to dream big, because…I just weighed myself on the scale. Yeeeeeeesh! I have a LONG way to go. A lot of physical realities to crack. Many pounds to drop by September. But, this whole project is about dreams and aiming high, and, luckily, audacity is easier for me after midnight.

So I’ll be documenting this whole process of getting my soft (but cute, don’t forget cute) butt into shape. Training starts this week. I don’t have an exact system of diet and physical training worked out just yet (I’ll post those details as I work them in)—but I am starting by removing some of the worst items from my menu and a basic daily weight lifting routine and running. Once I get a bike, I’ll be able to add that into the mix.

I need to document myself with a "Before" picture and will take a proper one as soon as I have a real camera and spare set of hands to take it. All I have, this second, is my webcam and a little boredom (and making faces is still one of my favorite games).

Ugh…

The scale is frowning at me. But if I just…take it…and…turn it upside down…and…there!

Smiles, smiles, smiles all around.