Project Momma: Final Post 25 Weeks

I decided last week to wrap up my weekly posts for Project Momma.  It has been so good for me to hold myself accountable to the virtual world out there.  Making goals every week is not easy.  Meeting them is even harder.  ;)

Molly turns six months old tomorrow which means I have posting weekly for just under five months.  The before picture was taken on March 9th, the after picture was a few days ago.  Honestly, I was not excited about taking selfies every week (which is why I stopped doing it every week).  But until I compared them a few days ago, I had no idea that I looked that different!

Try not to notice the better lighting and the fact that I am smiling in the post pictures.

(Final Pregnancy weight: 194)
Pre Weight 5 weeks postpartum: 174 lbs.
Post Weight 6 months postpartum: 160 lbs.

This is still 10 pounds above my original goal, but had I known the hang up I would have with my knee, I would have expected a slower weight loss.

I am what you would call a pear.  Well, I have a pear-shaped body.  It's not a good or bad thing, it's just a body type that I was born with.  If you notice that my fat loss has mostly been in my mid-section.  Believe me, it's not because I did a million sit-ups, it's because my genetics tell my body where to add and take away the fat.  The first place I gain weight is in my hips, so that's going to be the last place I lose it.  As a personal trainer it was always frustrating to me when someone would ask how they lose fat in their stomach, or booty, or the back of their arms, etc.  I would just tell them that they need to eat healthier and keep working out.  If you really want to spot reduce like that, it's called lipo-suction.  :)

This is the first week that I have been able to run a couple of times in about three or four months.  It felt so good to get up at 5:50 am and run this morning.  Ryan had to leave for an appointment so I had a time-limit and I pushed myself so crazy hard.  I decided that I should set a time limit more often.

I still have a lot of goals that I want to work on.  This week I had a few experiences where I was busy being homemaker and realized I needed to take a few minutes to be Momma.  I played a game (Jenga) with Lucy and Liam.  I read Liam and Molly a few books in the middle of the afternoon.  (We always read, but usually at bedtime).  It is good for me to stop and realize that I can take a few minutes to connect with my kids and everything will still get done.

I went to Costco today and loaded up on the produce.  It's hard for me to eat as many fruits and veggies at the end of the week, I just need to plan better.   I actually made a smoothie that I liked this week!  It had blueberries (fresh and frozen), a banana, strawberries, a little bit of apple juice and a big spoonful of greek yogurt.  I had it for lunch one day and I loved it.  Someday I'll work in more veggies, but I'd rather just eat a big salad.  Baby steps.

I will still post some updates as well as other training and healthy-living tips.  Please message me or email me if you have questions about specific topics.  I would love to post things that you are interested in.

Until next time!  Thanks for the support in my Project Momma journey!  This is just a pit-stop though.  The journey to becoming a healthier and happier momma is never really done.

Project Momma: 24 Weeks

Did you miss me?  I didn't post last week because I was with the "Happiest People on Earth" in the "Happiest Place on Earth."  That's right, we spent three days at Disneyland with most of my family, 11 kids ages 6 and under with 10 adults.

We had a great time, however, it was so nice to come back to reality and a schedule.  Going on a vacation is great, but going to Disneyland with three kids under 5 for three days is not a vacation.  Now that we're home, early bedtimes and healthy food makes for a happier family.

As I think about the goals I want to focus on again, it's interesting because a couple of them will be a lot harder than before.  Taking Zoloft has had a couple of side effects- a change in my appetite and drowsiness.  The change in appetite is actually great because I don't have as much of an appetite, but I especially don't have an appetite for healthier options like fruit and veggies.  Boo.  It's been rough to get my five servings in.  It only means that I need to make more purposeful choices.

My other goal of waking up early is tough with the extra drowsiness, but I figure if I can wake up at 6:00 am for three days to walk around Disneyland all day, I can make the effort to wake up and read my scriptures, right?

I also realized that my original goals of Project Momma were set to finish when Molly turned 6 months old (next Tuesday).  Although I realize that many of my goals have been altered due to injury, emotional instability, and recognized priorities, I want to post my current results to my original goals next week.  It is really cool to see that even though my focus has changed, my body has still continued change.  The weight loss and fitness have not come as quickly as I originally thought, but I have continued to do as much as I can.  Walking four miles isn't going to give me the same results as running five miles, but it will get me closer.

I've realized that even though I will eventually meet my weight and fitness goals, there will always be ways to be a healthier, happier, better momma for my children and wife for my husband.  He has been so supportive in this journey.  He listens to my goals (and my whining) and always supports my efforts.

This week's goals: 6:30 am wake-up and 11:00 pm lights-out
Book of Mormon and Old Testament study every day (one verse is better than nothing)
Five servings fruits and veggies
Daily family connections

Throughout this journey, I have loved hearing from all of my friends and family.  Your support has helped immensely, but what I have loved most is hearing about the goals and changes you have made as a result of reading my posts.

The thing I have missed most about working full-time in the fitness field as a personal trainer and wellness consultant is helping others make their lives better.  Please message, text, email, or even call me to tell me about what you want to do be a better person in any of the roles that you play in your life.  I would love to hear from you!

Project Momma: 22 weeks

This week was amazing.  First of all, I want to thank everyone for your positive feedback and support following my post last week.  I started taking Zoloft last Monday night.  The first couple of days were rough.  I was SUUUUPER tired.  Drowsiness is a possible side effect of Zoloft, so I took it at night.  Regardless, I was dragging all day long and honestly felt like I had mono.  I called my doctor and he suggested to only take half a pill.  It made a huge difference and now feel much more like myself.

It is CRAZY how normal I felt this week.  I had patience for my kids, less frustration with my husband, and I felt happy.  Not only did I avoid bad days, I can't think of any bad moments!  Recognizing the difference between this week and last week, made me realize how bad it really had been. Again, our lives weren't awful.  We weren't miserable, but our home was not often a place where we all felt good and felt love toward one another.  For two months I had tried to overcome that place I found myself in, but I knew that I couldn't do it all on my own.

As a personal trainer and a wellness coordinator, I worked with a lot of middle-aged women.  So many of them fought weight gain and struggled with getting the weight back off.  They had to work so much harder than they did when they were younger and more than most men their same age.  (It stinks, but it's true).  I attributed a lot of these struggles to possible hormones changes.  Although all the textbooks say that it's about calories in vs. calories out, that's not often the case.  Hormones play a big part in metabolism and a lot of women cannot control that.  I now recognize how much hormones can affect your emotions, no matter how much effort you put into trying to control them.

After all is said and done, I am so excited to get back to feeling like myself.

Two HUGE milestones:

I went for a RUN this week!  Well, it was a walk/ run/ walk/ run, but it felt so good!  Ryan and I took the double and single strollers together so we could run with all three kids.  I was actually surprised how "easy" it was considering I have run twice in the past 3 months.  I walked first to warm up my knee, then ran for a while.  I walked down hills because downhill running is harder on the patellar tendon (where I have the tendinitis).  My goal is to go for a couple of walk/runs this week and work my way back towards a half marathon, but not too quickly.

I weighed myself.  As I have mentioned, I have decided not to weigh myself regularly because I started to look at that too much as my success or failure.  I wanted to focus more on other goals that I can directly control.  However, my clothes were fitting much looser, so I was curious.  I was 162!  That's about 8 pounds less than the last time I weighed myself!  It just goes to show that you don't need to use the scale to motivate your progress.  I still don't think I will weigh myself again for a while (I hid my scale back under the sheets in my linen closet), but it's nice to know that I only have about 12-15 pounds left to get to my pre-pregnancy weight!  And let's be honest, five of those are in my bra.  :)

I tried to focus on all of my goals again this week, and it didn't work. I have decided that I feel much more successful when I only focus on two or three goals than when I have twelve like I attempted this past week.  I did fairly well with half of the them:  sleep, exercise, one daily treat.  However, the others that I haven't worked on as long like one-on-one time with my family were definitely not habitual yet.

This week I want to focus on the

one-one-one family time (one daily meaningful effort/ moment with each child and husband) 
personal prayer (morning and evening)
scripture study (Book of Mormon and Old Testament study)

When I look at the priorities I should be making in my life, those are the top three and they definitely lacked this week.  I know that I will still make time for exercise and eating healthy, so I need to put my efforts towards those things that matter.  Keeping a daily checklist of those goals help me stay on track.

And since every post needs a picture- this is a highlight of my week.  Bunk beds= three kids in one room.  The joys of living in SoCal (a two-bedroom house)  we have more family bonding time, right?  I love my kids.  Those faces really are why I am working on being a happier, healthier momma.