I work more than 40 hours a week and have two kids in school (which means packing lunches, helping with homework, washing uniforms every two days…ugh) while I run an entire household. Cooking meals, cleaning toilets, sweeping floors and washing loads of laundry is all in a day’s work for me.

Sounds fun, right? Is a housewife’s job easy? Not so much. Do I love my life? Absolutely.

In the middle of taking care of everyone else, I slacked off on one very important thing: myself. My weight had never been a issue in my 20s – I stayed slim and toned with little or no effort. Then I got married and something happened. I became a mom, I started working from home and I turned 30. Life was good, and I was happy.

When I’m happy, I eat.

“Happy eating” was never a problem for me until I realized that all that eating was making my butt bigger. What?! Why didn’t anyone tell me that would happen? I was totally unprepared for the “overnight” weight gain – I gained 30 pounds in 24 months. I spent those two years in total denial, thinking that it was just “baby weight” and that it would eventually come off on its own. I even channeled my inner “crunchy mom” and breastfed my daughter for the first two years of her life, which is supposed to help a mother burn more calories. Well, my daughter is almost four now. I guess I need to stop blaming my pudge on my “baby weight”. Um yeah, it’s not baby weight, Tasha….it’s just fat. 30 pounds of it. Damn.

More than half of my friends have had plastic surgery – including me – and living in a city full of beautiful people, I feel the desperate need to keep up. Even though my logic tells me to chill out on myself, when I look at all those ripples in the mirror, my twenty-something voice screams inside of my head: What did you do to yourself?! When did this happen!? Can’t you just cut it off?

About a year ago, finally I figured out that this 30 pounds wasn’t coming off on its own, and I was actually going to have to work to get the weight off. Even if I couldn’t be showgirl skinny, I was going to be healthier – and not grow out of anymore fat clothes. Here are some of the ways I’ve been battling my housewife’s bulge.

Even though I try not to indulge on food too much, a girl still has to eat. Fresh & Easy, a small chain of neighborhood markets, makes eating healthy a snap; with lots of yummy, premade meals offered and organic fruits and vegetables available. Premade is the key word here! Fresh & Easy meals save me precious time, and I can be confident that my family is eating a nutritious meal. Trader Joe’s, an upscale, gourmet grocery store has nutritious meal and snack options for even the pickiest of eaters (like my son!). Shopping there is a foodie’s Disneyland. Their website also offers loads of recipes and food guides like vegetarian cooking and quick meals.

In my quest to get more exercise, I found two local gym chains: Fitness 19 and Gold’s Gym. Fitness 19 is for the dedicated gym seeker. There are no steam rooms, no hot tubs or fancy equipment. It’s a simple, bare-bones gym with treadmills, ellipticals and free weights. The nifty part? It’s extremely affordable! Right now they’re advertising monthly memberships for under $20 a month. Gold’s Gym is larger and has more options available like lap pools, tanning booths, a theatre cardio room (watch a movie while you hit the treadmill!) and attractive locker rooms. But the membership price is much steeper that Fitness 19’s, and as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Both gyms offer free childcare which is one of the main reasons I belong to my local gym – it makes exercising much more manageable.

Las Vegas has one of the best winter climates in the country, and with all this lovely weather, I enjoy getting outside for some fun. A friend turned me onto the Las Vegas Running Team. Now, although I don’t run – at least not for very long – there are “fun walks” that go along with most of the 5K and 10K runs. This is a perfect way to get my whole family out to enjoy the outdoors and meet other members of our community. The running events have a theme for almost every month, like the Turkey Trot in November, and the kids have a blast participating. They don’t even realize that my husband and I are purposely wearing them out! Who knew moms and dads could be so clever?!

Although I haven’t won my battle with the bulge yet, at least I’m having lots of fun trying. I’m beginning to realize that being healthy doesn’t necessarily mean being skinny, and that not every woman in Las Vegas is a size two, but I’m extremely grateful that I have a myriad of outlets that encourage healthy living. As I continue to fight my “muffin top“, I’ll keep you updated on my healthy living adventures!