About a year after my Princess was born, I went on a diet, The Biggest Loser Diet to be exact. I lost quite a bit of weight and I was beginning to feel really good about myself. I liked the way I looked in my clothes and I liked the way I felt.
Not only was I eating correctly, but I was also exercising. I had energy to do things around the house. I had energy to play with my kids. I had the energy to be the kind of wife and mother I wanted to be.
Then, life got stressful. When life gets stressful, I eat. I find comfort in food. I let food temporarily remove the stress from my life.
Then, I got pregnant. When I’m pregnant I like to eat. I feel as though I should be allowed to eat what I want because I am trying to grow another person inside my body.
I rationalize eating. I rationalize everything.
I recently started to watch my eating and to exercise on a regular basis. Little did I know that my Little Man would sabotage my weight loss plan. He had been sleeping through the night like a champ, and then one day he decided to wake up every two hours. This went on for weeks and there was no way I was going to wake up extra early to work out when I was only getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night.
Enter rationalization. I decided that because I am nursing a baby, I am burning calories and I don’t need to exercise. And a lack of exercise led to my lack of desire to watch what I eat.
I feel that in the last few days I have completely undone everything I had worked so hard to achieve. “Why do I need to eat right if I’m not working out” is what runs through my brain these days.
I need to change that mentality. I need to be motivated to get my act together; to eat right and exercise, if not for me, then for my family. I need to take care of myself, so I can be here to take care of them.
So what do you do to stay motivated when trying to shed the extra pounds? Do I really need to buy a scale and focus on the number, or can I just watch my pant size go down? I need some motivation here!! Help Me!!!
Honestly, it ISN'T all about the numbers on the scale, but I definitely think it's a good guideline...
ReplyDeleteI wrote a post on this a bit ago, and don't know if you read it. http://brholloway.blogspot.com/2011/01/weight-loss-101.html
But maybe it will help you get started in the right direction!
And seriously, shoot me an email if you want to talk more weight loss ideas and such--I have now lost 60 pounds since reaching my pre-pregnancy weight after having my baby 7 1/2 months ago and nursing him the whole time. I ate all regular meals and snacks (you can see a sample of my monthly tracking here: http://pointsplusplanning.blogspot.com/
And it IS a fantastic feeling!!! You can do it!
p.s. email is: hollowayfam (at) yahoo (dot) com
ReplyDeleteDavid helps me get motivated. Finley gets up so early we can usually get in a run before David has to go to work. We run together and push the jogging stroller. I don't know what I am going to do when we have 2 babies!
ReplyDeleteHey Jennie! This is Chad, Oswald's high school chum. One thing that kept me motivated in the past was a food diary. Surprisingly, I found myself following some of the stuff from Rachel's Weight Loss 101 page, especially, weighing yourself regularly, logging the food you consume, and portions, portions, portions.
ReplyDeleteAlong with her guidelines, this method also helped me out: http://www.ehow.com/how_5578688_lose-weight-eating-hours.html This tip will increase your metabolism, and you will never go hungry as long as you eat sensibly. The food diary helped the most because you will start building a routine and by logging your weight every 1 or 2 days, it will affect your eating patterns for the following day. I GUARANTEE you will see a difference if you stick to a steady regimen for 3 weeks and are meticulous in your diary recording.
Lastly, you're absolutely right. Taking care of yourself leads to a healthy lifestyle, which in turn leads to more time on this earth with the ones you love. GOOD LUCK!
Thanks Chad!!
ReplyDeleteYou're sweet and it made my day to see a comment from you! I took your advice and have started to write down everything I eat once again. I am not a huge fan of the scale, so hopefully keeping track of everything will make all the difference!!