All Shapes of Me

In honor of my officially becoming a life time member of Weight Watchers tomorrow.  I thought it fitting to finally post some pictures of myself.  Looking at pictures instantly bring back thoughts from the time the picture was taken. Here we go horrible pictures of myself and thoughts...

This is me Christmas 2009.  I thought I loved this dress.  When I saw this picture I was so disappointed.  I looked so different from how I felt inside.  My clothes look tight and uncomfortable.  What was I thinking not sticking with my usual black?  Could the scale possibly be right?  I'm in the 170s?!  Hello, New Years' Resolultion!  I'm going to train for a half marathon and lose weight ASAP and I was DETERMINED.

Six months later....

I got pregnant.  I wish I could say I was nine months pregnant in this picture.  Nope, its June 2010 and I was due in September.  Suffice to say once I saw this picture no more pictures were allowed.  I have no idea what my weight was in the picture but with each pregnancy I gained like 50+ lbs.  Again, when will I learn my lesson?  I thought this bathing suit looked great until I saw my picture!  Stick with black already!  Anyway, I was in good spirits because with all my determination from New Years I was regularly working out.  I was not able to do the half marathon due to the pregnancy but I did do a 10 mile race at about 14 weeks pregnant.  At this point in my pregnancy I had already had thyroid surgery (which was so stressful) but before the whole weird heart thing that started (way more stressful).

September 2010 was the birth of my third child, my wonderful baby girl.  Only good news has come since her birth.  The thyroid was nothing once removed, the heart issue was just some weird thing too.  I cried with joy when some time in November I took a final cardiac test and everything had gone back to normal.  All of that worry and stress energy has been channeled into making myself appreciate my life and work on being healthy for a life time.  

Can't go wrong wearing black!

Triathlon Training Weeks 6 & 7: Feeling Shakey

I thought week 6 was going awesome but then with all the vacation preparations I was not able to do the long swim or the long run (like I thought I would easily fit in).  Disaster!  Week 7 (still on vacation) I was only able to go for runs.  I did all the running I was supposed to do plus some extra but no biking or swimming.  While on vacation, I was feeling really nervous about the triathlon.  I still have not actually registered for it AND swimming in the ocean seems SCARY and tough.  Plus there's all these annoying little details that would probably get answered if I just registered but how does my bike get to the transition spot?  Where do I change my clothes after the swim?  To add fuel to the fire the Nautica Triathlon in NYC occurred while we were on vacation and I read that 2 people died!  Crazy!

On second thought, its on my "To do" list and I really want to cross something off!  Must. Stay. Strong.  Here I come week 8!

Fighting to get back to Routine

Highly recommend two week vacations, it was great.  Unpacking has been torturous!  As it always is.  Now to get back to organizing this house and my work out routine.

When we got back to the house we were so excited to see our new road.  The bumpy, windy road we live on was paved while we were away.  Its still quaint with less bumps.  Then we bring our sleeping troupe of kids into the house and check out their room with brand new refinished wood floors!  Wow!  It looks so good!  It looks so good it is paining us to put any of their toys back in so our new project has started.  We are making a playroom in our unfinished basement.  More to come on that later.  I am also itching to paint the kids' room a new color.  Finally we went into our bedroom and admired our newly "skim coated" walls, we had the bumpy plaster walls and ceiling repaired in our room.  It looks great also.  Less of the "Wow" factor since we had the walls painted the same color that was already up.  The next day, I went outside to check out the roses and they are doing AMAZING!!!  So all good news on those fronts.

The laundry on the other hand is so daunting especially with the playroom project underway I don't think I can even get to the washing machine.  There's gotta be a downside, right?

Weight Watcher on Vacation

While on vacation, I was flooded with so many positive moments.  I felt great in my bathing suit.  I'm not saying I look like a supermodel, I just felt really comfortable.   Making sand castles, running after the kids, swimming.  I was not spending any time wondering if I should get my cover up on or just about my appearance in general, I felt so healthy it superseded everything else.

This was my last couple of weeks of WW maintenance.  Since I couldn't go to my regular meeting I went to the nearest WW office which happens to be the one my MIL goes to.  Very interesting hearing a new leader and being in a new group of people to discuss eating, etc.  Still love my leader Linda the most!  The first Wednesday I was up 1.8 lbs, which made me exactly 155 lbs, aka my WW goal weight.  I was fine BUT thinking this is going to be a real nail biter!!  I still had one more full week of vacation before the final weight in to becoming a lifetime member.  One full week of ice cream on the boardwalk, bagel breakfasts galore and lots of eating out with children who always order french fries but don't finish them.  Ugh!  I was pretty good though and the ability to go on a morning run nearly every morning helped tremendously.  I showed up for last week's weigh in wearing only a dress/beach cover up (my lightest outfit) and I was down 0.8 lbs!!  154.2 lbs makes me a LIFE TIME member!!!!

It was a little anti climactic since I was not at my regular meeting.  The computer did not reflect my status as maintenance complete for some unknown reason so it was like they had to take my word for it.  They asked if I wanted to celebrate today and I said no.  I would prefer to "celebrate" with my regular meeting.  Part of me was thinking it would keep me on the straight and narrow for the rest of vacation, knowing I had to again make goal to celebrate at my regular meeting.  Now I'm home and eating horrible.  Remember that bag of chocolate chips that I finally got rid of a few weeks ago?  I bought it during a "2 for" sale and now the second bag has opened!  

Vacation Bliss

Vacation was much needed rest, relaxation and family time.  Exactly what we were hoping for when we planned on renting a beach bungalow at the Jersey shore.  The shore house we rented happened to be for sale so with the glee of being on vacation and enjoying the sea air we wondered/dreamed would buying a beach house be the life style change we crave?  It was a tiny house with hardly any space around it, as minimal as it gets, perfect!  No lawn to take care of, no room for excess inside the house and with such close quarters you wanted to get out of the house and get to the beach.  Again, perfect.  We even had great weather!  Before vacation started, I was thinking to myself if this state screws us with bad weather on vacation, I will want to leave so fast.  But vacation was pretty perfect all around and we got everything out of it that we wanted yet WE STILL WANT TO MOVE!  Its so hard to decide to leave family and I'm sure we'll still have moments where we are unsure about things but we can't shake this feeling and I'm glad.  I am keeping track, the bathroom remodel we longed for, the shore family vacation, check, check, we are doing everything that we've wanted to in NJ and still the desire to be in a new place does not subside (at least not for an entire week).