Last Sunday, I went to the mall with my sister.

Let me be clear: I do not love the mall. I do not really even like it. I view the mall as a necessary evil. But, the mall is where many clothes live. The mall is where my eyebrow threading place lives. The mall is where the Apple store lives. So every so often, I suck it up and I go to the mall.

Last weekend’s trip had a purpose. My sister is graduating from college this weekend and I wanted to find a new dress and she wanted to find new shoes.

I saw the perfect little spring dress (pictured above) at H&M. I shuffled through the rack and to my dismay, the store only had one size four and several size 12 and size 14 dresses in the style I coveted.

I used to easily slip into a size four. Hell, I used to glide right into a size two. But after very minimal physical activity since my half marathon in mid-February, I was nervous about trying on that lacy, pale pink, size four dress.

Before I really sound like a whiny, skinny chick, you should know that I’m just five feet tall. I’m supposed to fall on the low end of the size spectrum. Six years ago, when I was in the best shape of my life as a high school cross country runner, I weighed 13 pounds less than I do now. That’s a good bit of weight for a small frame. As it is now, I’m on the top end of the normal BMI range. Based on my height and weight, my BMI is 24.4. The normal range is 18.5 to 24.9.

Once in the dressing room, I found that I could zip the dress, but it was a tight squeeze.

I decided to buy it anyway. The return policy was 30 days so if I figured if I couldn’t comfortably wear it to my sister’s graduation, I still had some time to get fit enough to use it for another occasion.

While in the checkout line, my mind, as it is want to do, drifted to this blog. Aha! I had an idea for a feature: I would challenge myself to completing at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day for 30 days.

Who’s with me? It’s just 30 minutes out of the 1,440 we’re gifted with each day.

So far, so good. I’ve made it to day four and am sore, but able to move around. I’ll be going for a run soon and then I’ll frantically pack my suitcase for the trip before I go to work. The dress is coming with me this weekend. At this point, I’m dead set on fitting into it soon, if not this weekend.

Starting Weight: 125 pounds

Day 1: Monday, April 23

Went for a 32 minute run. Walked a bit, but got through 3 miles.

Day 2: Tuesday, April 24

Completed a Mari Winsor Pilates DVD workout. Almost cursed her out when she said something like, “You can really feel your stomach now” because, yes, I could feel it and it hurt.

Day 3: Wednesday, April 25

Went swimming with the girls I nanny. Did water aerobics for 15 minutes. The six-year-old enjoyed acting as a personal trainer and told me to keep treading water. Got home from an event at 11:45 pm. Promptly took out a weighted ball and went through 18 minutes of a workout. Abs still hurt.