Monday 21 January 2013

MY WEIGHT LOSS STORY

This blog mainly reflects what I feel are my personal accomplishments. And as you can see by the pictures and posts, my greatest accomplishment is being a mama to three amazing boys. Sometimes however it is important to remind myself that its okay to accomplish more then five loads of laundry, a stack of story books, and to keep the pudding from drying on the floor. I admire moms who can balance work, a career, even hobbies while raising children. I'm very lucky that I can stay home and raise my rascals but of course it has its moments where I think a job or feeling valued on a different level may be nice. But then when I run out to the store and I see three sticky smiling faces pressed against the window, I'm so glad that I am valued on the greatest level possible! And those are my greatest accomplishments!
 
Anyways before I get to off track...
 
This post is to tell you my weight loss story, which happens to be a personal accomplishment of mine :) This is how I got back to, post preggo weight, pre baby weight, pre wedding dress weight, & pre highschool weight 
 
My story is like any other girls probably... Wishing I was skinnier then I was.
After highschool I gained 10 pounds, which got me to 140lbs. When I got married I felt a little tubby but it was the heaviest I had ever been so that makes sense :) Two and a half years after we were married I had Kane, I gained about 25lbs with him, and stayed at about 145 after he was born. Five months later I was pregnant with Rye and gained about 30lbs with him. After he was born I stayed around 148lbs. I never felt fat, but always felt like I looked pregnant. Suprise... 8 months later I did get pregnant again with Tel, and gained 30lbs while pregnant with him. After he was born I felt really good, I was back to around 150lbs and after being almost 180lbs I felt good, for obvious reasons!
Then sure enough weight started sneaking back on and pushing up the 150 mark.
 
One afternoon in May 2012 I had lunch with some friends. Two which were doing weight watchers. They were very happy how the program had worked for them and emphasised how easy it was to follow.
 
I have to mention that so many times I'd look in the mirror and think "hmm I look okay" I thought I was good enough the way I was. But then 30 minutes later I'd look in the same mirror and feel totally gross. So I wasn't convinced totally that I needed to loose weight, because about 30% of the time I felt good. However when I broke down the numbers I realized in the 6 years I had been married, I had gained 3-5lbs per year and if I kept up with that average for the next 5 years... well I'd be unhappy about myself 100% of the time.

So I decided in a moment that I was going to do something. I was ready to change and I would do whatever I could to make that happen. I found the weight watchers meeting through facebook and went that night. The night I went I got a few groceries before weigh in and happened to bump into a good friend, and I told her where I was going. She was encouraging, the cashier who laughed and said "what are you going there for you look fine" was not. But I went. My starting weight was 157 pounds, (I'm 5'1) and in the first week I lost 5.5lbs. That was my first sense of how personal accomplishment felt. The rest of the summer I lost weight every week. I loved the program and it worked for my lifestyle. It really was easy, if I cheated it was okay. Our leader often refered to cheating like falling down the stairs. Just because your falling you don't let yourself keep falling down the stairs, you grab the rail, pull yourself up and keep going. Its maybe unfair to say but I never struggled with weight watchers. A few times I needed to refocus but I never gave up totally. By the beginning of October I had lost 22lbs, and was getting close to my goal weight which was 132lbs. I attended the meetings faithfully because I needed accountablity for my weight, whether good or bad. In December I became a lifetime member of the program because I had reached 132lbs. I have continued loosing and now weigh 125lbs. I have lost a total of 32lbs. I encourage anyone who wants a lifestyle change thats actually affordable and attainable to try this program. I still love brownies and chips but its not the whole pan or bag now, and weight watchers taught me how to make that possible. Fruit is a staple in our house now, veggies not so much but we'll keep working on that! And as you can see in my "after" pictures I still have evidence of 3 babies living inside me... and we'll keep working on that too :)
 
 I feel like you really have to commit to a change or it won't work.
It has worked for me and I am thankful for that!

If you actually read all this, thanks! Right after I started ww my sister and mother in law did too. Then about 5 of our friends. Its been so awesome to have people going through the same experience and encourage you to keep it going. This is just my story, I hope it can encourage someone else to consider helping themselves too!


Before - 157lbs 

 
dec 2011
oct 2011




After - 125lbs

October 2012 - 134lbs

January 2013 - 125lbs

HOLIDAYS

December we drove to Idaho to pick up a load of sleds, our kids are champs. Never whined or fussed at all which made the 2000 mile trip seem fairly reasonable :)

Brennan's family were all here sometime during December which was so nice, seems like we hardly ever see them in person. But only because that is our fault, we owe them countless visits! Anyways with the extra five boys throughout the holidays it was so much fun for our boys. They love all their cousins, and we're excited for the arrival of their second girl cousin in April! We all ended up sick at some point during December, but we managed to have a bit of fun in between!

Grammie (Brennans mom) left Christmas day for Cambodia, so the boys are missing her in a bad way! Rye keeps asking "when is grammie coming home from the ayeport?" And Kane asks if he can sit beside her on the way to most meetings... he forgets she won't be there! Anyways we see and hear news from her that makes it a little easier for their minds to understand!
 
 
Christmas is a tradition for me and my family that I carry on for my kiddos. So we had our little Christmas celebration with gifts etc, as our little family (along with my brother!) and then spent the day eating and visiting with Brennan's sisters and families. Christmas day was freezing cold (-30) so the plan for sledding had to be put on hold. We did sled later on in the week, then spent an afternoon decorating rice krispie cake houses, and then we all got sick... and that was the end of most of the fun!
Here's a few pictures from last month :)



heading home with our sleds!
after a year with no soother... tel found one and loves it!
christmas time!
the boys
decorating
so excited!
so pumped for his new microphone
checking it all out!
skidooing!
ride back to the house!
at the top of the hill
kane loves it!
enjoying some sunshine