Wha? Did you say size 8?

I've been on this weight loss journey FOREVER!  However, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't shake off the baby weight from my first baby who is now four.  I would work out hard and not see any difference and become very frustrated.  I also love reading Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. She has one character, Lulu who cracks me up. She's always described as a larger than life woman.  I always laughed when I read about how she squeezes her large body in her spandex outfits...until one day the author listed the character's size/weight and I realized that was me! Not the squeezing into spandex part, but the large part. OMG I was Lulu!  I realized right then and there that I had to do something about my weight.

Before I became pregnant with Buggy I convinced my husband to let me spend the extra money and try Nutrisystem. Working full-time I wasn't able to make it to the gym very much but I was able to use the Nutrisystem meal plan. I lost 2-3 pant sizes and was within 10 pounds of making it to my pre-baby weight. However, it still meant that I was a big girl. Just slightly less big.  It also meant that I was tied to the NS meals and didn't know if I could lose the weight if I went off the program.

When I became pregnant with baby #2, gained 45 pounds during my pregnancy and had to start all over again. However, I walked everyday the last 3 months of my pregnancy and I think that is why I lost more weight initially than I had when I had my son.  I still had 15 lbs. to go before I hit my pre-pregnancy weight with Baby #2. But I hit the "wall" and couldn't do it. I was at the gym everyday. I was taking classes. I was doing everything right or so I thought. In chatting with one of the trainers, she told me that she noticed I was having trouble and lectured me about my eating habits. She was absolutely right and I had to hear it. She recommended that I go to a site that helped me to count my calories and determine what I was eating. It was basically an on-line calorie counter. I did and I have since lost 22 pounds and 3 pant sizes since November.

I've stalled a couple of times, got back to it and have started losing again. My goal is to be at least 1 lb. below my pre-pregnancy weight with baby #1 before trying for baby #3, be healthier, NOT to be diagnosed with diabetes, to be able to keep up with my kids, and run races.   Being a SAHM I just can't afford the pricey programs. Using The Daily Plate I've been able to watch my calories, type in gym routines and see how many calories I've burned, and keep on track with my weight loss. So far so good! I'm not quite where I want to be. According to the BMI I need to lose another 17-20 pounds to be at a healthy weight.  Which I will do eventually.  But at least I know that I can do it!

Last week I ran 5-miles outside for a practice run for this week's race. It's amazing what good shoes, an asthma inhaler, and losing 20+ pounds will do for your run. In practice I've already shaved about 8 minutes from last year's race time. I hope I can do it on Saturday :)  Wish me luck!

A Week of Fitness Firsts

Since November I have been on a mission to lose the baby weight from my last baby. Between November 1st and January 1st. I lost 16 pounds and made it to my weight loss goal...one pound less than I was when I became pregnant with L. I was really excited!

Now I'm on a mission to lose the rest of the baby weight of baby #1 who will be 4 at the end of the month. I have about 6 1/2 pounds to go to my goal weight of being 1 pound less than I was when I became pregnant with him.  If I can lose the rest of that baby weight I will be ecstatic. While on this mission I decided that I want to be at my healthy weight according to the BMI...that means I have to lose 23 1/2 pounds. I gave myself until May 1st which is creeping up on me.  I totally slacked in January and February. I didn't gain any more weight, but I didn't lose any, either.

My husband was trying to be supportive with Weight Loss #1 by promising a new laptop if I lost the weight. He knows extrinsic motivation works for me and he was right! I love my new Macbook!

My new "prize" will be a Kindle.  He gave me until May 16th...I want to try to do it before then.

So here it goes. I go to the gym 3-5 a week.  If I'm really motivated and if there is any time on the weekends I'll go all 7 days. One of my crazy rules is that if I don't lose any weight from one month to the next I'll add a gym class. So far I'm taking Trek, Bodystep (2 times a week), and Abs & Stretch. On my off days from taking a class, I'll run on the treadmill at the gym and lift some weights.

So this week I tried my first Spin Class.  The instructor for my Trek class (which is a treadmill class) also teaches Spin. I spoke to her about it and she told me to come in to give it a shot. Holy Crap! I think I broke my butt.  My bottom was sore for 2 days afterwards. Those seats are hard! She kept telling me to do what I can do and adjust...I thought...really? I'm just biking this should be fine. Within the first few minutes I could feel my quads getting tight and sore. Okay, not so easy. By the end I was shutting my eyes praying for the class to be over. I did what I could and basically held on for dear life.  I think I'll try it again next week :)

This week I also tried a Body Pump Class. This is a class where you use a light barbell and some added weights. It's strengthening class.  I'm still sore.  I'm such a klutz that I was afraid that I would whack someone near me with my barbell. Fortunately it was a small class and we had plenty of room.  When I introduced myself to the instructor and told her it was my first time I asked her what I needed, she replied, "strength, willpower, motivation....oh and a bench, 3 risers, a barbell, and 2lb., 5lb., and 7lb. weights to put on your bar." If I stick with this class it will replace my Abs & Stretch class. I'll see how it goes!

Both classes are at a time when my son is in preschool. This is another first.  I usually leave the time open to run errands (because it's easier with one kid than with two), or go home and clean the house while the baby naps.  But I have been finding that if we go to the gym after preschool, that I am so tired that we don't do anything else. We go home, have lunch, play a little bit, the baby goes down for a nap, my son watches his favorite show, and then goes down for quiet time, and then I'm taking a nap or I'm working on my to-do list.  I can't get a lot done while my son is in his 2 1/2 hour class. I can get the grocery shopping done and maybe one other errand. If I go home to clean the house, I usually end up on the couch watching the last of the Today Show. So here I am trying to be more productive, maybe I'll get more done after preschool while losing the weight, too!

Wiggle it, Just a Little Bit...

"Wiggle It" is one of the songs that we use in my Bodystep aerobics class.  I remember it from my teen years. It's fun and you can move to it.  I also enjoyed doing what I thought of as one of the easier routines. When the refrain, "Wiggle it, just a little bit" comes on, we all go to the corner of our step, raise our arms above our head and we wiggle it.  It's easy. We do this on each corner a few times and then continue our routine and when the refrain plays we wiggle it again. Not bad, eh?

Um, have you ever looked at yourself in a full-length mirror while wiggling it in spandex pants?  The refrain really should be "jiggle it" for me.  I was horrified. Here I am having fun and thinking, "wow this is easy and little silly" and then I saw myself. My saddlebags jiggling oh so unattractively.  And then I move to the next corner, and yup, there they are, still jiggling unattractively. I couldn't believe it. I thought the pants I was wearing would contain the jiggle, no-no, they only enhanced the jiggle.  It was like a bad accident. Every time we had to wiggle it, I analyzed myself in the full length mirror directly across from me.  To make matters worse, in my mind it happened in slow-mo, every time I looked. I'm not a small girl. I'm 5'3" and still about 25 pounds overweight (though I have lost 20 lbs and the last of the baby weight from daughter since October, thank you).  It's just not pretty. But I remind myself that's why I'm there.  Mirrors and judgmental onlookers be darned, I'm gonna wiggle it!