Working up the Motivation

Awesome Emma!! Your posts are really very inspiring. I need to get better about consciously making wise choices about weight loss. I mean, I *am* back in my real, non-maternity pants, but that's more from lack of eating (while being occupied with feeding little Townshend) than from wise food choices and working out.

It's been a rougher transition into motherhood than I really expected.. Lack of sleep and the learning curve of breastfeeding has me feeling like my days (and nights) are a cycle of me moving from my bed to the rocking chair and back again. However, he's been sleeping in his bassinet more often (which means I sleep in my bed vs the rocking chair) so I've been feeling more rested myself. This week we took a walk with the stroller 3 times.. so that's something!

My dr said to take it easy 'til 6wks, but we're coming up on that pretty soon. Until then, my goal is to go for walks with the stroller at least 3 times a week, and with all the vertical rocking I do to keep Townshend from snoozing through his feedings, I'm sure my arms will be more toned before too long.

"Hello!"

So as I am going along in my weekly meetings with the scale, I always get excited when one of the numbers goes down. Particularly if it is the middle, or even better!, the first number. Today my middle number went down! "HELLO to a new middle number!" Oh, if only you could have seen my happy dance! But then again no... I weigh with nothing on. Awkwaaard....
So I am down a total of 7 pounds today. Is anyone else playing along with me? Rits, I know you can't yet, but anyone else? I'm wishing for buddies today. Good luck to you all!

New Record

Dave was recently called to Deacons' Assistant at church and basically is helping with the Duty to God award and so is going to be attending Wednesday night activities. This week was the first time he went, and they happened to be doing a physical fitness test. So he ran a mile. For the first time in years. And still had a time *way* better than my personal best. Well I couldn't just sit there and do nothing about that... so this morning I went down to the gym, hopped on the treadmill and started running. Darn that competitive streak in me.
I actually almost jumped off after about 3 minutes because, for whatever reason, today it was torturous to be on the treadmill. But I soon discovered that if I cranked the volume on my mp3 player so loud that I couldn't hear my feet hitting the ground it was much more tolerable. And thank goodness I didn't jump off because I got a new personal best for my mile! 12:27. Still more than 2 1/2 minutes slower than Dave's, but better than anything I have ever done before by about 20 seconds and I was proud.
Update on my goal to lose 10 lbs before my doctor appointment: I didn't make it. But it was a lofty goal anyway. I did manage to be 4 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight though. I'll take it. And keep working. :)

4 Weeks Post-Baby... 2 Weeks To Go

Another official weigh in for me today. Down 5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, which means I have 2 weeks to lose 5 pounds to meet my goal. Totally doable. :D I've also decided that I need to find my sewing measuring tape so I can take measurements and make goals that way as well because the fact that I am nursing makes it difficult to get a fair comparison on the scale. First thing in the morning - preferably this means getting up at 6:30 - after I have peed and fed Zach entirely on both sides so I'm not measuring milk weight is the best way for me to measure, but hard to achieve consistently.
I also braved the treadmill last night for 24 minutes, 3 of which I was able to do a full run and the rest was a brisk walk. I was supposed to be there for 30 minutes, but at 24 minutes I decided that my hip flexors hurt bad enough that I was being stupid and should not continue. But it was all good. I am feeling like, even though I'm not able to do any thing close to how I used to be able to, I am doing really well considering where I'm at right now.
Dave and I have started doing pushups together every night as well. He is buff enough to do traditional pushups, but I have to do the girly pushups on my knees. But with each of us doing our own flavor, we can both do about 50 pushups. It's nice to have found something that we can do together and push and support each other.

Let The Post-Baby Exercise Begin!

Today is officially one week after Zach was born. That's a crazy thought. My doctor told me not to exercise/lift anything over 10 pounds until today and I can see why... Since the whole not lifting thing was pretty much impossible *think a 30 pound 2 year old who wants my attention and is literally begging me to carry her around the house* I of course overdid it a few days and yup. The dr was right. By the end of the day my hips hurt so bad I wanted to cry.
But today I am feeling really good - good enough to attempt some exercise in addition to occasionally carrying Chelsea. I managed to chug out 30 sit ups with Zach on my chest and do some light swimming for about half an hour.
I got brave and stepped on the scale on Tuesday and *holy cow!!!* I am only 1 pound short of being back at my pre-pregnancy weight! I was so excited I decided to be brave again and pull out my old pants and was able to get them on and wear them for about an hour. After that hour I had to sit and nurse for a while and the pants are still tight enough that was not entirely comfy. But on the days I get feeling like I can't take another day hitching up a stretchy panel that immediately moves right back to where it was, I have 2 pairs of pants that have a button and fly that I can wear!
So in 5 more weeks I have to go for my 6 week check up with my OB and my goal is to lose another 11 pounds by that day and be 10 pounds lighter than the day I first stepped in his office.

Still Chugging

It's been a tough week for exercise - even the short sessions that PACE requires are tough to get in when the baby is teething, and the big boy caught the cold, and you spend several days traveling. But the cool thing is that it's still working. I'm down another pound and a half. When I get rid of that pesky half pound I will have lost everything I gained on our trip to North Carolina. Not too shabby: it's been about two weeks since we got back. I'm noticing other stuff too: I can breathe better. Lots better. Enough to make a difference when I sing. I'm getting stronger. Moving is more fun. I like the way I feel. I sleep better. That could also be related to the baby suddenly sleeping longer in his own bed before he wakes up for his night-time snack. Night-weaning is a bear, and it's not going to be fun. I'm waiting for those teeth to settle down before we tackle that. The Hubs is also noticing some nice improvements. So far, this new PACE style workout is a smashing success.

PACE

Well, we went out east, attended a wedding, visited friends and then came back by way of the Kirtland temple. Brought back lots of pictures, a few souvenirs, and 5 extra pounds. But 3 are gone already. I'm crediting the new workouts Andy and I are doing. We're using a system called PACE, and I think that my favorite thing is that I'm seeing results, and my next most favorite thing is that the workouts, at no more than 12 minutes, are easy to slip into a busy day without feeling like I need to choose between sleep and exercise or choose between my kids and my health. And it seems to be working!

Checking in

10 days in and still feeling pretty motivated (though, there's still room for improvement with my eating habits).

That app on my phone has a cycle of 5 or 7 days, depending on the food plan I pick. Basically, it gives suggestions for meals and gives allotted times for eating (which is SUPER good for me now that I'm working from home). I picked a 5 day one. I think I did quite well sticking with it the whole time.. but I've only done it the first 5 days, I completely fell off the wagon with the second cycle.

I'm only going to weigh and measure myself once a month (that worked really well for me when I was losing weight for my wedding), so I haven't gotten back on the scale since Sept 20th, but already I feel small changes in my body (my clothes fit better so I know good things are happening).

I've gone back to using that workout plan that I used when I was losing weight for my wedding. It's only a 6 month plan, but my hope is that by that point I will have a routine that I'm in and that I'll have made good habits and be more likely to stick with it better this time 'round. With my wedding the goal was to get in shape for my wedding.. now, it's to be more healthy and to reach a healthy weight, increments at a time. So, by Dec 20th I hope to weigh 15lbs less than I did on Sept 20th.

To help me quantify how active I am, I got a pedometer. I read that a "healthy" person walks at least 10,000 steps a day. I wore it for a week to see what my normal number of steps were. Turns out, it was nowhere near that many. Even when I went for my walk/jog in the morning, the most I was walking was just over 7,000 steps. (though, this site says that a spectrum, but above 5,000 is ok)

However, my Hubby and I have been talking and he's feeling like he wants to step up his workout program too. He's super busy at work, but is really good at fitting in a visit to the gym 2-3 times a week. The downside is that, since he has to cram it into his lunch hour, he's only doing the aerobic workingout for 15-20mins at a time and he's feeling like it's not enough to fight the battle of the bulge. So we're going to work together to adjust our lifestyle.

Mon-Fri, after he comes home from work, we're going to go for a walk in the park up the street (twice around the walking path, just over 2 miles). Also, we're going to do the food plan together to motivate each other, and he's thinking that measurements on top of weighing-in, would be the way to go.

We started the walking today (I hit my 10,000 steps at 2pm.. woo!) and we'll start the food part tomorrow, after I go to the grocery store today. Wish us luck!