Driven.

I have been more driven lately with my weight loss than ever before. It was almost a game for me to see how quickly I could lose the baby weight. Total, during the pregnancy, I gained 31 lbs. I was trying to shoot for 25, but towards the end it just packed on! (I like to say it was water weight, ha!)

As soon as I came home from the hospital I had lost 15 lbs. which was nice to see a quick drop. It took another 2 weeks to lose about 8 more. It just fell off. I ate EVERYTHING in sight and we had TONS of food brought to us. I still can not thank all of the people for ALL of the food! It was heaven to eat whatever I wanted and lose weight! Those last 7 lbs. hung on until about Mae was 3 months old. Then I was back to pre-baby weight. PTL.

HOWEVER, I always said that was not where I ideally wanted to be! So, I set a goal to get healthy and toned. I started realizing that I was eating WAY more calories than I ever needed. I was eating, was full, but kept eating because I needed to clean my plate. I never really TRIED to make healthy choices or eating habits in the past. Now was my chance! I started making sure breakfast (oatmeal) was the way I started off my day. I would have a granola bar mid-morning. Mae and I always start the morning with a walk, too. So that broke up the morning. Then for lunch and dinner, I would honestly eat what I wanted, just listened to my body to see when I was content, not overly full. There have been some nights that I just want a bag of popcorn and a coke zero. While breastfeeding, that wasnt an option, but as of last month I am done (sadly). I wish I could have kept nursing, however when we moved my milk supply went down, way day, and fast. Sad day. So in total with gaining weight during pregnancy, I gained 31 lbs. (Mae was a whopping almost 9 lbs of that, 8 lb 11oz to be exact) Since Mae was 3 months, I have lost another 6, so a total of 37 lbs since Feb. 25.

So here I am as of this week.

I really want to tone up and maybe lose about 5-6 more lbs. I have always been self conscious of my arms, but thanks to the weight of a baby and a bucket seat, they are starting to get more toned! I have been walking with Mae lots, but running pushing a stroller is a WHOLE different story. A few times I have gone running when Ryan gets home from work. Now that the weather is hopefully going to cool off soon, I am going to make more of an effort. I want to start running in some more 5k's soon, too. Hopefully, I can recruit my partner in crime, Ryan, to join in! (The last race we did together was a 10 k in the pouring rain and freezing cold. It was miserable. Hopefully, he has erased that image from his memory!) We have talked about joining a gym, but the one we love the most does not have childcare, so we are still back and forth on that. Stay tuned on more progress! Hopefully posting this on here, will keep me more accountable!