10 %

I just read a great article that I'm sure I read a while back. It says to break down your weight-loss goals into more manageable chunks. Start with setting a goal to lose 10% of your body weight. Then once you're there, do it again, only this time your 10% will be a smaller number. Keep it up in these small steps until you're at goal.

Here is the article.

I like this approach. I'm needing something to help me feel more successful on this journey.

I seem to have a 2 week cycle. I can do pretty well on my eating for about two weeks and by the end of my second week I'm back to square one. Unfortunately, my weight seems to follow right along with me.

I haven't made any real progress with my weight loss or fitness. I keep coming back to my bad habits. I have come to realize I cannot eat that way and not expect to gain weight. I have to stay vigilant or I will not be successful.

My baby is seven weeks old. It seems like such a short time, but at the same time, I am ready to be back on track and making progress. It is time.

Next step is exercise--Exercise, what's that? It seems so daunting at this point. My sister is coming to visit me next week. I asked her to help me get back on track exercising while she's here. She is amazing. She's running a half-marathon on Sunday. I walk around my house or maybe the grocery store on occasion. I need to move more in her direction. :) I still have the goal to run a 5K on or around Thanksgiving this year. That's run, not walk! I will do it. No excuses.

Pretty good

I'd say things are going pretty good. Not great. Not poorly. Just pretty good. I've been able to stay out of sweets a lot better than I had thought I might. I've got to make some more changes though, because my weight isn't responding as quickly as I thought.

I've been down six pounds so far, but my weight is really bouncy! It fluctuates quite a bit. Right now it's inexplicably back up to higher than I started. It's not because I'm eating poorly, so I'm not really worried about it, but still, it should be going down faster and more consistently. That means I'm probably eating too much of not good-enough food.

I do pretty well at getting my fruits and veggies in. I know I'm still eating too many refined carbs; crackers, bread, pasta, rice, etc. I'm a rock star at getting my water in. I'm consistently getting 80 oz of water a day, often more.

So I'm going to try tracking my calories for a few days to get a feel for how many I am eating and where I need to make changes to get things moving faster.

I've done a handful of exercise sessions. I'm surprised at how out of shape my body is. Walking is still hard for me. T-tapp was hard, but I feel like it's about the level I'm at right now.

My official weigh-in day is Monday, so we'll see how I'm doing by then.

Ready

Well, I'm back. I'm ready to get this weight off and get back to my pre-baby size. So here we go!

As of right now I have no fill in my band. The nearest fill-doctor is over four hours away, so as of right now, I'm going to see what I can do on my own without having it filled. If I get stuck and can't lose any more, then I will look into getting fluid put back in my band.

Honestly, I don't miss the restrictions of the band as far as having to eat slowly and some foods that I can't tolerate. If I can do this without having to get that restriction, I think I will enjoy the eating aspect of my life much more.

So as I posted before, I gained way more weight with this pregnancy than I had ever intended to. It ended up being about 75 lbs. So, right now, in order to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I have 50 pounds left to lose. Yay for already being 25 pounds down from my baby's birth three weeks ago!

I have tried to exercise a couple of times since baby was born, but both times I ended up in pain and really worn out. I think I was jumping the gun just a bit. I went for a walk around the neighborhood. I didn't make it more than about half a mile either time. My abdominal muscles were very weak and sore throughout. I will try again soon and see if I'm ready yet.

My biggest problems that have caused my weight gain are not exercising and eating too many sweets. So this week, I started back on not eating sweets. I will allow myself one occasion of sweet-eating per week. (Like a party, or movie, etc.) I'm on day three of no desserts and down four pounds so far. Not bad results. It really shows me that sweets make a huge difference in my weight.

So I will be posting much more regularly to keep myself accountable and update you on my progress. Stay tuned!

Baby Boy is here!

Our baby was born this last week. Feeling very happy and blessed.

And end in sight

For both the hotel stay and the pregnancy!

We found a house to live in. It's a rental here in town and it's just right for what we need. We will be moving next week if all goes well.

I'm just over 4 weeks away from my due date. In fact, I just realized I'm due one month from today. It's been a long pregnancy. I'll be glad to get on with post-pregnancy life!

Getting some exercise in

So I haven't been very good about exercising since becoming pregnant. I don't have any good reasons, but I just haven't done it as often as I should. Now that I have a big ol' pregnant belly and waddle a bit, it seems odd to be getting back to it, but I have been. I've gone walking three days recently. I started with one mile on the treadmill. I start having contractions if I walk too fast, so it's a fairly slow pace compared to my old pace, but still challenging. The next two times I did 1.5 miles each time. Today I even increased my incline a little to switch things up. I'm careful to back off speed or incline if I feel like it's too much.

After the baby comes, I would love to get back to work with the workouts. I will have to do a Couch to 5K regimen again. I've committed to run 5K on Thanksgiving and gotten my siblings to join in. Not sure where we'll all be for that holiday, but we can all do it wherever we are.

The suite life

Well, sort of. We're in Montana, in the hotel. We have been here about a week. The girls are in school, Brad is working and we are looking for a home. We are eating out most meals. I try to make the best choices I can, but it's not always ideal. At least it's temporary.

I have about 10 weeks left in this pregnancy. I'm excited to meet this little guy. I'm also excited to get back on track with my weight and health. I've gotten my weight down once, I can do it again and I don't have nearly as far to go this time.