Losing the Pregnancy Weight…Twice!

One of my goals with marathon training and changing my eating habits was to get back into my pre pre-pregnancy clothes. You’ve had a glimpse inside my closet before :), and by now you know that I love clothes. Getting back to my size was so important; there’s no way I could afford another closet in a different size!

With my daughter, I went from starting the pregnancy at 135ish (my goal weight) to weighing 180 when it was time for her arrival April ’12. Post pregnancy, I waited the full 6 weeks before starting any exercise. I began with hot yoga and loved it! I thought it was the best transition into beginning to do other exercises. I began casually running soon after and then decided to register for RnR Arizona 2013.

When my daughter was 7 months, I was around 15lbs away from my pregnancy weight when we discovered we were pregnant again. I was happy I had lost enough weight to have a starting point that wouldn’t make it impossible to lose once I was done with this second pregnancy. I continued to run throughout the second pregnancy and ran a 5k when I was 8ish weeks and then RnR AZ ’13 when I was around 15 weeks.

When it was time for my son to arrive that July, again, I reached 180lbs. I thought this was great though considering I had an extra 15lbs at the start.

Left: 40 weeks with my daughter Right: 39 weeks with my son

Left: 40 weeks w/ my daughter; Right: 39 weeks w/ my son

And finally, six months later and after 2+ years of not wearing my “normal” clothes, I’m finally back to my pre pre pregnancy size!

Left: 3 days post partum with my son; Right: about 2 weeks ago

Left: 3 days postpartum w/ my son; Right: about 2 weeks ago

I know that deciding to have goals to work towards, RnR AZ 2014 and of course my first marathon, is the reason I was able to get back to my size so quickly (for me, 6 months is quick!). And I didn’t make extremely drastic changes either; I still indulge–In n Out is my replacement for McDonald’s–but I’ve just become better at limiting my indulgences. This biggest change I’d have to say, have been curbing my fast food intake and decreasing my soda intake. Just those two alone have made a huge difference. Of course training for Phoenix marathon has made me workout like a machine, so with changing my eating habits and exercising, I’m finally here, finally out of maternity clothes and stretchy pants lol!

It takes a lot of discipline. Anyone training for a race knows that it does. But, having small goals and big goals have been my motivation and fitting into my clothes was one of those goals. Dusting off a pair of jeans I haven’t worn in years (yes, there was dust on them!) and finally being able to put them on was pure joy!

–Have you ever worked towards losing weight?
–Does setting goals help you lose weight? (It definitely did for me!)
–What is your biggest struggle with losing weight? (Easily fast food šŸ˜¦ )

2013 Year in Review

Itā€™s crazy to think that the year is a day away from being over. I feel like since having kids, time goes by at a different pace than before. People would tell me when I was pregnant with my first, my daughter, to cherish the moments because before Iā€™ll know it, time will fly by. Back then, I thought it was just hogwash and would just smile and nod. But whoa! Itā€™s true!

There are so many things Iā€™m thankful for in 2013. So many things that I can reflect on and call special moments. But, Iā€™m going to slim it down to 13 highlights. In no particular order, well, in chronological orderā€¦ : )

January: I had signed up for the P.F Changā€™s Rock n Roll Ā½ marathon months before and found out I was pregnant the second time two months before this race. I went back and forth on whether or not I should still run it. I decided, literally the night before, that Iā€™d do it and walk/jog the 13.1 miles. Here I am with my husband and my son 13 weeks in my tummy : )

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2. April: My daughter turned ONE this month. I just canā€™t believer that my little girl is growing up so soon and right before my eyes. She is my little energizer bunny that constantly keeps me on my toes. I
love her.

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3. May: This was my last month of work. It was a super hard decision to leave my job and become a stay-at-home-mom. There are times that I still wonder if I did the right thing. I love being with my kids and sharing special moments with them, but I also miss my other kids. I miss reading literature and teaching writing and listening to my studentsā€™ stories. I miss my co-workers and the knowledge they shared with me. There is a possibility of me returning this fall; I have yet to decide on what Iā€™ll do.

4. July: Helping to start and being a part a Healthy Moms group has been such a rewarding experience. Every day I post a Daily Check-in with a pump up song where moms check in with their workouts. I love reading what the women are doing and seeing their accomplishments. So many have said that the group has inspired them to change their lives and being even a small part of that gives me chills. I may never meet any of them, but knowing Iā€™m remotely a part of their change makes me so happy.

5. July: Oh my goodness, my son was born this month. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I called my son a chill dude and thatā€™s exactly what he is. He is such a good baby. Heā€™s happy wherever heā€™s at and whatever heā€™s doing. Heā€™s just cool.

Benyawn

Seeing him and holding him, I knew our family was complete. We have our beautiful daughter and now our son, we couldnā€™t be more blessed.

6. September: Having been pregnant for what seemed like two straight years (my kids are 16 months apart), I was extremely antsy to get back on the workout field. At 3 weeks post-partum, I began going to hot yoga and at 6 weeks post baby, I ran my first 5k! It was a slow one, but it felt oh so good!

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7. October: Iā€™ve mentioned in previous posts that Iā€™m pretty obsessed with my husband. I won the lottery with this guy. Our anniversary is in this month and every year we try and do something fun and memorable. Last year, we ran the Bisbee 1000 and this year we took an amazing mini vacation to San Francisco. Any time I think of this trip, I smile. This trip was absolute perfection. Seriously, I could not name or think of one negative thing. It was just perfect.

8. November: Anytime I can run a race with my husband, I get all mushy and excited. Weā€™ve been running our hometownā€™s Turkey Trot 5K 3 years now and this year we were super excited as I was finally NOT pregnant! Lol! We had goals in our minds as far as how we wanted to do and I was beyond excited at my final time of 25:40. I had been shooting for anything under 27 and boy did I deliver : )

5kturk2

9. December: This was a busy month for me running wise. I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K early December and was just blown away. I honestly think back at this race and canā€™t believer that I actually did so well. My goal had been to finish in under 1:30 and my final time was 1:25 with a 9:11min/mile pace. !!!!

Snapshot 2013-12-08 21-00-02

10. I had a 5K race not too long after and I had a lofty goal of finishing under 25 minutes (I still canā€™t believe Iā€™m even saying that!) I finished at 25:05 and was sooo close. But Iā€™m so freaking excited that Iā€™m even in that range and that I had gotten 2nd in my age group šŸ˜€

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11. Christmas this year was so special because it was our first Christmas in our own home. We chose not to travel this year and Iā€™m so glad we didnā€™t. It was truly something special waking up and seeing my daughterā€™s eyes light up seeing the gifts under the treeā€”how did those get there!?!

12. I had a goal to run 5 races, one for each month of my sonā€™s age at the end of the year : ), and I was able to complete that with 3 5Ks, 1 10K, and 1 15K.

Of course another goal was to lose as much baby weight as I could and with the year closing, I am very happy to announce Iā€™m 7 pounds away from pre PRE pregnancy weight!

13. Finally, a highlight of my year has been ā€œmeetingā€ so many people through this blog and other social mediums related to my blog. I was so nervous about starting this but Iā€™m so glad I did. I truly am thankful to my sole sister Salt, as she gave me the push I needed to get started and is a patient helping hand whenever I need it.

—Tell me about your 2013 highlights!!! Iā€™d love to hear them !!