Losing Weight - June 2015

A little history....


I was a hungry kid. I ate a lot. I ate my lunch at school and snacks. I ate my sister's lunch too (she gave it to me so don't think I took it from her - ha!)


Fast forward to 19. I have always ate anything I wanted and everything I wanted and A LOT of it too. Sound familiar? I tried hard to gain weight. I could only get up to about 97 pounds from 93 and at 5 feet 4 inches, everyone thought I was taller than I really am. It's probably because thinner people look longer/taller.


I met my husband the year I was about to turn 20. I had a lot of crazy unhealthy relationships prior (is that why I didn't gain weight? Stress?) My husband made me so happy. He was different from most boyfriends I've had and it's a good kind of different. Anyway, we were happy. We ate a lot and we both got FAT. Between the 2 of us, we gained a whole person. I reached 135lbs and he went from 180lbs to 260lbs. That's just about 118lbs!


I didn't start really trying to lose weight until I got engaged. It was 2006 (6 years later... took him long enough!) I started tracking my calories and exercising. I didn't really know how to start. I joined the gym and had a personal trainer (as part of the package) but I felt like he wasn't really trying to help me. He was trying to sell me their products like powders and vitamins. Whatever. Whatever I did, it worked. Right before my wedding, I lost about 30 pounds and didn't even fit my dress correctly (I made it work!). Of course it took me like 9 months and hubby 4 months to lose his weight (rolling eyes).


I wanted a baby right away so I thought I could just eat whatever I want because I'll be pregnant soon anyway. I got pregnant 2 years later... After my baby was born, I went right back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I was determined to breastfeed and whenever I dieted, my milk supply went downhill. So.... I ate myself fat the first year and gained 20 pounds! Hey, at least I accomplish my goal of breastfeeding for at least one year.


I joined this thing at work called the Top Loser Challenge. You win based on your percentage of weight lost. I joined by myself (you can do it as a group too). Everyone did such a good job and most people had more weight to lose and lost a great amount of weight but my percentage of weight loss led me to win the competition. I didn't expect it at all! It was a nice reward for all my hard work. I lost 20 lbs.


Shortly after, I got pregnant. This time, the weight didn't come off right after delivery. I actually started to gain weight after a month! I also had more than enough milk supply for me to diet comfortably. It took me 11 months to get back to my normal weight... then SURPRISE! I found out I was pregnant again before Connor turned 1 (11 months old).


NOW... my baby is almost 10 months. I'm not losing weight. In fact, I'm just gaining. I had an idea to start a support group on Facebook. It's only been a week and I'm already making changes:


Walking up 13 floors back to my desk after pumping (2x).
Walking at lunch
Walking the stairs at least once a day all the way up the building (26 floors)
Playing with kids after dinner (actually running with them at the park - in grass or play structures)


I also decided to purchase a Fitbit. They came out with a tracker that also tracks the heart rate. They've always had different types of trackers but nothing with a heart rate (to my knowledge). I own a Polar Heart Rate Monitor which comes with a chest strap. I found this was very helpful and motivated me to keep going when I saw my calories burned while I exercised. The only issue I had with it was that you had to wet it and put it on your chest. It was inconvenient. I read many reviews and it seems the FitBit was mostly accurate (to a certain point).


I won't post a "before" photo until I have an "after" photo otherwise I'll just be posting an eye sore of a photo and nothing to show for after! Working on the "after" photo!