Week Five.

I started off this week at 156.8. The numbers are slowly going south luckily, but I think it's just normal fluctuation. I still can't get over how busy life can be as a stay-at-home mom, but I'm finally feeling things slow down a little.

I talked to Jenny this week and she showed me a clip from Insanity. WOW. It looks unbelievable. You know it's tough because all these conditioned athletes are just dying in the video. Well.. Crazy is as crazy does. I'm getting it. I'm nowhere near in shape enough to make it through, but I'm pumped to try.

I saw an article this week about good cardio vs. bad cardio. I hadn't ever really thought about any cardio being bad necessarily. Without summarizing all the points in the article, I'll just point out what made me sit up and take notice. What do marathoners look like? Are you surprised by the number of people you know that run long distances but still seem to struggle with their weight? I have always found that to be such a paradox. How can someone have a spare tire when they just ran seventeen miles?! Now think about how sprinters look. Google them. They are ripped. Ridiculously toned. Healthy and strong without a hint of the "skinny flabby" thing that some marathoners have going on.

The difference of course is the type of cardio. Marathoners do a constant low intensity cardio workout every time they run. Sprinters, on the other hand, do bursts of maximum intensity cardio over and over. The big difference is in the interval training.

Normally at this point I would quote statistics and spout off about everything I think I know, but I will spare you just this once. Let me just say that I'm convinced that this high intensity interval training is going to be the answer for me personally. I can't commit to running long distances and I like variety. Insanity sounds perfect for the likes of me. I'm so excited to start.

Week Two, Three, and Four

I have delayed writing this post for several weeks because I've been so busy lately! I finally decided I'm just going to sit down and do it. It'll be short.

I documented my "progress" on the Weekly Weigh-in on the side. As you can see, nothing stellar has been happening. I have yet to find the final push that will get me motivated enough to start. I blame some of this on having a newborn with no schedule, but that is getting better now.

I just can't believe I'm starting week five and I haven't even really begun. It's a frustrating feeling. I'm looking at another very busy week, and then Father's Day weekend we are leaving for ten days or so. I'll try to post when I can, but it'll most likely be while I'm on the run and therefore quite short.

Wish I had more to share. I apologize for appearing to have dropped this project altogether!

Week One

I would like to start this post by saying BAHAHAH! My current weight is 159.8. So basically.. up two pounds. Remember that crabby post I was going to post sometime in the last week letting you know that I had given up sugar.....? Yeah I don't see it either.

Every time I decide to change my eating habits, it takes me a lot to get motivated to start. It is truly the hardest part. I can find all kinds of excuses why I need to put it off. Excuses or not, this past week FLEW by before I could take a breath (although not before I could take a bunch of bites apparently) and now I'm paying for my lack of conscientiousness.

This next week will be different. I hope. Honestly, I haven't quite reached the point where I feel that fire of motivation. Ooh! I just realized why! (See, this is why writing can be cathartic.) I feel swamped. I have a lot to do and I'm falling behind like crazy. It's hard to focus on exercise and eating right when I'm just scrambling to get normal everyday stuff done. So.. my goal for this week is to get caught up so that I feel free to start. It's a busy time of year, but I've eventually got to figure out how to manage a healthy lifestyle even when we're busy.

So I'm sorry to be a big dud, but.. hopefully by next week I'll be a slightly smaller dud. I'll post later this week if I feel like I have anything remotely motivating to share. Until then.

Round 2 is on!

My baby is 8 weeks old today! I had intended to resume updating this blog at 6 weeks postpartum, but life got in the way as it does.

Stats: my pre-pregnancy weight was 153. I got as high as 183, but I was 178 the day I delivered. I am now 158, up 5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. This time around I do not have a percentage that I'm shooting for. Instead I will simply post the weight lost in pounds for each week.

I'm hearing a lot of buzz about P90X and running. Those two things have worked for a lot of people. Unfortunately, my schedule doesn't allow me to commit 50-90 minutes each day for exercise, and I can't easily pile the two kids in a stroller and go running on the gravel road. Aside from that, I'm up once or twice a night still, so I'm tired most days. I just don't think I'll be able to hit it super hard right off the bat.

My biggest focus will be on my diet. I want to greatly reduce sugar and flour intake again as that made me feel so good the first time around! So.. at some point this week, I'll finally be mustering the mental energy to give up my sugary pop and my flour-laden meals. Expect a crabby post later this week.

Just this for now. I knew I had to resume doing this eventually.. and now it's on! Now that I'm not working, I will probably be able to manage more frequent posts than just weekly. But no promises yet. Until next time!

Well, I'm no loser..

Ahhh, pregnancy. I do love it. Yes, there are grievances.. and sure, I don't know if I spelled that right.. but there is such a freedom in being pregnant. The complete absence of any judgment for the sheer volume of food consumed. It's.. too easy.

My first trimester excuse was that I was feeling queasy and had to eat all the time to ward off feeling sick. So now I need to think of a new excuse for second trimester. I'm well into my second trimester, so this excuse is long overdue, mind you. I'm starting my 20th week now, so I've had a few months to enjoy the relentless eating that is so freely forgiven during pregnancy.

I went to the doc on Tuesday, and I weighed 164.2. Yeah, I decided that weight is just a number and I know I've never shared it before, but really only because I didn't think it was overly relevant. Now I'm sharing it because I really got tired of sharing the percentage lost in any given week, and I'd just as soon break it down into pounds lost and not have to do any more math than that. Not that I'm about to start weekly updates of what I have gained or anything.. but -ugh, whatever, I don't know how to wrap up that thought and it couldn't be boring me more. I started out this pregnancy at 153 lbs. So I've gained 11.2 in 20 weeks. I believe that's about half what I gained at this point with Jett. But it's definitely starting to come to the forefront that this whole process of losing the baby weight is going to be far easier if I'm conscientious starting now.

So I'm calling out for free advice. Please feel free to leave me tips, even anonymously if you prefer, because I need all the encouragement and motivation I can get.

Here are my struggles:
1. Pop/coffee. I know I should be reducing caffeine, but I really struggle to give up my pop and coffee when I'm pregnant. It's awful. Help me out.

2. I don't exercise. It's not that I don't have the energy or even the time. I can come up with loads of both if I'm really being honest. I think what I need more than anything is a kick in the pants.

3. Eating is delightful. Hah. I eat large meals, I eat numerous meals, and I eat lots of stuff in between that is generally just garbage. My comfort foods are things like pasta, dumplings, things that turn to glue and serve no purpose other than to make me miserable an hour later. I eat until I have heartburn, I eat when I'm not hungry, I eat even when I have no appetite or desire to eat. It's tomfoolishness. Cure me.

4. It's hard to have incentive when my weight is on the rise. I'm not trying to lose weight at all. I just want to be healthier now so that it's easy to be healthy after baby comes. I'd rather have my diet habits be a continuation of how I have been eating (assuming that I've been eating healthy foods) than to try to 'resume' a way of eating after giving it up for nine months. I had to do that with Jett, and it was tough.

So lay it on me, cats. Here's your chance to offer free advice. Or a lecture. Or a motivational powerpoint presentation. I'm counting on YOU to give me the kick in the pants I need!

[Sanctimony need not apply.]

Ready, go!

So sorry! But I do have news.

It has been way too long since I last posted. You're probably thinking I've either been too busy or I've been too ashamed to post anything since I made the blog so boring. Confession: I've been TOO TIRED. I am 10 weeks pregnant, due March 9th. Kind of hard to maintain a blog on weight loss when you're looking at 9 months of bloat ahead of you! So hopefully now you can understand a little better why I changed things up in my last post and then disappeared for so long. I wanted to make sure things were going okay for a while before announcing it to the world. I just had an appointment last week, and things are looking good so far! The appointment I'm anxious for is on September 14th.. which is when we find out if it's a singlet or twinkies. Mom is convinced I'm having twins. I... just want to know one way or another.

So. I've been thinking some more about what to do with this blog. I can tell you this much- it is next to impossible for me to eat healthy when pregnant! I eat pretty much constantly or I feel green. I'm hoping that improves in a few weeks here, but lately it's actually been getting worse, not better. Do you know how hard it is to choke down whole wheat bread and bean burgers and salads when it's all you can do to get a chocolate malt down? Okay, I'm exaggerating. I'm not THAT sick. But healthy food is totally repulsive. Sugar and grease and fat, however, have never looked better. I'm on a steady diet of chicken nachos and peanut butter M&Ms. Pretty different from some of my last posts! So I don't know what to do. Based on how hard it has been to make regular updates the last while, I think I'll forego those for a while and maybe just make the occasional update. I will resume regular updates after the kiddo arrives.

So until next time. I don't know when I'll feel compelled to post again, but I also have my other blog that I'll probably be posting more regularly on. See you when I see you.

Week 11. 12. 13.

I'm not sure what I was thinking in my last post when I said I would share my two-week progress. It's been three weeks. You can understand why my time management is poor at best.

I'll tell you right up front that this post is NOT going to be about numbers!

Just came off a ten day vacation, so my progress has been.. what's the opposite of progress.. sighh. But I ain't sorry! I refuse to eat flaxseed and fiber and weeds when I'm trying to enjoy myself! Or maybe it's not even that so much as they don't serve such things at fast food places. No, it's the first thing. Anyway, ten days is a long time to go careening off one's game plan.

But I had some time to reflect. Here's what I decided. This blog is so much about the progress I have made. I post a percentage each week, and then we know if I have accomplished what I set out to do or if I'm a big fat failure. But I realized something while sipping on my carbonated pineapple beverage, sitting in 95 degree heat and reading my book by the pool.. and that is that all I really care about is FEELING good. Not looking good. Unfortunately, there really isn't a "biggest loser" method for measuring how good a person feels. I guess what I'm proposing is dropping the Percentage Lost aspect of this blog and just posting about what motivates me during the week and makes me feel better, more healthy.

This blog just got 72% more boring. Now I really AM a loser, baby.

Here's the other part. I no longer think my goal was realistic. I often find that when I'm only thinking about what the scale says, I tend to go a bit overboard with my dieting methods. Everyone who knows me knows that I always have a thing.. one week it's high fiber, the next it's low sugar, the week after that it's high unsaturated fat, etc. And that's probably fine most of the time, but for me it results in that feeling that I am FAILING if I'm not committing to the current borderline obsessive goal. Someone told me once to try to abide by the 80/20 rule. Eat well 80% of the time. That's it. Don't worry about the rest. That is so not me! I figure what's the point of trying to do something only 80% of the time? Or in other words, why shoot for a low B? And I guess the answer (for me) is that if I can't get an A, I lose interest and hope altogether.

I realize that by declaring my new 80/20 rule that I'm actually just reinforcing my bad habit of always having a "thing".. believe me, I get it.

Oh, back to my other point. I don't think my 22.3% is realistic anymore. I'm at my pre-pregnancy weight, and while I don't think that I was at my goal weight then either, I do realize that I'm close enough now that I should be looking more for a way to make sustainable changes, rather than thinking so much about what I can do to make a change for this week.

Make sense?

So I guess that's it for this week. Next week: Flaxseed, Fiber and Weeds. Can't wait.