I need to lose 20 pounds. Actually, I really need to lose 45 pounds to get to my “ideal” weight according to the BMI charts, but 120 lbs seems unrealistic for me to maintain with my current high-stress life style, so I’m setting the goal at 20 for now. 145 was my pre-baby weight and I was content in a size 8. Besides, I weighed more than 120 in high school when I was the teeny-tiny captain of the cheerleading squad. (10 lifetimes ago) Sorry, BMI people, but I have boobs. Big ones. They weigh a lot.
I’ve known for a while, like since I was recovering from a c-section this time last year, that I was going to need to get around to losing weight, but I haven’t really been taking it seriously. I have done some things. I’ve sporadically counted Weight Watcher’s points, done a few Pilates & Richard Simons DVD’s at home, gone to the gym w/ my friend Rebecca a few times, and gone to a Zumba class. Plus, I do lug around a 20 pound baby, a 35 pound toddler, and all the diaper bag/stroller equipment that goes with them every day. WARNING: MOM DON’T READ THE NEXT SENTENCE. I’ve also been telling myself that sex counts as exercise and thus getting more “exercise” than I normally would, which makes for a happy husband, but a smaller waistline? Not so much. I still say that the fact that I’ve done these things should count for something, but the scale hasn’t budged at all this year, so I guess I haven’t been trying hard enough. All year at 165. (Although I think I lost 3 pounds doing Weight Watcher for a few weeks, but our scale at the time was broken, so there’s no way to know for sure.) Well, at least I haven’t gained any weight in the past year.
Still, I’m really tired of not being happy with the way I look in pictures and not feeling attractive in anything I wear. Luckily, I have a very supportive husband who truly doesn’t care how much I weigh, but I care. Now that my dad is remarried, I have 6 brothers & sisters. I don’t want to be the fat one! Plus, I have a daughter now. She needs to see a good example of a well-balanced life style and a confident role model, and both my kids need to see an example of a woman who is happy with her body image. I can’t be that role model unless I actually believe that I look good.
Until now, I’ve been trying to give myself a break. After all, it’s been a really high-stress year & a half. In the past 18 months, we’ve adopted a child, moved, I stopped working & transitioned to being a stay-at-home mom (which is probably the most difficult transition, but that’s another blog post), I gave birth, started a business, our son was diagnosed with a bunch of special needs & since I’m the one home with him I organize all of his testing/therapy appointments, I closed my business, served on the steering committee for the Mom-n-Me program, got a new part-time job, not to mention had some health issues….I mean sheesh. So I can’t lose the last of my baby weight. That should be at the bottom of the list, right? No, not really. If I felt better about the way I looked & had more energy, I could be doing all of those things a lot better.
So I’m doing it. For real. I’m losing 20 pounds, and all of my readers (all 4 of you) can hold me accountable. I got a double jogging stroller (surprisingly hard to come by) at the Tomato Tamato [let’s all pause to reflect on how cute that name is] consignment shop yesterday. I also signed up to lose 20 pounds for the Pound For Pound Challenge so they would donate 20 pounds of food to our local food bank. I figured that would hold me accountable too, since I was doing it for someone else.
I’m going to try Weight Watchers again, since that seems to be the easiest for me, being able to eat whatever I want. So here goes…
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