Here we go again...

So I want to give an update on where I am with weight loss and life. About a month ago I was solidly within 1lb of my prebaby weight. But then, well, things happened. One of my friends who has also lost a tremendous amount of weight (and looks great), had a post today about life getting in the way with weight loss and eating and exercise. It is so true. At times in the last 2 1/2 years, life has gotten in the way. So pregnancy was a big one for me, but I assume that doesn't happen to most other people as they are on a weight loss journey. But other life things happen. Your schedule just gets busy. You add something new to your life. You get injured. You travel. Life just happens. 

Are some of these just excuses, sure. Saying I am tired everyday for a month is an excuse. But I have found for me at times I get most motivated when I have slacked off. Like something inside of me says, "Hey remember how you felt awesome before and now you feel like crap, get that in order." 

So now I am at a point where I am ready to her back to it. I am feeling determined to get my eating back in check first. There is really no need for me to have ice cream after the kids are in bed two, okay 3 times a week, especially if I'm not working out. So I will clean it up. No after bedtime snacks (except date night) unless I have worked out. You should always eat something after a workout. Something healthy with protein. I will also strive to eat less processed food and make the healthier choice. I will not be as restrictive as I was when I was losing weight quickly, because my goal is not as big this time and I want to do it in a way that when I get to the maintenance point, I will feel comfortable.

My current weight, this morning was 175lbs. I want to lose 25lbs more. That is variable though depending on how I feel when I get closer to that number :) 

I think it's really important to also say that I always remember how far I have come. Every morning when I see a 1 as a starting number I remember how far I have come. I remember seeing the 200s even 300s. I remember the first time I saw 199 on the scale. I remember tearing up and being so proud. Always be proud of how far you have come no matter what you are doing in life. 

And here is a picture of why life got in the way for me :) it's not always bad things that happen :) 

PIcking and Choosing

So I admit it, I promised 2 months ago to be better about blogging and well I haven't been.  But I will try again.  I promise.  We'll see...

So tomorrow or in a couple days I will do an update on where I am with getting back in shape after Hank, but for now I have had a blog on my head all day that I want to get out.  Maybe it will help someone, or at least bring you temporary amusement.

One thing my mom always told me growing up was "Pick and choose your battles."  This pertains to many things in life.  In my life right now, and probably in the life of many, it directly relates to kids.  Do you know how many battles there are with kids??  A lot.  A whole lot.  Every little things could be a battle if you wanted.  But part of being a good parent is choosing only the important battles.  I was reminded of this just this morning when we were getting ready to go to Costco.  I asked the girls to get their shoes.  Not kidding this can be a 10 minute process sometimes.  But today they both went to the closet right away, and Brynn pulled out 2 different flip flops (one of her things recently) and asked if it was okay.  I could have said no and dealt with crying and whining or I could let her.  She was not hurting anyone, breaking any rules, or effecting anyone else really, so why say no.  So I let her, and Mady wear mismatched flip flops of their choosing.  This is also the reason I let Mady pick her own clothes, I do check for weather approriateness.  I mean really will it hurt anyone if she wears a dress every single day.  Or if their shorts and shirt don't match.  Nope.  But it will give them a sense of indpendence and pride knowing they were able to do something themselves.  Clothes and shoes are a battle I don't choose, most of the time.  Family pictures and special occassions I have a bit more say.

On the other hand though we do choose to fight other battles.  Brynn recently has decided to start acting very defiant at times.  We will make a small request and give two choices.  Her favorite answer is no to both choices.  It can even be simple.  If you have ever had a 2 year old I know you can relate to this.  At some point today Brynn broke a hanger, on accident.  I was not upset but asked her to take the hanger to the trash.  She refused, of course.  So I gave her the choice, hanger to the trash or you go to your room (she had been acting out before this and was already being denied a snack).  Her answer was no. This led to me carrying her screaming up to her room.  We did not yell or get upset.  The broken hanger came with her to her room and she could decide when she was ready to be done throwing her fit and throw the hanger away.  This is how we choose to handle these situations, everyone has their own method.  A few minutes later (minutes full of screaming and tears full meltdown style), she came downstairs hanger in hand and threw it away.  It seems silly,  I could have thrown the hanger away.  I could have done it and it would have been over.  But the battle wasn't about the hanger it was obeying.  We choose to the battles to obey.  We want our kids to understand they have to listen and obey.  Even if it means that they don't like us at times.

There are always battles in life.  Always things that you can choose to fight.  You have to make the decision what battles are worth your time and energy.  If you choose too many or all of them you are going to get run down and be unhappy in life.  PIck the important ones and stick to your guns.  

Proof of the mismatched shoes, and Hank's no shoes :)

Getting Back At It

Okay, so I have kinda been crappy at this whole blogging thing since I had Hank.  I have discovered something, 3 kids under 4 is a lot! Okay it could be much worse and I am extremely grateful for the busyness of my life, but let's be honest, some things have to be put to the back burner when you are busy and unfortunately blogging became one of those things.  I have often thought of things I would like to write about, but at the end of the day, I am tired.  It's just the truth. 

In the busyness of life I also got out of the habit of eating right, thankfully I still have been working out, so I have stayed relatively in shape.  Until recently, my eating got out of control and. I put on a couple pounds.  I'm sure most people wouldn't notice, but I do and I'm not a fan.  Not just because of the weight, I could live with it.  But I have felt the tiredness and the draining feeling that I know I didn't have when I was eating right and working out how I should.  I remember sleeping well (okay a 6 month old doesn't help sleep, but still), having energy all throughout the day, and being able to keep up. I need to feel like that again.  I need my body to be at it's best, and we are starting to have a plan for that again.

So tonight Steven and I started a new workout program and I started being more deliberate about my eating. No more little snacks here and there, which add up to a way too big snack. And back to more veggies and fruit, less processed food.  We are determined to do one week of all non processed foods in a few weeks. I want to make plans for it and find recipes, especially for the girls.

And i am hoping that now I have inspiration and a little extra time to keep up with my blog again.  We will see....

And now pictures of my kids, because they are cute :) 

        

Comfortable

Well it has been a little longer since I last posted. This is good in part for me because it means Hank hasn't been up quite as much at night. Or for quite as long at least. So I am getting a little more sleep. I will admit I am ready for that first full night of sleep again. It will come in time though.  (As I write this Hank is looking up at me with wide eyes at 3:30am, that night will not be tonight)

I have made a realization lately. I am comfortable with myself. I think this is a good thing. For years I spent so long feeling uncomfortable. I wanted to hide because I didn't feel good about myself. I thought everyone looked at me and thought, "Oh look at the fat girl." When I finally started losing weight and had gotten down to a certain size I finally started to feel less self conscious and just in general happier with how I looked and felt. No, I have not reached my goal weight or size yet, but for right now, where I am in life, a preschooler, a toddler, and a breastfeeding baby, I am happy with where I'm at. I like the changes I have made and know that while it may be slower right now, I am still making progress. 

One thing that has continued to be shown to me recently is how important it is for my girls to see me being comfortable and happy with myself. They may only be 2.5 and 3.5 but they still pick up on and incredible amount. So it is important for then to see me eating healthy foods and working out, but also I fully believe they should see me have a cookie and pizza and understand it's okay to not eat perfect all the time, because your life can't be focused on perfect eating every minute. And I love when they see me squeezing in a daytime workout, but also want them to see me choose family over working out. Life can't be all about my eating and working out. 

Life is too short and precious to not enjoy your family and friends. 

2am

2am is a time I see more often than I like. And while I understand that one day I will miss the middle of the night snuggles and quiet time, tonight is not that night. Tonight I am tired. Tonight I just want sleep. Tonight all I can think about is how is want to sleep. But alas, Mr Hank has decided that he wants to hang out for a while (usually a couple hours or he will sleep for an hour then be up for half hour, both resulting in little sleep for momma). 

So what do you do in the middle of the night when any reasonable person knows you should be asleep? Here are some suggestions.

*Check Facebook. Read every blog and article people post that looks relatively interesting and then wonder why more people don't update their status at 2am. Those wimps sleeping their night away when I need status updates and new memes to laugh at.

*Do some pinning on Pinterst and make plans for all the new projects and recipes you are going to try. In the morning you will have completely forgotten about them or you will be so tired trying something new sounds ridiculous. Ahhhh my project board will eventually get worked on...

*Pray. I have no funny quips, but do find myself praying every night that Hank will sleep, and that I will be able to handle my tired the next day. By the way this works. While I may get little sleep I actually do still have energy the next day to get up and do life with 3 kids under 4. 

*go through your photos and delete the bad ones or the ones your 2 year old took earlier in the day. How in the world Brynn can manage to get my phone and take 73 photos without me knowing is baffling?!?!

*Watch TV. Honestly I am too lazy to go downstairs and don't want to wake Steven, so I usually don't do this. Plus I am always hopeful he will go back to sleep in just 5 more minutes and I don't want to be far from the crib. 

*Write a blog about weird stuff that you will need to reread in the daylight before posting to check for sanity levels and spelling errors.

*Realize that whining about no sleep isn't cool and you need to buck up! I got this! 

My first Dietbet

About a month ago I signed up to do a Dietbet. For those unfamiliar (this was my first) you bet money that you can lose whatever amount of weight in the set period of time. If you lose the weight you get your money back and then split the money the ones who didn't make their weight with the other winners. This one was lose 4% of your body weight, so just over 7lbs in my case, in 4 weeks. It didn't seem too hard. 

I will admit in the first couple weeks I didn't really change my eating, but did start working out. As the month progressed I was not seeing the weight drop off like I needed it to though. So the last 2 weeks I had to really put in the effort. I started cutting out some of the crappy snack food I was eating and adding more veggies and fruit. I also decided to make working out more of a priority, which helped tremendously. For me, when I know I am going to workout that day, I tend to make better eating choices. I don't want to ruin my good habit by eating poorly. 

I am pleased to say I won the Dietbet. I actually lost 8lbs :) and I am feeling better and healthier. My biggest goal of this wasn't necessarily to lose the weight (although the idea of losing money was not appealing), but rather to kick my butt into gear and remind myself I can in fact achieve my goals. My next goal is to get under my prebaby weight by the end of March! I am just 3lbs away, so I am confident I can do it :) 

This is my before and after this month. You can start to see my curves again! (Ignore the unmade bed)

New Challenges

*This blog is dedicated to Betsy, who directed Hank to wake up for a long time, so I would write a blog. Wish granted. Now can you tell him to sleep the rest of the night? 

So today we went to a birthday party for a very special and adorable little man who turned 1. It meant us driving a couple hours north closer to LA. When you don't have kids driving a couple hours seems like nothing, but when you do, well it requires a big bag with snacks, changes if clothes, toys for entertainment, and several rounds of no we aren't quite there yet. Our kids actually did way better than we thought they would on the car ride there and back. 2 years ago when Brynn was about Hank's age, we never would have gone. Not because we didn't want to, but because we thought it would be hard, or the kids would cry in the car or someone would have an accident. Lame I know. So that made me start thinking on the way back about the things that I do now, or want to do now, that I didn't in the past. 

There are different reasons I didn't used to do things or even attempt and some are valid, but others, not so much. 

For example, I have not bungee jumped. Reason: No part of me wants to at all. At all. Zero. I feel this is valid. 

There are things in life I just plain don't want to do, and honestly feel that it is either better that I don't do them at all or will not effect me. So my not wanting to do it is fine. Now I also don't want to put the dishes away, but this would lead to a whole pile of dishes in the sink that would drive me nuts and then I'd be on edge with everyone and cranky. So although I may not want to, it is in the best interest of everyone if I suck it up and put the dishes away. 

Other things I actually have wanted to do, but decided I had an excuse not to. For example I have been wanting to run a 5k. But I haven't, why? I didn't want to put in the work to be able to do it, because I was afraid of failing. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it. Isn't that lame? I think there are things we all decide not to do out fear of failure. That fear was part of the reason it took me so long to start losing weight, but once I decided I was stronger than that fear, and actually took it head on, I got past it. 

So I am going to challenge myself to do more things I may have put off doing or would have been to scared to do. I am working on a list of things, but a few things are running a 5k (actually running the whole thing), doing a Spartan race (Steven and I hope to do this together next year), and stepping out to meet new people. 

The meeting new people and stepping out is something Steven and I have both been working on. When I was in Indiana my parents and I took the girls to church nearly every week and that helped us see how important it is to us that the kids grow up in the church. So we found a church we like here and both of us have joined life groups to help us meet new people and get out a bit more. Now that I think about it, I think I was scared to meet new people too. Scared they wouldn't like me or accept me, or they would judge me. But the truth is, I genuinely believe that most people (yes there are some bad apples out there) want to like the people they meet. Most people want to make friends and be kind. 

So I will work on my list of things I want to do that I had too many excuses for in the past. Hopefully I can start challenging myself. 

A new source of inspiration

So it is 3am, and I am up feeding Hank. It's a pretty normal thing around here, and the quietest time of day. So tonight I was looking over some of my older posts from last year and was surprised to learn that I can inspire myself. Okay that isn't meant to sound like I'm bragging or anything but I feel like it sounds weird. I saw a picture or myself at just a couple pounds lighter than I am now and just before I got pregnant again. It was a great picture for me to be reminded of for a few reasons.

1. It is me, not some skinny model or workout guru that I will never look like. So it is realistic. Looking at it I know I could get myself back to that point.

2. It reminded me of how I felt then. I felt great. I remember feeling good physically and mentally. I would wake up with energy, workout regularly, and eat good foods (for the most part). 

3. I am in the same clothes I wear now. It makes me feel good to know I am not far from that point. Now my body is different right now. I am still nursing and have a baby pouch that takes time to get rid of. Despite what Hollywood would have you believe. I remember I had worked hard to get that pouch gone before and will have to again.

4. I have done this before and can do it again. I have felt up and down about losing this extra weight again. Some days I am like of course you can do it, no big deal. Others I am like what is the point. Th point is I want to be healthy. I want my kids to see me healthy. I want to live a long life uninhibited by challenges I create for myself. I want to have high self confidence to show my girls. (No my self confidence is not directly tied to my weight, but I know where I will feel my best at.) 

So if you are looking for a new source of inspiration, maybe try yourself. Find a picture of yourself where you think you look great, and use that to inspire yourself. Remember how you felt then. Do be realistic. If your favorite pictures is before kids or a decade ago, remember that your body has changed and you have changed, so you may not be able to get exactly back to that point. 

And for those who are curious, I am still 4-5lbs above my prebaby weight. I have been around the same numbers now for about 2 months. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little frustrating, but I know that right now it is due to a lot of factors and I have to try to keep it in perspective with my life right now. I have found that working out may not be taking off the pounds super quickly right now, but it is helping reshape my body again to get it back where I like it :) 

2 years later...

It is hard to believe but it has been 2 years since I made the decision to start getting healthy and actually take it seriously. I honestly thought by this point I would be tired of it wanting to return to old unhealthy habits, and while at times I find I wigs I could pig out in chocolate and junk food, my body actually craves vegetables and fruit. My body tells me when I need to hold off in the dessert and have a salad. And I actually want to workout and be active. I almost didn't know what to do with the fact that my body longed to run. 2 years ago I would have thought I was crazy for wanting to run. Now it is something I had thought about and wanted to do for weeks. Thankfully I was finally able to start again. 

My body is different now. How I view food and exercise is different. It has taken a mental shift to get myself to this point. I was nervous that having another baby would set back my progress, and while it has delayed any additional weightioss, it has also helped me see how important this is to me. It has forced me to really be serious about setting up workout times and sticking to it. It helped me see that even in tough circumstances I could find the time to be healthy. It also brought us little Hank, so no complaints there. 

I am proud of myself for coming so far in two years and changing so much, while still being to be part of the real world and being a good mommy and wife. At the end of the day those are the things most important. My kids are the reason I wanted to make these changes and if I can't be a good mom for them, none of this would matter. 

Balance

So, it's been quite a while since I last wrote a blog. Forgive me for that. But honestly I've been busy. Baby Henry "Hank" was born Nov 4. And while it's only been 3 months it feels like he's been around for much longer. On top of an infant I've has the regular care of our girls, and Coming home from deployment, moving back to Sam Diego, and Thanksgiving and Christmas. All those are in a jumbles order, but they did happen. The busyness has led to needing to put some things to the side for a bit and unfortunately blogging was one of those things. But I am going to try to be back at it. 

It's all balancing act right now it seems. And I quite frankly don't have the balancing all together. Learning to balance 3 kids, a husband, a new house, and myself has been a challenge. All of my kids deserve my attention but at times I just can't devote 100% of my attention to one child. So I have to figure out how to nurse Hank and take care of the big girls. It's a lot of "I will play a bit later" or "when I am done with Hank". No mom likes to do that, but we have to at times. Then once they are in bed there has to be a balance of taking care of me, by working out, and taking care of my husband by spending time together without children yelling for us. 

With all the balancing of people then I get t try to figure out the balance of how much food to eat so I can lose the baby weight, but still be able to breastfeed and workout. Ugh. It's just a jumbled mess some days.

But I wouldn't change it. Because I love it. So I will start attempting to update you on how the weight loss and daily life balance is going. Do forgive me though, many posts, like this one will probably happen during middle of the night feedings, so I can't promise they will always make sense. 

And here is a shameless picture of my babies because they are adorable :)