Category Archives: body after baby

My Body Image

Posted on July 22, 2014 | 8 comments

“Mommy, your belly is big.”

“Mommy, you’re fat.”

“Mommy, you’re as big as daddy.”

I know the girls aren’t trying to be mean. They don’t know what their words do to me. But man, they hurt. I try to block them out, I try to laugh them off, but it doesn’t work. I am back to being the fat kid in school. The one with fat ugly knees. And thing is, I am. I have put on so much weight. I am the heaviest I have ever been, outside of pregnancy.

One hundred and twenty-nine pounds is what I weighed when I got pregnant with Patrice. I had worked hard to get the weight off. It allowed me to avoid sugar issues in my pregnancy with her.

It took me a while, but I got back down to 132 after Patrice was born. Then medications started curtailing my exercise and others increased my appetite exponentially.

So here I am, big. Really big. I hate it. I hate seeing myself in the mirror. When I don’t see myself, I can pretend my exercise I am doing is making a difference. When I do see myself, I see the truth, a very, very overweight woman who obviously doesn’t take care of herself.

I am beyond frustrating. Since I started exercising and slowly cleaning up my eating…my weight has gone up. Five pounds up. I hate it. I can’t stand it. I am so ashamed.

I’m losing hope.

8 Comments

Posted in body after baby, exercise, weight loss

A Fit and Fab Giveaway from Worthy of the Prize Ministries

Posted on February 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

I was doing some blog hopping today to tell some bloggy friends about this award I gave them. And I found this giveaway.

As you know I have been trying various things to keep myself mentally and physically fit. I have been running and doing Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. I have also been doing a twitter project reading a chapter of Proverbs every day to match the date. I was wondering if there are other ways to blend my physical health with my spiritual health. Worthy of the Prize Ministries has figured it out!

See what they are giving away here and check out their site here.

Several Random Posts Put Together

Posted on January 14, 2011 | 3 comments

I didn’t have a chance to pop in Tuesday and show off my work getting an area organized, but I did do something 🙂 And shocked my hubby in the process by cleaning off the staircase up to our room. Putting stuff on the steps is a bad habit I developed growing up. It drove my dad nuts and now drives my husband nuts. Is that what “they” mean when “they” say girls look for someone like their daddy to marry?

Well regardless, here they are, our clean steps. (so be honest, how many of you just turned your head sideways to look at them?)

How is Body after Baby Morphed going? Pretty well. I have continued to do the 30 Day Shred and even ran one night too!!! I missed working out last night and am totally feeling it today…I gotta get down there and workout. Tomorrow I am going to move my workout OUTDOORS. I am going to try cross country skiing for the first time in roughly 20 years. I lost much of my balance when the Multiple Sclerosis got bad. With it went skiing. Now mind, I had not done a lot of it, just once or twice, but I had enjoyed it. For some reason it is something I really missed and am now feeling confident enough to try it again. One of our local parks, Independence Oaks, is offering a two hour ski lesson and ski rental for $10. And my wonderful hubby is going to keep the three kidlets while mama heads out. He doesn’t mind me heading out, but he sure is bummed he is not going to see my adventure.

What about 5 Question Friday? Okay, you asked for it, here it is.

1. What movie could you watch over and over again and not get tired of?

Steel Magnolias, Fried Green Tomatoes, Back to the Future and Three Men and a Baby
Guess I don’t feel like narrowing things down today.

2. What’s your biggest pet peeve right now?

Hearing my child say “I don’t like that.” So now they have to say, “I don’t prefer that.” Same obnoxious thought when they are rejecting dinner, but it sounds cute when they say such big words.

3. If you had to describe your best friend in five words or less, what would you say?

Does my hubby count? A funny, sweet, strong, smart companion.

4. If you did not have to worry about money or go to school what would you do for a living?

Either a stay-at-home mom or a midwife.

5. What is your one “splurge” item, that you will always buy, no matter the cost?

Diet Coke! I considered giving it up last week. Then I woke up. The only time I ever gave it up was at the end of my pregnancy with Patrice when she kept going breech. I thought maybe the caffeine was making her too hyper. So I gave it up for about 2 weeks. We brought some with us to the birthing center so I could have one right after she was born!

And what would be a post without mentioning my wonderful midwife? I saw her yesterday and she was as always her wonderfully encouraging self. I am so thankful for her investment in our family.

Okay, I thing this post has been the epitome of randomness…now back to your regularly scheduled weekend…

After this cute picture:

3 Comments

Posted in 30 day shred, 5 question Friday, baby 3, blog hops, body after baby, exercise, midwife, operation organization, random thoughts

Body after Baby Morphs

Posted on January 10, 2011 | 1 comment

A few weeks ago I started a blog hop called Body After Baby over at Mama Notes. It was an 8 week challenge. I saw no weight loss until this week. I lost 1 pound. I’ll take it.

The biggest thing I have found is the value of exercise to my overall life. That has been huge. But I would still like to lose some weight and get healthier. And I would like to find out if it is only running that makes me feel better or any good exertion exercise.

So, I am taking the plunge again. Samantha at Mama Notes has decided to do a 30 day challenge. And her readers chose the 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels. I happened to see this DVD at the store Friday and picked it up. Here goes nothing. I started it yesterday. It is HARD. I am SUPER sore today. I think the muscles that are killing me are called your pecs. I just call them ouch!!!!

Today got away from me and I really have to get to bed, so tomorrow will be my mulligan, my do over.

Are you interested in joining me on this 30 day adventure? Come join us and link up at Mama Notes.

1 Comment

Posted in 30 day shred, blog hops, body after baby, exercise

Body After Baby Week 4

Posted on December 30, 2010 | 2 comments

Still NO progress on my weight. I am officially stuck, but on the upside, we just did Christmas and I am stuck, not going up in my weight. I’ll take the victories where I can get them.

Another victory is my hubby committing to start an eating plan with me after the holidays. We did weight watchers after Caitlyn was born and both did well with it, so here we come again. I think we will skip the meetings this time, but still do the eating portion. Wish us luck!

Exercise is still an area I am enjoying and doing well with. I keep telling hubby I totally understand how people get addicted to exercising, especially running. I can see how it could become an idol in my life. Instead, I try to remember where the strength came from to run and make every step I run an Amen, every mile I go a hallelujah. Ten years ago I was very very sick with Multiple Sclerosis, now I run because it is fun! Any day now it will have to translate to the scales…

In the meantime, I have found I can not go two days without exercise; when I do, the lack of exercise impacts my mood, so the challenge will be when I go back to work full-time, I absolutely HAVE to get up earlier and exercise before work. I have to.

So here’s hoping for more success this next week. I hate being stuck!

2 Comments

Posted in blog hops, body after baby, exercising

Body After Baby Week 3

Posted on December 22, 2010 | 3 comments

I am not seeing ANY progress on the scale. Uggghhhh. But I am exercising. And enjoying it. Right now I have decided to focus more on exercise and see where that gets me. I get really nervous about dieting while nursing. Whether it affects my supply or I just feel like it does, I don’t know, but I do know it causes me more stress. And I don’t need more stress. So for right now I will exercise. And love it!

Speaking of the exercise, I can really tell a difference in my mood and personality when I exercise or don’t exercise. I had a couple rough days last week and couldn’t figure out why, until I got my hiney back on the treadmill and started running. I could feel my mood improving with every step. It was amazing.

I never exercised growing up. I much preferred being inside reading a book. I have no athletic skills whatsoever, so did not participate in sports much. I took up walking the summer between high school and college and lost 25 pounds. I kept them off too for 9 years. Then when the Multiple Sclerosis got really bad, I was doing massive doses of steroids and was in and out of a wheel chair, and then I started dating this guy, who later became my husband, well in all that, I found those pounds. Then I found a few more.

I lost the few more before getting pregnant with my third baby, but now the few more seem stuck. But I refuse to get upset about it. Instead, I will use the pounds and moods as motivation to run.

My goal for tomorrow is to get up early for work and run. That means 4 am, yup, I mean early.

What are your personal goals? Do you have exercise goals or other areas you are working on? Let’s work on them together!

3 Comments

Posted in blog hops, body after baby, depression, exercising

Body After Baby Week 3

Posted on December 14, 2010 | 8 comments

My dear little girl is 18 weeks old. She is so sweet and alert. Tonight she is refusing to go to sleep, instead she is laying on the floor and kicking my feet. She seems very proud of herself. Little does she know, but she is exercising. To her it is just fun and learning.

In between my second and third child I learned something was fun. I learned I love jogging. That I was not too old to take up something completely new to me. I started slowly jogging for 10 minutes with my wii fit. Then 20 minutes, and finally 30 minutes. After three months, spring started to come to our frozen Mitten and I was able to take the show on the road, literally. I was pleased with how quickly I was able to adapt to running outside and start increasing my distance.

About 3 1/2 months after running my first step outside, I undertook my first 5K. And I ran it. All of it. Not fast, but one step after another. I ran. And fell in love.

After Patrice was born, I began yearning to run again. I was afraid the months away would put me very far from running up to 6 miles like I was doing when we found out our third child was coming.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised over the last few weeks to find the running again improved nicely. And this last Saturday I put myself to the test, I headed out for a 5K race. And I did it. I ran every step. Every single step. I was the last woman to finish in my age class, but I did it. And I improved my time from the previous race by 2+ minutes. Personally, I couldn’t ask for more.

And now, might I suggest you running over to Mama Notes to see what others have been doing to improve their body after baby? Enjoy!

8 Comments

Posted in blog hops, body after baby, exercising, running

Exercising with 3 Kids–WFMW

Posted on December 8, 2010 | 3 comments

Today’s Works For Me Wednesday is actually going to build on my Body After Baby. Way to marry two blog hops, huh?

How do I exercise with three kids? Well before Patrice was born, I had a membership to an actual gym, but with her coming and back to nursing full-time, I knew I would not want to take the time, in addition to work, being away from the kidlets. So we undertook a big project…we cleaned our basement and claimed it for exercise space. Hubby and I had his and her exercise equipment before we got married. I had a recumbant bike and he an eliptical machine, and our anniversary present to each other this year was a treadmill. And one Christmas I got the girls a mini trampoline. So we have all the equipment, we just have to get on it.

The bike, treadmill, eliptical and trampoline, known as a jump jump around here, are set up in front of the TV. That way we can watch something as we exercise. The girls think it is an extra special treat to go to “Our Gym.” And when they get bored I can turn on a cartoon for them. We also have some of their bigger doll toys down there, so they can play with the high chair, swing and dolly strollers while mommy and daddy exercise. And for Patrice, that is where we have the little “exersaucer” set up for her enjoyment.

I am finding running on the treadmill to be more challenging than outside, but I LOVE running outside. That is a little trickier to do with the girls. Caitlyn loves to run with mommy and she is quick. On days that I have a little bit of time, I start with her and she does the first block with me. We do a mix of run and walk. She is always so proud to jog with mommy. I so want to cultivate that in the girls. With the cold, it takes lots of bundling to get Patrice ready to go. Last week it was about 35 degrees when she went with me. I had her in a warm sleeper, hat and mittens, then a snow sack over her sleeper and a wearable blanket over that. I am going to make a blanket I can tie on to the stroller as well.

Sometimes it takes me three separate tries to get my exercise in, but every little bit helps and that is what Works for Me Wednesday. There are more ideas over at We Are That Family. Check it out!

3 Comments

Posted in blog hops, body after baby, exercising, kidlets, works for me wednesday

Body After Baby–week 2

Posted on December 7, 2010 | 13 comments

Here we are at week 2 of Body After Baby. I am very excited to have a blog hop to help focus me on those baby pounds.

So how did I do? Well I worked out every day but Saturday. I did a mix of treadmill running and intervals, some recumbant bike riding and my Biggest Loser 10 minute work out video.

I am thrilled with how much I worked out. This is the most since the summer after I graduated from high school. It paid off then, hopefully it will now.

My hubby even worked out with me yesterday. I want us to work together to teach our girls the fun and value of exercise. I want them to grow up with it just part of their normal every day activities. I actually found a kids Wii Fit game from Nickelodeon for their Christmas gift. I am so excited!

Caitlyn worked out with me Monday afternoon. I did 10 minutes on the treadmill, before getting interrupted, then did a 10 minute Biggest Loser cardio workout. That is stinkin’ hard! Wowzers. Friday after I did the work out, I then tried to run outside. I made it about 1/4 of my normal run. My legs were just killing me!

Sue wanted to head back down to the work out area Monday night. It has been named “Our Gym” by her. I like that. For some reason I think referring to it as “Our Gym” will make me get down there more.

So what are you doing in “Your Gym”? What exercise equipment do you have? Do you use it? Have you successfully gotten fit? Are you satisfied with where you are now? I would love to hear about it.

Now head on over to Mama Notes to see how others did with the challenge.

13 Comments

Posted in blog hops, body after baby, exercising

Body After Baby–the Plan Stan

Posted on December 1, 2010 | 8 comments

I have found yet another blog hop to join. Over at Mama Notes, she is doing a body after baby challenge where she will share her journey; she has invited others to join in. So here goes.

Patrice is 16 weeks old and I have about 16 pounds to get to pre-baby with her, and then those other pounds, but lets ignore the extras for right now 🙂

Mama gives us the option of sharing or not sharing a before and after. I think I will go ahead and share the beginning photo.

My plan is to keep running. I love it and we just got the new treadmill set up. That was a big investment for us to make right now and I want to honor that by using it A LOT. So hopefully this challenge will keep me working toward being the healthy mama my girls deserve. Eating wise, I am not sure what I will do. I am nursing Patrice full-time and am nervous about cutting calories. It is easy for the body to go into starvation mode, making it even harder to lose and it is possible to cause a milk supply drop, so we’ll see about diet.

But here goes…I have nothing to lose, but the weight, right?

8 Comments

Posted in blog hops, body after baby