The baby weight is not coming off as quickly as I had hoped. Why do you ask? Because my husband is a SABOTEUR!!!
He has been on a baking kick lately, and makes things like this:
And this:
And it would just be rude not to eat them after he went through all that trouble to bake them.
Yep, my inability to drop the baby weight is all HIS fault!
Riiiiiiigghht…..
Over the past couple of days, reality set in that I just can’t get everything done, all at once, all the time. I’m not complaining, because I knew a baby would be a game-changer. However, with the sleep-deprivation making me loopy, my OCD fretting over the floors that need vacuuming, and new mom instincts telling me I need to be snuggling/feeding/carrying Bean more, I’m a little on edge. I know it’s just a matter of time before I find the groove, but that restless feeling that I need accomplish more, no matter what I’m actually doing, is a voice I need to silence.
In the meantime, I’ve had two small victories this week. The first is actually not such a small victory. Bean’s two-week check-up was yesterday. As a nursing baby, our goal was to see Bean regain the post-delivery weight loss; so, we wanted her to tip the scales at her 6lb, 13oz birth weight.
Not only did she regain her birth weight, Bean put on an additional pound on top of that. For a mom with a past of nursing frustrations and failures, that is a major accomplishment. She is thriving and I confess, I honestly felt like high-fiving the doctor…or at least doing the happy-dance.
My second major victory this week was that I also made it to the park for my first post-baby workout. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but yeah, I was that pregnant girl. About two seconds after the test was positive, I threw diet and exercise out of the window, and spent the next nine months eating…and eating…and eating. I basically used pregnancy as an excuse to indulge in every food I had been missing.
Alas, those actions came with consequences. I put on an embarrassing amount of weight, especially when I realized that Bean only made up about 1/10th of that. Now that I’m back on my feet, I’m ready to remedy this.
Having already been down this road before, I’m sticking with my philosophy of starting any fitness endeavor oh-so-small. My goal for the next two weeks is to walk 30 minutes every day…no more, no less. While I’ll try to challenge myself with the pace, I will also take care not to overdo anything, because that’s what leads to discouragement and failure.
So, these victories may seem trivial to you, but to a sleep-deprived, OCD-crazy, guilt-ridden mess of post-partum hormones, they feel absolutely epic.
Most people I know feel one of two ways about New Year’s Resolutions: they either love the concept and make them yearly, or they think resolutions are a waste of time because they set people up for failure. After the past couple of years, I can definitely say that I’m all for a resolution or two, but with a few caveats.
I think people often make resolutions that are either too vague (lose some weight…eventually), or too drastic (I’ll hit the gym 5 days a week and eat tofu) to ever be successful. Every year, I periodically fell into one of those two categories. I had some vague notion, but no genuine plan in place, or I went extremist with my resolution and set myself up for failure by implementing drastic and impossible-to-maintain lifestyle changes. Like I was ever going to eat dry chicken and brown rice three times a week…but anyway….
All that changed in 2009. That’s the year I decided to get less fat, and I actually devised a general, but not drastic plan to start on that goal. You can read about it here, and here , and here. Since that time, I’ve maintained the 55 pound weight loss…something even I didn’t think was possible. Don’t get me wrong, I can still put away some fajitas and margaritas like it’s going out of style, but my love of my skinny jeans reminds me that I have to make healthy choices sometimes too…For example, I have to counteract the gallon of crabmeat au gratin I scarfed down last night by enjoying a nice protein bar for lunch today.
Last year, I was determined that we would sell our house and move closer to work and the boys’ school. My 45 minute commute each way was driving me bonkers, and it was past time to leave our post-college starter home. Unlike years prior when my husband and I talked vaguely about this possibility, I devised a list and time-line to complete all the outstanding home improvement repairs and cosmetic sprucing. He probably wanted to strangle me by the end of January, but sure enough, we got it all done, put the house on the market and moved by April.
So, the moral of this story? I’ve had two successful years worth of New Year’s resolutions. Sure, they came after a decade of failures, but better late than never, I suppose. This year, my resolution is financial in nature. I have a definitive strategy for us to live a bit more frugally, save more, and create a financial cushion that will help down the road if we have any life/career changes or unexpected surprises. It’s a simple goal, but at the same time, it will be a challenge as well. My tendency to drag everyone out to eat after a bad day at work, rather than cook, is definitely a habit I need to break. And it sure wouldn’t hurt me to clip a coupon or two. Saving money, rather than buying that new digital SLR I want is certainly no fun, but that’s the reality of being a responsible, mature adult with long-term goals.
Did I mention maturity is overrated sometimes?
Just one year ago, I decided to get less fat. Unlike every other time I’ve decided to change my gluttonous, hedonistic ways, I was pretty serious about not facing 30 in absolute misery. Unfortunately, I am fundamentally lazy, and I like to eat more than I like just about anything else; hence, the baby weight that stayed long after my babies became toddlers, and finally little boys. I am sure my husband can tell you how many times I “started” to diet or exercise, and he can also tell you how quickly thereafter I told him to pick me up some ice cream on the way home. Mmmmmm…..Dublin Mudslide…..
But I digress. After figuring out just how to approach my inner-sloth, I started to see some forward progress. I was doing great, but when I started work, I worried that the weight I’d lost would hop back onto my thighs faster than you can say “fruity pebbles.” Luckily, my glacially slow approach to changing my lifestyle seemed to keep me under some semblance of control.
Well, heck if it didn’t pay off, because Bayou-Mama started this year a full 52 pounds lighter! That’s right sister, I am down into the jeans I wore as a sophomore in high school. Nothing like sweet, skinny victory to make staring down the big “3-0” a little less traumatizing.
While I bask in my scale-happiness, I have also come to realize some disturbing realities:
I may be a ding-bat in just about everything thing else I do, but as I look at my scale, I get to have a few moment to think, “I Rock!”
As a one-income family, we usually have to make our dollars stretch farther than a yoga master. This often makes me a very picky purchaser, and I confess that I spend way too much time on Amazon.com reading product reviews. I want to know whether my potential purchases will deliver on their promise, or doom me for disappointment. Buyer’s remorse takes on a whole new level when your lemon of a product ate up a sizeable chunk of your meager expendable income.
Here is some inside scoop on some products I’ve tried this month:
I got this new workout game for the Wii:
And I like it. If you have been following my challenge to get fit, then you know my Wii has been my Yoda, and I am always looking for a new way to use it. This game is great for fitness beginners, and as someone who is so uncoordinated that she almost crippled herself trying to do Tae Bo, I love any exercise program that I can actually do with harming myself or others. I have used this daily for two weeks, on the medium intensity setting. Personally, I’ve gotten a great lower body workout, but I may need to purchase a stronger resistance band, because the upper body work is not very challenging. Overall, it was worth the money to me.
Moving on to skin care, I decided to buy this:
To shake up my skincare routine. Well, the little pads do not foam, and you really don’t feel like any cleanser is coming out of them. It is awkward to use on the contours of your face (like around your nose), and overall, I was severely unimpressed. My face did not feel very clean after using this, and with a $15 price tag, I have to give this a thumbs’ down.
This next product is one of our best buys of the decade:
This rechargeable battery system has been a lifesaver. With a Wii and three males with a love of all toys electronic, we were going through enough batteries to pollute a small country, not to mention the purse-crippling expense. This thing charges the batteries in 15 minutes flat, which is brilliant when you have impatient children clamoring for more Mario Kart. We use this thing almost every day.
And last but not least:
Please do not waste your money on this toy. The pen does not work, only holds like 10 balls at a time, and was supremely frustrating for both me and the boys. Very rarely do I buy a product that was a total waste of money, but this one sure was. Pixos failed to deliver on every level, and only resulted in agitated kids and one aggravated mom.
Have you tried something great, or been bitterly disappointed? Share it with me, because we all need to be smart with our money these days…diet coke ain’t getting any cheaper.
This week is perhaps the best dang week I’ve had in years.
Me and my scale are new best friends, because it told me I’ve lost 30 pounds since the new year. Husband still has bruises where I accidently landed on him while doing my victory jump-dance on the bed.
To celebrate this super-awesome event, I went shopping for new shirts. All mine either had holes, or were looking kind of blah.
I am not a big fan of shopping. Like many women, I have a hate-hate relationship with dressing room mirrors. I can think of about 67 other things I would rather do than try on clothes. Like go to the dentist…or clean the bathroom.
But with -30 pounds of courage, I took off for an afternoon of shopping, dressing room be damned.
After trying on several shirts, I could not figure out why they all looked so funky. It took me 10 solid minutes to realize that maybe, just maybe, I was trying on the wrong size. After rounding up a batch of smaller size prospects, I stepped back in the dressing room, prepared to be disappointed.
But holy guacamole, they fit! For the first time in 8 years, I put on a size medium shirt, and it fit for real. Not that kind of “you are so deluding yourself” fit; these shirts really fit, even if I bend over, raise my arms, or wrestle my heathens into submission.
Needless to say, I did the dressing room happy dance, then proceeded to try on about 20 different tops, just because I could.
Nothing like some sweet, sweet victory to make for a good week.
At the beginning of the year, I came to the startling realization that my youngest will be starting school this fall. Obviously, I knew this was coming, but the reality of the situation chose to sink in right about New Year’s Day. Other than the obvious emotional issues I have with this, I realized that my perfect excuse for carrying around about 35 pounds of extra weight was now bordering on ridiculous.
My husband waited until about 2 seconds after I was pregnant to break the news to me that he was a 12 pound baby. Nine insane months later, I gave birth (via c-section, obviously!) to Oldest, who was 10 pounds and 22 inches….That’s right, he looked three months old the day he was born. Two years later, I gave birth to Youngest, who tipped the scales at 9 pounds, 2 ounces, and THAT was because he was delivered early…to avoid the 10 pound repeat.
So, you see, I had the perfect excuse to be a little plump. “I gave birth to two 10 pound children,” was my standard justification for everything, including my crippling diet coke addiction, gallons of margaritas, and my tendency eat enough junk for 3 people in a given day.
Alas, my New Year’s wake up call came, and I decided to do something about this situation. How does the laziest, most unfit person in the world go about getting fit? Since I have never been able to stick to a diet or exercise program in my life (excerise….now that’s just funny…), I instead decided to commit to one small change at a time, and focus on staying committed to that change until it really became a lifestyle. I would set the bar so low every week that even a flake like me couldn’t fail.
So, for my first week, I dusted off the WiiFit and committed to 30 minutes of activity on it a day, even if it was just the Free Step while I watched Battlestar Galactica.
This was perfect for me, since I couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without panting like a sissy-girl. I was starting from literally zero level of activity.
Once I actually managed to keep up for two weeks, I then adjusted my diet just a tad. I can’t really change up dinner too much, because I have three beanpole males in this house who would riot, but I did start watching what I ate during the day. I also replaced some of my diet coke with water. Not all, mind you, I am not a masochist.
I then decided to challenge myself , so I bought this game for the Wii:
As someone who has never been able to follow a workout DVD (you should have seen the disaster that was Tae Bo), I was skeptical. However, this game is interactive, and can adjust to your fitness level, how you feel on any given day, and it continuously adjusts itself based on how you are doing. Furthermore, you can pause during a specific exercise and see a tutorial until you think you’ve got it right, then jump right back to where you were in the workout. It is literally perfect for fitness dunces like me.
Using this game, and walking 30 minutes on the days I was too sore from the previous workout, I’ve lost 22 pounds since the New Year. Not too shabby, considering I did have a week or two with no working out because of illness.
So far, I have kept up with these changes longer than any other attempts at diet and exercise, and I am continuing to add tiny challenges as I go. On 30 minute walk days, I’ve started to add some jogging. Sure, it is only about 40 seconds at a time…downhill, but that is 30 seconds longer than I could four months ago. For me the key has not been a “program.” I don’t think drastic diets or fitness plans would work for me, because I am a too resistant to change. I simply started with one tiny goal, and mastered that change before I added another.
We’ll see how the rest of the year goes, but if I can drop 10 more pounds, I dare say I will have one less reason to have emotional breakdown come August.