Big list of STUFF that is helpful PART 1: Pregnancy and Postpartum mom items

I have a 14 month old tiny toddler She is amazing, wonderful, fun, and has been a very easy baby. I can’t take credit for her being easy, we just got lucky, but I’d like to think not being stressed out because we felt well prepared have helped.

This is as messy as I ever let the living room get. Otherwise I’d go BONKERS!

Here are some items that have helped us feel like prepared, confident new parents. I’ll try to list them in age order of when they’re most useful :)

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3/5 of the way to my goal

I don’t really like blogging about my Weight Watchers success. It makes me feel weird, like I shouldn’t have let myself go so far before I had to look for outside enforcement, but that’s the nature of having a problem. You won’t accept help until you look for it yourself. Going to a WW meeting mustn’t be too far off from an AA meeting, food addicts, alcoholics, we’re not that different. Well, maybe our stories are less depressing at WW, but we’re there to be supportive of each other and to share what’s working and what isn’t and learn the science behind the whats and whys of the program.

Anyhow, it’s working slowly but surly for me. Since Thanksgiving 2012 I’ve lost 20 lbs (well, I hit that milestone a month ago and have been near it since, but I haven’t been great about limiting my birthday/wedding celebration consumption either). Yes, that’s 9 months to loose 20 lbs, or about 2 lbs per month overall. I’m actually quite proud of it and expect that because I’ve lost it so slowly it’s more likely to stay off.

Every time I hit a setback it’s been 3-4 pounds over 2 weeks after some major event revolving around food: baby shower, road trip, baby shower, wedding, birthday, etc. Then it takes me a month to get back on track, and loose what was there before too, which is really frustrating because I feel like I’ve lost the same weight over and over again. It also means that sometimes I loose 6 lbs in a month when 1/2 of those were pounds I’d already lost and yo-yoed back because I ate too much salt/fat/whatever and just had an awful weigh in previously. FINALLY though I’m starting to see that I look and feel different. My waist is back where it should be and old clothes not only fit but are a tad roomy! And the best part is that yoga is getting easier, not because I’m getting stronger, I feel I may have in fact lost muscle tone because I’m not as active as I have been in the past, but because there’s less belly to have to modify around!

The biggest milestone for me is that my wedding dress not only fits again, but it fit without the Spanx I wore underneath for my wedding! WOOHOO!

pointing out my favorite wedding photo in my wedding dress almost 3 years later
PS- please ignore the mezuzah that appears to be sticking out of my head

Go me! Oh, and I got new glasses too. Not a huge change, but I also got my first pair of prescription sun glasses rather than the magnetic/clip-on sunglasses that went over my regular glasses that I had in the past. I feel like a real grownup now. Watching my food intake, trying to track my physical activity, and real sun glasses. I guess 30 isn’t so bad, it just can’t the tequila/beer and nachos/pizza festival that 23 was and I am 100% OK with that; I like veggies, whole grains, and lean protein!

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I want to be STRONG!

This Trendy “Strong is the New Skinny” Thing and what it could mean for the next generation of girls | Sophieologie.

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I joined a gym!

I know, I still haven’t written about our cross-country road trip, nor have I written about moving into my parents’ basement or visiting NASA or even the inauguration yesterday. I’ll get to that later.

Right now I’m excited about joining a gym for the first time ever. That’s not quite true, I had a gym membership at the university for 2 semesters before we got married so that I could take fitness classes and ice skate for free. I never did use any equipment other than the elliptical (which I’m still not sure how to use effectively).

Anyhow, in addition to joining Weight Watchers (I’ve lost 7+ pounds since November 14), I’ve now joined Equinox gym.  I’ts super fancy-shmancy. Yoga classes in McLean are 2x what they cost in Boulder, and if I only use the gym for yoga twice a week it will cost the same as that many yoga classes in town but I get the added bonus of a steam room, pool, and a whole gym! I’m doing the new member challenge: visit 12 times in my first 30 days of membership and use both my free personal trainer session and I will be credited my initiation fee! So far I’ve been a member for 10 days and have gone 4 times, including one session with my personal trainer (turns out that my BMI is higher than I thought and I’m a weak, chubby blob, we’re going to work on that).

So far, so good. I like that I’m not the only one in the gym who doesn’t look like a yoga girl, I would sometimes get frustrated by being the chubbiest person in the class in Boulder.

For now, I’m looking for a part time job that will let me keep up my new fitness routine, or a perfect job that is near where we’re planning to move (Rockville) and maybe full time and could be a “forever job.” Like how I felt about working at Bonai; something fulfilling and rewarding.

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