:::THUNK::::

That sound was me, falling off the wagon. I gained 10 pounds, ending up at 206. An all-time high for me, including pregnancy. Gack.

So I found a weight-loss competitor, as opposed to buddy. You can't send your buddy text messages that say, "Neener, neener, neener, I just worked out for an hour and you didn't." The competitor thing has helped. I've added much more fruits and veggies, and have gotten up and moving more. We're trying to conceive baby #4, and the overall goal is to establish eating and moving habits that can be continued throughout a pregnancy for optimum health for me and a baby.

It seems to be paying off. I'm down 4 pounds in two weeks. More important than that, my face looks less fat, and my boobs now stick out farther than my belly. :D I put my hands on my hips to snark at the kids, and then realized that I could actually feel the beginnings of a waist again! Awesome!

I'll have a new before picture up soon.


My biggest fear when trying to lose weight is working my butt off to have the scale go nowhere. And if it does come off, that the loss is so tenuous that if I stray from great eating habits, even for a day, that it will all come piling back on.

I don't want to be fighting a weight battle forever.

Shin splints

From the Wikipedia article entitled "Shin Splints": "An individual not accustomed to running may experience pain in the shin muscles the next day even after a single, short bout of intensive running."

That individual not accustomed to running would be me, and the single, short bout of intensive running would be the 3/4 of a lap I wheezed my way through Tuesday afternoon.Now my shins hurt, and my hips hurt, and it appears that 196 pounds is a lot of weight to drag around when trying to start to run.

Fortunately, it's not debilitating pain, just annoying, overused muscle sort of pain.

At the very least, I'll do the arc tomorrow, since that's pretty low impact, but I'd really like to avoid giving up on running this soon, which I'm afraid I'll do if I can't get right back to it.

So after gaining all 6 pounds back...

Mostly due to sitting on my ass and eating high sugar, high fat treats in large portions every night, I've decided something must be done.


I have a really hard time getting motivated to drag all 3 kids out to the Y by myself. I set out my routine for the week, and on it, I have the gym on Tuesday afternoon, Thursday morning and Friday mornings. I almost didn't go today, since the kids were bouncing off the walls, and I was tired, but I know myself and knew if I hadn't gone today, that I wouldn't be able to get up and go the rest of the week. Besides, I need to get started running.

I went. Baby in the Ergo, big two holding hands, all the way to the kid zone.

I did start running today. I walked several laps, then I got exactly 3/4 of a lap in before I started wheezing, and I'm not asthmatic.LOL I walked two more laps, then went in and did 20 minutes on the arc.

The children were retrieved uneventfully, and we headed on out, and I still had enough energy to run an errand with the three of them afterwards.

Wagon? There's a wagon?

Eh, who cares. I've fallen off of it anyway. Fortunately, I've been able to stay on the arc the full half-hour lately. :D I'm proud. I got my Walk Away the Pounds dvd, and I'm planning on trying it out tomorrow or Saturday.

I'm also thinking about taking up running. Of course where and when and what I'm going to do with the children are issues.

I'm doing okay in the food department. Eating until full and then stopping seems to be helping.

Progress!

I wore a pair of shorts of DH's for my oldest's birthday party this past weekend. They fit a couple of weeks ago. They're now too big!!! :D Yay!

Woohoo!

Lookit the ticker:





Aww, yeah!

I bought a pair of denim capris at Old Navy last week. They were size 16, and they fit relatively well in the store. I got them home, washed them, and no way do those suckers fit. Way too loose and baggy! :D

I'm starting to notice muscle in my legs I didn't have before, and DH walked up to me and poked my butt the other day, then said there was muscle there. :giggle That was a nice little motivator.

In other news, Kroger brand caramel mini-rice snacks (mini rice cakes) are $1.49. Not only that, but they are 60 calories per serving (8 pieces), and don't have the horrid sucralose and acesulfame potassium that the Quaker brand does. I'm happy I've found something to satisfy my sweet tooth that will not totally blow my calorie count for the day.

A bit of a departure...

...from the oficial blog subject matter. ;)

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Back on the wagon

Breakfast

Spirutein Shake
Whole Milk
Strawberries
Raspberries - Frozen Fruit

Lunch

Mixed Baby Greens - Organic Specialty Salads
Carrots
Kraft Natural Cube Cheese - Colby & Monterey Jack - Cube Cheese
Full Circle Dressing Organic Goddess - Salad Dressing, Mayonnaise, Sandwich Spreads --okay, so it was actually Annie's All Natural, but they don't have that one in the system, and the calorie division is the same.
Egg, Whole - Cooked, Hard-boiled -2 of them
Total Calories Consumed
843

Plus another 870 for the remainder of last night's 1270 calorie dessert.

That's okay. Dinner is yet to come, and it will be a good one.

Plus, I spent 30 minutes on the treadmill and bike today, and we're planning to go for a walk when DH gets home, as it's just this side of nice. I burned 158 calories with my workout this morning, and later, I walked around the house. And lifted the baby a lot.

______________________________

No walk. I messed up my back picking up the 22 pound baby who will be much easier when he finally learns to walk (13 months and counting....none of his brothers walked before 15 months), so we got a trip to the chiro instead. I love my chiro. My back feels better, and that's good.

But I'm hungry again. I'm noticing that the days I work out leave me ravenous all day. That's frustrating. On the good side, I scratched my leg the other day, and noticed that there was muscle where there hadn't been any before. :D I'll take it!

I need to get into belly binding--even though it's been waaaaaay more than 40 days since I gave birth, I wonder if it would still have an effect. My abs are nowhere near as strong as they need to be. Must. do. more. pilates.

Here's the dinner/afterdinner/dessert/midnight snack breakdown:


Dinner

Beef, Ground, 85% Lean Meat / 15% Fat, Loaf - Cooked, Baked (meatloaf ala DH--tasty)
Broccoli - Cooked, Boiled, Drained, Without Salt
Mixed Baby Greens - Organic Specialty Salads
More Goddess dressing
Ketchup

Snacks

Egg, Yolk - Raw, Fresh
Stop & Shop Sugar Pure Cane Granulated
Cocoa, Dry Powder, Unsweetened
The rest of the Molten Chocolate Cake with chocolate and caramel
Beef, Ground, 85% Lean Meat / 15% Fat, Loaf - Cooked, Baked

Total Calories Consumed
2,299

The above is about right. There isn't a calorie counter that I've been able to find that takes breastfeeding into account. Ollie still nurses quite a bit, in addition to nursing at night still (nightweaning really is just around the corner), and Henry still nurses twice a day. I have a fairly abundant milk supply, so it's a pretty safe bet that I'm burning around 300 calories that way, too.

Wow, that's a lot of food. And now I'm hungry again, so I need a very light snack, and then off to bed. :yawn

Meh

I've done "okay" with calories the last couple of days. It's getting exercise that needs to be the priority right now. I'm going to the gym twice a week (I have noooo idea how that is going to happen once school starts up again and DH is back to work), but I need a little more than that. I keep forgetting to run up and down the stairs (ADD much? Yes, as a matter of fact), and after trying my friend Robin's Wii Fit, um, I want one. Bad.

I will post the official calorie count from the last few days in a bit. For now, I must go wake up the husband (who snuck off to the boys' room and fell asleep as soon as I got up this morning), and then.......we garden.

Stairs suck.

I didn't get to the Y Friday or today. So I ran up and down the stairs at home for a minute and twenty-five seconds. My thighs and calves are screaming at me, and I'm thoroughly winded. I made it up and down 5 times. Go me.

Of course, I also ate 8 freshly made oatmeal cookies. My excuse? I was reading a twin birth story. Birth stories rev up my adrenaline and make me eat whatever I'm eating faster. I'm much more balanced when at a real birth.

In birth news, my current client and I have decided to make her prenatals the Gelato Tour of our city. ;) I think it's a good plan.

Calorie intake: 1,353 calories
Physical activity: Walking around Lowe's, chasing Number One (age 4), and running up and down the basement stairs 5 times (each up and down counts as 1).

Calories burned? 230ish.