Okay...weight loss again...

This post is positive. My last weight loss post I dove straight for the jugular and spoke about my struggles with weight and how I will never feel quite thin enough because of some issues I had in the past.

I am now 11 pounds down from where I was at Thanksgiving! YAY! I have about 9 pounds to go until I am the weight I was before I had Rex. (That is still higher than I was...I had to take hormones to get pregnant with him.) However, 9 pounds away from my size 10s! YAY! I am actually starting to find that my size 12s (pants) are very loose. I always seem to be a size 6, 8, or 10 in tops and I always stay there. I am a lucky pear who gains weight in my bottom half!

I am about 20 pounds from my ultimate goal...not 129 pounds (like I was when I was anorexic/exercise crazy); not 142 pounds (my wedding day)...but 155 pounds which is a great weight for me!

How did I do it? Well, as you know, the original weight fell off by simply having the baby. After 6 weeks though , weight loss is on you to lose (or so I have found). I simply decided (at Thanksgiving) to walk more, exercise when I couldn't walk (like my fave swimming), take some yoga and pilates classes for strength-training, and also eat better. Notice I didn't say eat less...I simply am eating better. More fruits and veggies, much less sodium, and way more home-cooked meals.

I am so excited to represent some voice of reason. I know there are others out there on the Internet preaching and practicing what I do, but hey, the more the merrier.

I am so sick of this constant parade of string-beans as the "look" for America. Why do we have a nation represented by the extremes? We have the most obese and the most skeletal representing us in magazines, on TV, in movies. I want to show there are nice, normal sized people in the USA!

So, girls of the middle, UNITE!

:)

Weighty worries...

As you know, I am the very proud momma of a 23 month old and a 4 month old (as of Sunday). Well, along with that comes the weight gain. I gained 38 pounds with this last pregnancy and have lost 25 of them. YAY!

Well, you think that would be satisfactory. I only have 13 pounds to go, right? Well, technically yes. However, I started the pregnancy off at a higher weight than I would have liked.

Before I had Rex (first-born son), I was 155 pounds. That is a fairly nice weight on me. I am a swimmer and I am pretty strong, so I know that I will never be one of those stick-insects. I am 5'8" and should weigh around 140 if you believe the "charts."

In attempting to get pregnant with Rex, I was placed on hormones for about a year (long story for another time) and consequently gained 12 pounds, putting me at 167. Still not a bad weight, but I had to move from size 8 bottoms to a size 10. It seems with every 10 pounds I go up a size.

So now I am a 12 on the bottom. Not bad and if I stayed this size forever and was able to stay strong and healthy that would be fine.

I think...

See when I was younger, I dated the skinniest man on the planet (or so it felt). He was 120 pounds (soaking wet) and about 6 feet tall. Yeah, I know. Obviously something was up...he was an anorexic. And he wanted me to be one, too.

He asked me out when I was a bit heavier (freshman 15 or 20 from college). I weighed at 20 what I weigh now, except I didn't have pregnancy to blame for it. So the extra weight showed up in my face and other areas that don't get affected when you gain weight from pregnancy. We went out many times and really enjoyed ourselves. This was March-May of 1996.

Then I went to Belize to participate on an archaeological dig in a cave in the wilds of the western forest. It was a physically demanding two weeks and I lost about ten pounds after fording rivers, climbing boulders, you name it...

So you know where this is going, right? The boyfriend said, "I like the way you look, and I would probably break up with you if you gained the weight back." Okay, had I been me, only at my age now, I would have said, "I know how I can lose 120 pounds real fast...," but I didn't have the guts to say it.

I continued trying to lose weight for him, through a combination of a lot of exercise (think swimming 5 days a week, averaging a mile each time) and his brilliant idea of "skipping lunch." I would actually sneak lunch the way I sneak J. Crew shoes into the house now...except sneaking food is really messed up. If he ever saw me eating at lunch, or overeating, he would give me the look. It was awful. I guess sort of abusive, huh?

It took me forever to fall out of love with him. He was "the one" of your youth that just makes you crazy, dramatic, impulsive, and yet at the same makes you feel amazing (even through all the weight crap).

I eventually got down to 129 pounds. Some of you tall ladies out there are thinking, "so what--that is what I weigh." Well, let me put it to you like this...you could count my ribs from about 6 feet away. Yeah, that's real healthy.

Sometime I will post pictures of me real thin and you decide. If you are freaky, you may go for the super-skinny girl that I once was...and although I have my days where I want that (see what happens when you mess with girls when they are young?)...I really truly believe I need to celebrate health and vitality, not skin and bones.