More than two years later...

Wow! What a trip to read these posts more than two years later. Kind of funny to find myself in almost the same spot now, but with a few changes. In my previous weight loss push in the fall of 2012, I got down to a low of 141 and fit into all my size 6 pants. I felt great and I did it just from running and eating less. Very little to no strength training. The pic below is what I looked like around my skinniest, in my favorite size 6 jeans and size S leather jacket.

Feeling good at a work party with Colin Firth...

Then, after the holidays, I was at 144 and ready to try to push again when, at the end of January, I found out I was pregnant! I had the best intentions of trying to keep running and working out and eating healthy. And mostly, I did alright.

I ran sporadically up to about five months along. Very little working out, though. I had morning sickness during the first trimester and I became a bread eating monster. The carb indulgence didn't really slow down throughout the rest of the pregnancy, but I was hyper conscious about my weight gain so I was on the scale at least weekly. I wanted to do everything right for the baby, but also didn't want to let my weight get away from me. I felt like I could easily revert back to the way I was when I was way overweight and just stuck my head in the sand, ate whatever I wanted and never stepped on a scale.

I think I struck the right balance. Oliver was born in October 2013 at a normal, healthy weight. And the day I went into the hospital to have him, I weighed 78 pounds, exactly 34 pounds more than I was when I got pregnant. My goal was to stay between the 25 and 35 pounds recommended for preggos at a normal weight.

Exactly a year later. Much cuter than Colin Firth. (Sorry, Colin.)

I lost about 20 pounds in the month after he was born, just breastfeeding and recovering from a c-section. But then once I got down to 158-160 pounds, the weight loss came to a screeching halt. At first, because I had problems getting breastfeeding established, I was paranoid about dieting or exercising and having that mess up with feeding him. So I coasted through until about February, when I decided enough was enough and I was ready to get back on track.

I joined Belly Bootcamp here in Toronto, workout classes that are an hour long and where I could bring Oliver with me. I did that twice a week starting sometime at the end of February, beginning of March. I had a good chunk of weight loss in March, bringing me down to about 155. And then I stagnated some more.

I continued the classes, tried to eat better and cut out bread and pasta and slowly added back in running as the weather got warmer. I started running more consistently in May or June and despite such a long, long break, it was easy to pick up again, I think because of all the strength training I'd been doing.

I was dying to get back into the 140s because it felt so much closer to the promised land I'd been working toward since 2006 when I began losing weight. I had to keep some perspective and remind myself that there was a lot to celebrate and be proud of. When Oliver was born, I was still about 20 pounds lighter than I was when I joined Weight Watchers in 2006 at 196 pounds. And that was with a full-term baby!

I made another push this fall and by Christmas I was down to 149.3 Finally! But. Christmas... Right. When I got back to Toronto, I was 152 and change. Now, a week and half of good eating and exercise, and I am back at 149.4 this morning.

We have a vacation coming up in February and my goal is to be 140. I know it's ambitious, but I figure aim high (or low!) and maybe, I'll land somewhere close. I'm pretty motivated since it's a warm weather vacay and I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing a bikini for a good part of a week. I'll try to actually keep up with this fledging little blog thing. I don't know if I can even call it a blog, since I've posted six times in two and half years!