Operation New ME!

I love my baby boy dearly, but it is time I start blogging about something other than him! For those who have been following my blog since I was pregnant, you know that I am overweight. If you just stumbled across my blog, you go look at June 2010 and see my massively pregnant self.

I have been overweight for as long as I can remember. Always the fat girl that couldn't fit into the cute clothes. When I graduated high school, I weighed around 207. Way too heavy for my 5'3 frame. Fast forward to when I graduated nursing school 4 years later and I was tipping the scale at 248. I basically ate my way through college. I was a stress eater! I went to a doctor who prescribed a pill that was basically legal speed. I lost 20 pounds FAST! Woo hoo! Who cared if it made me feel like CRAP and constantly jittery and wanting to vomit, I was losing weight! I met my husband shortly after this, and continued losing weight because, hello! I was in love! I managed to get down to 198 the day we got married (coming up on 3 years ago).

I decided to stop taking this miracle pill after I read up on it and discovered how horrible it is for you. Six months after we got married, we packed up and moved across the country. I was ALONE, in the winter, in the pacific north west (note: DREARY!). I managed to gain 34 pounds in a year. About 2 years ago, my then employer decided to have a weight loss competition. I watched what I ate and worked out a lot, thanks to help from my hubby. I was doing great until I got pregnant, and had a miscarriage. It threw me off track. I still managed to lose about 15 pounds which was pretty good. I stayed that weight and when I got pregnant in October 2009, I weighed 220lbs.

I was extremely sick the first 4-5 months of pregnancy, and lost 11 pounds. I ended up gained weight back, but the day I went in to be induced I weighed 227. So I only went 7 pounds over what I started. I was very happy with that. When I went in for my six week check up, I was 209 pounds. I was very happy because I came out of having a baby weighing less than when I started!! I stayed at 209 pounds until I started my new job in October 2010. Once I started working 5 days a week, I lost a few more pounds.

Like most people, when the new year started, I vowed to get healthy. Not just lose weight, but get HEALTHY. For me, my son, and my family. I realized I am going to have a toddler soon, and I don't want to be the out of shape mom who can't keep up. I refuse to be like that. My son deserves better. My husband deserves better. I deserve better. I deserve to be proud of myself when I look in the mirror. I want to be able to ride a bike, go on a hike, run around the block without feeling like I'm dying!

So about the 2nd week of January, a couple of my coworkers and I decided we were going to start tracking what we eat. We joined Livestrong.com, put in our height & weight, and selected how many pounds per week we wanted to lose. It is an awesome website and I highly recommend it! It allows you to track your food, exercise, and water intake.

To date, I have lost 14 pounds!!! I am super proud of myself. Not only am I tracking weight, but I am measuring myself to track inches lost. It is amazing!! I think watching the inches of my waist & hips go down is almost more motivation than seeing the scale go down. I am trying to exercise 3-4 times per week. We bought a stationary bike for our house, and I have a couple of Jillian Michael's workout videos. Going to the gym is not an option due to time/money restraints. I am much more likely to do it at home anyways!

My starting weight was 202 pounds. Yesterday I weighed in at 188lbs. I do not remember the last time I weighed that much! I started in a size 18 pants, and when I went shopping today, I bought a size 14. WHAT!! They are a little snug, but the size 16 pants were too big. Talk about motivation!

I know this post is super long, but I wanted you to know my story, and how I got to where I am today. I need to blog about this, and have one more place to hold me account able. Having 2 ladies I work with doing it as well has been my saving grace. I don't know that I could have made it without them!! I have a long ways to go, but I am happy with my progress thus far. My first goal is to get to 160, and if I can make it by June 16th (Ethan's first birthday), then I will be extremely happy. However, I am realistic. This isn't just short term. I am in it for the long haul, and it doesn't matter how long it takes, just that I get there! :)

Are any of you trying to lose weight? If so what are you doing? I would love to hear your stories!