Friday, March 29, 2013

Wednesday... Er... Friday Weigh In

I haven't posted in 16 days. I found out I was pregnant. Not long after I found out though, my pregnancy hormone began decreasing. Within a few days, I was getting negative pregnancy tests. With everything going on last week, I didn't even step so much as a toe onto the scale. Then there was the wait for my body to complete the process of the miscarriage.

I did weigh on Wednesday this week, as promised but waited to know for certain that I am in fact experiencing a miscarriage before mentioning the pregnancy.

Idea of the Week-
Take it one step at a time and focus on what you are doing in that moment. Don't think about how much needs to be done between now and your end goal, it can be overwhelming. Don't worry about the missteps you already made because you can't remake them and it can be discouraging to focus on our mistakes. For example, if it's lunch time don't think about being on a diet for the next 3 years. Don't even focus on how this is a life change and how you are making these new choices for the rest of your life. Focus on lunch. Find the foods that will fill your body with nutrients and fuel you, then enjoy them fully.




Food-
During that time I tried to make sure that I was eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. I do find that food close to it's natural state (raw, lightly steamed or otherwise barely altered) as possible leaves me more deeply satiated without leaving me feeling heavy. I also have noticed that I feel much more full and nourished when I switch out conventionally grown green salad for a salad of organic baby greens. Thank goodness that we finally got a Costco membership. With the amount of fresh fruit, veggies and salad that we have been eating lately we could easily spend well over what we have budgeted for food.

Exercise-
As you may imagine my activity level has been less than ideal. I have taken C-man out in the stroller for walks a few times, but over all I have stayed home. Inside the home, I have been pretty sedentary. The one thing I have been working on is being conscious of my posture and my movements when I am out walking. I practice standing tall with my shoulders back, chin up, abs pulled in tight to pull my belly button in toward my back bone and then I squeeze my buttocks with each stride. During this next week I would like to complete 4 light resistance work outs and 4 walks with my son.

Weigh in-
This week on Wednesday my weight was 279.4. This is a one pound loss over the two weeks. Added to two the two pound loss from the previous 11 days, that is 3 pounds lost. While 3 pounds over nearly 4 weeks is a little slower than ideal, it is still progress so I'm going to call it a success.

Next week is going to be my monthly progress photo and my measurements. I'm hoping to make at least some noticeable progress by then. 




Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Welcome to the Wednesday Weigh In

Once a week I am going to weigh in on the things I have learned about bettering my (and my family's) health, how well I am adhering to any new changes, my activity level for the week, how it made me feel and lastly I will weigh in with actual pounds. Once a month I will be posting progression photos and my measurements.


Something that has been coming up in several of my circles, lately, is the discussion on fat shaming. I won't get into that issue here but after reading all sorts of articles from all sorts of perspectives, I decided it was time for me to lose the shame. I think that every person out there deserves to be happy with themselves, regardless of the shape of their body or the number on the scale.

Another thing I've started hearing about is the concept of "fed and fit" as a great way to maintain optimum health and weight loss. Our bodies need good foods to function properly. When in starvation mode, so much of our system shuts down or reduces to absolutely minimal functions. Also, lots of "foods" readily available to us are more aptly described as "food like products." So, we are keeping it real (did it grow from the earth or eat things that grew from the earth) and listening to our bodies to help us make better choices. 

My son is unable to eat gluten or dairy. As a nursing mother, that means that I can no longer eat gluten or dairy. I had to choose between weaning my son and significantly altering my diet. For our family, the answer was easy and we quickly implemented the dietary changes.

I started making changes 9 days ago and took my starting measurements then.

As of March 4th when I started-

My weight was 282.4

My measurements (in inches) were:
Neck-14.75
Bust: 51.75
Chest: 41.75
Waist: 44.25
Midway (read: Mama Pooch): 56.5
Hips: 50.5
Upper Thigh: 29.5
Above Knee: 24.5
Calf: 18.5
Upper Arm: 20
Forearm: 11.75

My dress size was a 22/24 and most of my clothes are xxl and my one pair of jeans is a 24 and snug across my mama belly.

As of this morning my weight was 280.4... so 2 pounds lost. At first that seems like a tiny number, but it falls in the 1-2 pound a week range that is recommended and even a tiny bit of progress is still progress.

Sorry about the stained shirt, it's just an old shirt that I have that is tight enough to fully show my body shape... so this is where I started, now lets just see where I can go and how strong and healthy I can get to feeling.