Resolution Update: Week 2

Weight: 171. Yea!!! 1.5 pounds down from last week! Of course, my first reaction was that maybe that 1.5 was just from all of the hair that I'm still losing! But, I'm going to revel in my accomplishment this week. And this is totally on target for losing weight while breastfeeding. Most of what I've read recommends losing only 1-2 pounds a week so I'm doing pretty good.

Diet: Two things happened this week that I NEVER thought I would ever do! I actually counted up the calories I was eating each day and adjusted my diet so that I can actually lose weight. I found some information online about breastfeeding and calorie consumption. The info I found said I'd need to consume 2,700 calories a day for breastfeeding. That seemed a little high for me and it definitely didn't take into account wanting to LOSE weight. I decided to shoot for about 2,500 calories for now. When I added up all of my food for the day, I found out that each day, I was eating 1,900 calories BEFORE dinner!!! That was a big shock to me! I had no idea I was eating that much throughout the day. And rest assured, my dinner is not 600 calories so I already know I'm eating well over 2,500 calories! To be honest, it was probably closer to 3,000. YIKES. So, I made some cuts in my diet but still balancing proteins & carbs.

The second CRAZY thing I did is that I bought...wait for it...CELERY!!! Now, I'm a lover of all things vegetable, except for 2: Beets & Celery. I just feel like someone mistook them for actual good veggies. And, yeah, my mom's tried to disguise celery with peanut butter & raisins and called it "ants on a log" but I was too smart for that. I just scraped the peanut butter and raisins off and put the celery in the trash. But, my sister told me about a snack she's been eating. She eats one of those wedges of Laughing Cow cheese with about 4-5 pieces of celery (about 1 stalk). The cheese masks most of the celery taste so it's pretty tasty.

Excercise: Confession time: I punked out on Monday. The alarm went off at 5:30 and I just could not get motivated to get out of bed. BUT, I sucked it up and worked out every other day of the week!! I'm doing this Jillian Michael's 30-day Shred and it's a great workout! It's only 20 minutes long and it pretty much kicks my butt each week. After the first day, I nearly thought I was going to pass out. Really. I had to lay on the couch after and pray that Oli wouldn't wake up because if she did, I wasn't going to be able to get up to get her. When I told Mike this, he said "You should chug 2 glasses of water before you work out," proving he knows nothing about what your body does after you have a baby. If I drank 2 glasses of water before I worked out, Oli wouldn't be the only person in this house in need of a diaper. I sincerely hope some of you other moms reading this know what I'm talking about. Otherwise, this blog post just got real awkward.

The bad news about my new exercise routine is that I have to get up at 5 to do it, shower, eat, and get Olivia and myself ready for the day. My day is truly a marathon! I did decide to give myself a rest day (it's today). I feel a little guilty about it but I know it's reasonable to not work out 7 days a week. Right? Right.

Thoughts/reflections for the week: At the end of this week, I kept thinking "Wow, I've felt really great this week and I've been in a great mood. Wonder what that's about." Then, it hit me that it's probably because of this working out and all of the great endorphins that are being released! I do feel proud of myself for really taking this on and taking an honest look at my eating habits.

When I was telling my sister how serious I am about this, she said "Well, if you are really passionate about eating right and losing weight, you just have to know that a healthy lifestyle sucks." We laughed a lot about that. The truth is, eating healthy isn't always FUN. And that's hard for me because food has always been a social thing for me. I've had to really start thinking about why I eat and what motivates me to work out.

My motivation is Mike & Olivia. As I was doing the jump rope part of my work out one evening, Olivia was a little fussy. "Mommy will be able to jump rope with you one day, Oli, if you give me time to take care of myself,' I panted. I've had to really decide that taking care of ME is just as important as taking care of Olivia and Mike. I want to be able to help her practice soccer or jump rope or whatever it is she's into. I don't want Mike to have to take care of me because I didn't take care of myself.

Alright, here we go week 3!