A Milestone!

I'm celebrating today, because I reached a milestone goal. When I weighed in this morning the scale tells me that I have officially lost Lawson! Hooray! 1 kid down, 1 to go. Last night at dinner, Todd and I were talking about our weight loss goals and where we were right now. I was telling Todd that my most immediate goal was to lose Lawson and I was really close. Alia heard us talking and said, "Why do you want to lose Lawson?" She looked really perplexed. It was quite funny.

So, now I'm on to losing the weight that I never lost after Alia was born. Sigh. And we all know that after I go through all this effort and lose weight from prior pregnancies, I will most likely get pregnant again and have to start the whole process over. There are times (quite a lot of them, actually) that I really dislike being a woman. Just ask Todd - he hears it all the time.

Did you know that holidays and family dinners were hazardous to your health? We had 5-thats right 5-desserts for Easter dinner. I do know that I didn't have to have a piece of each one-but I really didn't want to hurt anybodys feelings. (Hows that for an excuse) Someone once told me that you can only gail 3 pounds in a day. I am now convinced that you can take off no more than 3 ounces in a day! Is that fair? In any event I still am doing well in processing sugar-even after 5 desserts. I think I can also include in fitness that G'pa has his hearing aide and the right earpiece. It will take some getting used to but is much better than not hearing. We stay in good health. Hope you do also.

Another Month Ends!

I'm actually a little sad that February is such a short month! It was a much more difficult month and I could have used another few days to reach my goals. As it was, I fell just slightly short of my goal of losing another 5 lbs. I lost almost 4, bring my total weight loss since January 1st to about 11 lbs. I'm very happy about this, but frustrated by the fact that it hasn't equated into ANY change at all in my physical body. I measured and there was absolutely no difference. So I'm not quite sure where those 11 lbs. came from (hopefully not from vital organs, like my BRAIN!) But, I guess for now I'll just be happy that the numbers are coming down a bit and I weigh less than I have in about 3 years. I'm 5 pounds from officially losing Lawson and then I get to work off Alia!

As I mentioned, February was a tough month. I usually did extremely well Monday through Wednesday, but then our schedules had so much stuff the latter part of the week, or traveling to Minnesota and Iowa that it just made getting the cardio in a lot more difficult. So I still had at least 3 times a week, but only a couple weeks of more than that. And our eating wasn't quite as good either. We made the unfortunate mistake of buying chips! And once you taste them you crave them and crave them. And I won't even talk about eating peanut butter cookies at Tammy's house...I've since repented and upped my cardio sessions to 45 to 50 minutes this week.

My goal for March is to get rid of Lawson once and for all! His lovely fat deposits, anyway, I think we'll keep the cute boy.

Checking in

Well, I am not 100% committed yet and I know that will really make a big difference. I have however, made a few little changes (or I'm trying to) that have helped a little bit. I wouldn't say that we eat really healthy, but I don't feel like we eat bad either. The only time I have gained weight in our marriage was when pregnant! Shane has gained some, but he needed it... and he has been the same weight for awhile now (I think). Anyway, we do like chocolate and sweets, but we don't eat them too often. But, I have really cut back on my intake, little as it may be. I would eat a bite of chocolate after a meal here and there. But I'm trying to stop that, at least until I can get the weight off. I have been trying to eat smaller portions in my meals. I can't cut back too much because while nursing I am still almost as hungry as when pregnant, but I can cut back some. I also have been working out 2-3 times a week... which isn't much, but it's better than nothing. The weather has been nicer so I'm hoping to go on walks with the girls too. Like I said, I am not totally committed, but with those little changes, I have lost 2-3 lbs. So if that's enough to help me, I will be ecstatic. I would like to exercise a little more (hopefully walking the other days) and incorporate more fruits and veggies in our meals.

That seemed really random, I hope it made sense to everyone.

I think it's time for an update from everybody else! (besides D who updated us recently!)

End of the Month Report

So, overall I was happy with my progress in January. I lost a total of 7 lbs. and was successful in creating my habit of consistent exercise. This is definitely the most consistent I have been in many years. I achieved my goal of doing 35-40 minutes of cardio 4-5 times/week. Between Todd and myself, we are definitely getting our money's worth out of our elliptical.

This month I am hoping to improve in the healthy eating category. It's funny because I actually feel very good about the way my family eats as far as meals, snacks, etc. Everything I buy for meals and snacks is generally ultra-healthy. We only eat whole wheat, whole grains, and TONS of fresh fruits and veggies. We don't eat out very much. We drink tons of water (especially Todd and I). Even my kids eat more servings of fruit/veggies in a day than most grown adults. I feel like we do very well in this area. The problems comes in with...yeah, the goodies. I have mentioned before that I love to bake. I enjoy the process, we all love the finished product. So we eat way too many cookies and other treats as a result of this hobby. So we're going to try to cut back in that category. Wish us luck - we'll need it!

New Year Update

My favorite part of a new year is definitely a chance to have a clean slate and fresh start on working toward goals. I thought I would post my physical goals here, since that's what this blog is all about, right?

All the goals I have set for this year are really all things to lead to reaching my goal weight (my highest goal). This means I have between 30 & 40 pounds to lose, no small feat by any means. I'm working on cementing in a habit of consistent exercise (4-5 days/week of cardio and 2-3 days of weights). I'm working on eating healthier and overcoming my tendency to eat as a reaction to stress, anger, etc. I made a goal to not eat any food after 8 p.m. And to help with all of this, I have made a goal to follow the whole "early to bed, early to rise" adage. For anyone who knows me, this is a VERY difficult goal for me. I have an extremely difficult time going to bed early and waking up early (no matter how much sleep I have gotten). So far I don't think I've managed my 10:30 bedtime yet, but I'm getting closer at least! Maybe 30 years from now I will become a morning person! (and maybe not!)

My progress: I'm happy to report great success so far with my goals. Todd and I have been working very hard on exercise. I am 100% for cardio, doing an average of 35-40 minutes of cardio on the elliptical 5 days last week, and 2 days so far this week. I've been walking Alia to school every day as well. I've been sticking to my rule of no food after 8 p.m. - no matter how hungry I am. When I weighed myself this morning, I was down 5 lbs. So I'm happy with that and am determined to continue improving. I'm still trying to work on a specific schedule of times to do everything to help the whole habit thing.

Anyway, I'm always thankful for an opportunity to start over. How is everyone else doing?

Back in the game!

I just wanted to post that I am officially in the game now. Now that I have had my baby and am 2 weeks postpartum, it's time to work on losing my baby weight. Today I took the girls on a walk for about 45 minutes. It was pretty mild, but it felt good and is better than nothing. My focus for now is exercise because I think the food part is much harder. However, I do have challenges. We only have 1 car still and it isn't really worth it to load up 2 kids to take Shane to work and go somewhere (and I don't know where I'd go anyway!). And although the weather is great today, I'm afraid of it getting too cold soon. So, I will walk when the weather is nice but I think I will try to find a work out video I like and do that. That will be the easiest way for me to exercise since we don't have any machines at our house. Hopefully I am still losing some weight by just nursing and time, but I think it stopped. No one told me I would have trouble this time! I didn't with Kathryn so I thought I would be lucky still... anyway, I will try to post somewhat regularly with my updates! Oh, and for the record, I have about 20 lbs I need to lose. I'm not looking forward to this journey!