Here I go!
During the past several weeks, I have been following Stefanee and Jeff's WebMD Rx challenge progress with interest. I have been really impressed with their honesty about the successes and challenges that they have faced, and I have been cheering them on! I have especially been able to relate to Stefanee's blogs because many of the challenges that she has described about fitness and weight loss apply to my own experiences.
Here's a little bit about me. I just turned 30, and I am also a new mom. My little boy just turned 7 months old, and life has been a whirlwind of activity from day one. Changing diapers, getting up in the middle of the night to breastfeed, doing laundry, making baby food, keeping the house clean, walking the dog... you get the idea.
To add to life's craziness, I went back to work as a first grade teacher when my baby was 9 weeks old. So add getting the baby to daycare, lesson planning, correcting papers, keeping a positive attitude, AND staying awake during the school day to my list of things to do!
I love all of my different roles, and my husband has been really supportive and helpful! However, healthy food and fitness for myself has gotten pretty low on the list of priorities.
My husband and I have never been particularly healthy eaters because neither one of us enjoys cooking. From the beginning we have found that it is a lot easier to go out and grab some variety of fast food - burgers, tacos, French fries, an occasional salad, and yes...usually some sort of chocolate dessert. The refrigerator is usually pretty empty, except for bagels, cream cheese and diet rootbeer. Every once in a while I make an attempt to cook, but it is usually something out of a box. When I do buy fresh vegetables, we eat a few, and the rest end up sitting in the back of the fridge until they are mushy. It's pretty bad.
Our exercise routine is not much better. It generally consists of walking our dog through our hilly neighborhood. In an effort to improve our fitness a few years ago, we both decided to join a gym for a year. The one that I joined was an all women's gym and it started out well. I went 2-3 times a week for an hour, I worked with a personal trainer, I tried a new diet, and I made some gains. But after a few months, I started to lose interest. I thought it was pretty boring to walk on treadmills and bike for miles with no destination. As a result, I found lots of reasons not to go to the gym, and ended up canceling my membership.
Last year, we decided to start our family. During my pregnancy, I was aware of the healthiness of what I was eating because I knew that everything I ate went straight to my baby. I cut out caffeine, sweets, and fried fast food. I took my vitamins, ate balanced meals and drank lots of water.
After the baby was born, I continued to pay attention to what I was eating because I was breastfeeding. Unfortunately, I also continued to eat the same amounts of food, and excess calories that I was eating during my pregnancy. Let me add here that while I was pregnant, my love of chocolate disappeared. Unfortunately, once the baby was born, my desire for chocolate came back with a vengeance. As a result, I indulged. Just a little bit at first, and then with an increasing regularity. All of the baby weight that I lost initially, came right back - to 194 pounds... I was so frustrated with myself for my lack of self control.
My frustration stems from the fact that I want to give my little boy the best example of healthy living as possible. But I have wondered how I can provide an example if I can't control my own eating habits and do very little exercise. Even though he is only 7 months old, he's eventually going to notice when I tell him that he has to eat all of his veggies, but I don't eat any. He'll also notice later on when I tell him to go outside and exercise, but I sit down with a jar of peanut butter and and a sleeve of crackers (another one of my major downfalls).
When I saw Stefanee and Jeff on the WebMD fitness challenge, I decided that I should give the challenge a try, too. The folks at WebMD have asked me to write a blog that reflects my experiences as an everyday reader. I will weigh in every 2 months, and WebMD will provide me with 2 fitness workouts with Michael Lin, and 1 nutritional analysis from Kathleen Zelman.
Where I go from there is up to me. I will write in each week and tell you all how it is going. My starting goal for this year is learn to eat healthier foods and get exercise so that I can get my weight back down to 160 pounds and fit into my prepregnancy clothes.
However, my ultimate longterm goal is to get back to 135 pounds, which is how much I weighed when I met my husband in 1999. I know that getting into healthy eating habits, and exercising is going to be a huge challenge for me, but I am really excited to get started! So HERE I GO!!
Related Topics: WebMD Weight Loss Clinic (Subscription Service), Getting Fit with Baby on Board
Technorati Tags: fitness rx challenge, baby weight, weight loss, exercise, healthy lifestyle
Here's a little bit about me. I just turned 30, and I am also a new mom. My little boy just turned 7 months old, and life has been a whirlwind of activity from day one. Changing diapers, getting up in the middle of the night to breastfeed, doing laundry, making baby food, keeping the house clean, walking the dog... you get the idea.
To add to life's craziness, I went back to work as a first grade teacher when my baby was 9 weeks old. So add getting the baby to daycare, lesson planning, correcting papers, keeping a positive attitude, AND staying awake during the school day to my list of things to do!
I love all of my different roles, and my husband has been really supportive and helpful! However, healthy food and fitness for myself has gotten pretty low on the list of priorities.
My husband and I have never been particularly healthy eaters because neither one of us enjoys cooking. From the beginning we have found that it is a lot easier to go out and grab some variety of fast food - burgers, tacos, French fries, an occasional salad, and yes...usually some sort of chocolate dessert. The refrigerator is usually pretty empty, except for bagels, cream cheese and diet rootbeer. Every once in a while I make an attempt to cook, but it is usually something out of a box. When I do buy fresh vegetables, we eat a few, and the rest end up sitting in the back of the fridge until they are mushy. It's pretty bad.
Our exercise routine is not much better. It generally consists of walking our dog through our hilly neighborhood. In an effort to improve our fitness a few years ago, we both decided to join a gym for a year. The one that I joined was an all women's gym and it started out well. I went 2-3 times a week for an hour, I worked with a personal trainer, I tried a new diet, and I made some gains. But after a few months, I started to lose interest. I thought it was pretty boring to walk on treadmills and bike for miles with no destination. As a result, I found lots of reasons not to go to the gym, and ended up canceling my membership.
Last year, we decided to start our family. During my pregnancy, I was aware of the healthiness of what I was eating because I knew that everything I ate went straight to my baby. I cut out caffeine, sweets, and fried fast food. I took my vitamins, ate balanced meals and drank lots of water.
After the baby was born, I continued to pay attention to what I was eating because I was breastfeeding. Unfortunately, I also continued to eat the same amounts of food, and excess calories that I was eating during my pregnancy. Let me add here that while I was pregnant, my love of chocolate disappeared. Unfortunately, once the baby was born, my desire for chocolate came back with a vengeance. As a result, I indulged. Just a little bit at first, and then with an increasing regularity. All of the baby weight that I lost initially, came right back - to 194 pounds... I was so frustrated with myself for my lack of self control.
My frustration stems from the fact that I want to give my little boy the best example of healthy living as possible. But I have wondered how I can provide an example if I can't control my own eating habits and do very little exercise. Even though he is only 7 months old, he's eventually going to notice when I tell him that he has to eat all of his veggies, but I don't eat any. He'll also notice later on when I tell him to go outside and exercise, but I sit down with a jar of peanut butter and and a sleeve of crackers (another one of my major downfalls).
When I saw Stefanee and Jeff on the WebMD fitness challenge, I decided that I should give the challenge a try, too. The folks at WebMD have asked me to write a blog that reflects my experiences as an everyday reader. I will weigh in every 2 months, and WebMD will provide me with 2 fitness workouts with Michael Lin, and 1 nutritional analysis from Kathleen Zelman.
Where I go from there is up to me. I will write in each week and tell you all how it is going. My starting goal for this year is learn to eat healthier foods and get exercise so that I can get my weight back down to 160 pounds and fit into my prepregnancy clothes.
However, my ultimate longterm goal is to get back to 135 pounds, which is how much I weighed when I met my husband in 1999. I know that getting into healthy eating habits, and exercising is going to be a huge challenge for me, but I am really excited to get started! So HERE I GO!!
Related Topics: WebMD Weight Loss Clinic (Subscription Service), Getting Fit with Baby on Board
Technorati Tags: fitness rx challenge, baby weight, weight loss, exercise, healthy lifestyle
WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
1 Comments:
Your story and mine sound so much alike. As I was reading I kept thinking "ok, maybe I'm not alone". I have a 10 month old and a 4 year old. My weight when I met my husband was 130lbs. now 6 years and 2 great little boys later, I have topped the scales at 175lbs. and that just doesn't look good on my 5' 1" frame. I work 40+ hours a week at a law firm and then put in another 80+ hours with my family, I have tried the gym, I am motivated for about a month and then when I don't see like 30lbs gone I get discouraged and stop going. I have tryed to count calories and watch what I eat but that just makes me want the "bad food" even more. So I really see whre you are coming from because I am in the same boat your in. But I am going to give this "life changing" thing a try. Maybe this is just the plan I need. I wish you all the success in the world and hope that goals are within your reach. I just wanted you to know when you think of giving up, don't! b/c you are not alone.
Post a Comment