May Day Weight Loss Challenge

Ok so I am hopping on board for this one. It is good to have motivation and other success stories or "been there done that " stories are always helpful. :) Let's see they said we are supposed to give history so here goes. My history with weight actually did not start until after I had kids. Before kids...my youth etc. I was one of those "never worked out, ate anything she wanted" people. Don't hate me it was just my metabolism I guess...and besides boy did I pay the price after my first child was born. For the first time i was in a size 12. Now before you club me over the head and tell me how many people would love to be in a size 12 you have to remember that when your a size 4-6 all your life...going to a twelve is a BIG deal. (pun intended) lol. I am only about 5'4 which is not super short but it is not tall either. After I had my daughter I joined water aerobics and for me that was the ticket. I had tried walking, running (what a joke I run a block and need oxygen plus it blows out my knees) sit ups, yoga etc. But I joined water aerobics and in the water I felt graceful and I know that there is no way i could do half of what I do in water that could be done outside of water lol. Anyway within about 2 to 3 months I was back to pre-pregnancy size and shape. I even was in Parenting magazine by the way. I was renewing my subscription online one day and they had one of those surveys asking how you lost the baby weight so I typed in water exercise. They thought it was cool and asked me to write a small story on it and sent me a camera to take after pics. Trouble was...just as I hit that perfect size and weight I got pg with Trix. lol But I sent them in anyway and I have a cool article with a pic of me and Honey nut for her baby book. Anyhow after I got pg with Trix I went from regular water exercise to a prenatal water exercise class and worked out my whole pregnancy. I did not want to make the same mistake I made with Honey Nut thinking that since I had always been able to eat whatever and not work out and gain an ounce that I would only gain "baby weight". Besides in the prenatal water exercise class they had a pregnancy safe hot tub and since us ladies could no longer fit in our bathtubs we used that as our motivation to go to class twice a week. :) You should have seen the water level in that hot tub rise as we all eagerly dove head first in it after class. After Trix was born the weight just shed off. When he was about 7 weeks I went back to working part time at night and had no time for the water exercise class but tried to watch what I ate. Then I got pregnant with Lucky Charms. I tried to do the water exercise with him but again I was working at night and made excuses not to go during the day. After I had him I lost some weight but not as much as I wanted to but I did not try that hard either. I reasoned that I had 3 kids in 4 years and they were all under 5 so I was too busy. I was also to busy to eat right too. Trouble is by this time I was pushing 30 and once I added the third child into the mix it shot my metabolism to crud. So I could not longer eat anything I wanted without paying the price. I also added heartburn to that too so the spicy foods I liked so much were not sitting well. Hmm who knew finishing off the kids mac and cheese and dinosaur chicken nuggets would not help with my weight LOSS??? Now I am faced with the fact that my "baby" is 4.5 going on 45 and I can no longer call it "baby weight" with a straight face that is. Also another motivator is my well meaning mom who recently lost a bunch of weight on her own by joining and training for a body building competition for women over 50 (no i will not say her exact age if she reads this she will die just knowing I said she was over 50..she looks like she is in her early 40's), I say well meaning because as she was losing weight and could not longer fit into her larger clothes she was giving them to me! I know she meant well but I did not want those clothes and took them to be nice but even more loathed the idea when I realized I FIT those clothes. uggh. So anyway my pity party is over and I realize that I am the only one who is responsible for my health, and weight. I eat pretty well especially since I have been trying to keep candy away from my house. I am home all day with kids so it is easy to just run to the kitchen when it is right there next to the table we home school at. I usually take recipes I like and try and find ways to cut the fat out of them. I have added a lot more whole wheat to my diet etc. I thought about following the south beach diet because I have a friend who followed that and she looks AWESOME (yes Jess I am talking about you :)) but she also works really hard at the gym too. Since I have a home daycare I cannot go during the day but for me since Water aerobics has worked so well (the resistance of the water and all) I am going to go back to that starting Thursday. It is on Tues. and Thurs evenings however tonight I have a brownie meeting for Honey Nut and since I am one of the leaders it is not fair to just ditch them lol. My goal is to lose about 25 - 30 pounds to be healthy and fit into my clothes. It would be nice to open up those vacuum sealed bags I just put all my cute thin clothes into. :) I will go ahead and post here on Tuesdays with every one else to let you know how I am doing. oh and GOOD LUCK to the other participants! Don't forget to stop by and check out the other stories or join up at : http://www.talesfromthescales.net/

Hopefully thinner,

The Cheerio Queen