Plateau

It's official... I've hit a weight loss plateau. I know I haven't been blogging about the whole weight loss thing lately. It's too depressing. Don't get me wrong... I'm down 55 (fifty five, yes, 55, it feels so good to type that so I'll do it again... 55) pounds since I had Addie in February. I am officially about 5 pounds below my prepregnancy weight. But I think I've only lost about 3 lbs. since school started in August. Is it coincidental that the plateau hit at the same time I started baking again? Probably not. What's a girl to do when she wants her kids to have homemade goodies?

The good news is that I'm working out pretty faithfully. Makenna being in preschool is helping with this immensely as I work out after she leaves and while Addie takes her morning nap. No getting up early (or earlier than my now 6:00 a.m. alarm clock), no more trying to muster up the energy after the kids go to bed and no more trying to do it with the yahoos trying to step on the treadmill or complain that one of my exercise tapes is taking up precious educational cartoon time. I'm going to try to up the ante though and work out for an hour 5 days a week. 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of weights. Is that too aggressive for a person who officially hates working out?

I still want to lose another 20 lbs. before Christmas. Keep me accountable, ok? And now I'm off to run for the 2nd time today since I ate In-n-Out for dinner, followed by an icecream cone. That's a sure way to break out of a plateau (ugh).

Updates

1. Keys - still haven't been located by WalMart. Upon further reflection, my guess is that one of the employees pocketed them. It's sad to have to assume the worst about people but I really see no other logical explanation. They didn't disappear into thin air and if another customer accidentally picked them up, I'm sure they would have been returned.

So that thought totally freaks me out. WM has our address on file and anyone could find my house. So last night we had all the locks on our house changed by a locksmith. The total bill? $533. Walmart's going to love us. I still have to go to Nissan and Honda to have our car locks rekeyed today. Such a disaster.

2. Weight loss - it's been forever since I posted an update. I am FINALLY down 20 lbs. and only a couple pounds from my pre pregnancy weight. Not bad since it's only been 4 1/2 months. Don't get me wrong, I have a long way to go. It just means I was plenty chubby when I got pregnant. I am thrilled though. I can get into most of my clothes and am losing steadily. (ETA: I should clarify, that is 20 lbs. since starting WW for a total of about 40 lbs. since I had Addie).

3. Not an update, but isn't this fun:


Get your digital signature here. It takes all of about 3 minutes!

10.2!!

I said I would update with my WW progress after a month. Last night was my 4 week mark on the program and I am thrilled to report that I am down 10.2 pounds!! I am really happy with my rate of losing and feel like I am making good, healthy changes in my life. Now, somehow people got the idea that I need to lose 15 pounds. Um, no. I need to lose my baby weight and then an ADDITIONAL 15 pounds to get to where I was before I started having kids. I am setting mini goals along the way too. My goal this month was to get back into some of my clothes before our Disneyland trip and I made it with time to spare!

I'll report in another 4 weeks!

Answers

You guys posed some tough questions! So here are the answers, as of right now.

1. Jenni wants me to come clean about being done having kids.

I don't really have a great answer for this one except that I WANT to be done. Three kids feels really good to us right now. I guess this is subject to change in the future but as of right now I think we're done! I feel like I can be a good mom to three kids but think four might push me over the proverbial edge.

2. Marie wants to know about my TWO root canals.

I'm actually in the midst of this situation right now so I can't tell the final story. Here's the rough synopsis. I haven't been to the dentist since right before we left CT. Kind of irresponsible but I had a clean bill of health in CT and we knew we would only be in WA for a year so we never found a dentist there. When we moved here, we tried to get some dental work done, only to find out after the fact that we had chosen horrible insurance through Al's work that hardly anyone in the valley took. So we changed our insurance for this year and I got into the dentist just a few weeks after Addie was born. It's a long story but during my appt. the dentist told me I needed TWO root canals and that it would cost me somewhere between $4-5K after my insurance. Needless to say, I freaked out. In the process we found out that even though the dentist technically takes our insurance, he is not a contracted provider with our company. So, I decided to go for the 2nd opinion and found that I MIGHT need 1 root canal and that the cost of everything including the possible RC would only be about $700. So I am now the poster child of:

a. don't skip your annual dental appts and

b. ALWAYS get a second opinion.

My appt. is next week so I will fill you in about whether or not I needed the RC at that point!

3. Hilary (who has a private blog) wants to know my foot care routine.

My feet are always dry since I don't think I've worn socks once since I've lived here in AZ (and I'm not complaining about that fact).

a. I scrub my feet every morning in the shower with my pumice stone, mostly just to get them nice and clean

b. I slather my feet every night before bed with Aquaphor cream. My dad has used this for years on my moms feet (my dad has given my mom a nightly foot massage their entire marriage - sigh-lucky lady ;)) You can get this at drug stores and the huge container lasts for a long time.

c. I use the GLORIOUS ped egg foot file a couple times a week. I've had this for a few months and can't believe how great it works on my feet. I think you can order it online but I got mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $10. It's the best purchase I've made in a long while.

d. I spring for one professional pedicure a month. I love it, it is one of my only indulgences and it's so nice to have someone else take care of me for an hour (plus, their massage chairs are heavenly). I wish I could go twice a month but practicality wins in this case.

4. Hilary also wants to know my stance on sleeveless clothes for my girls

My stance is only that I don't allow my girls to wear sleeveless to church. If I buy a sleeveless dress I layer a tshirt underneath or put a cardigan on top in the cooler months. This summer I'm buying less sleeveless but I don't have too much issue with it. Al has a bigger problem with it than I do. But I grew up wearing sleeveless and had no problem wearing sleeved clothes when I went to BYU/served a mission/got married. That said, the scary hoochie clothes that are popular now were NOT in style when I was a teen. I remember being absolutely MORTIFIED if my bra strap ever showed as a teen. Now, its commonplace and expected to have straps hanging out. My girls will not dress like that ever. This stance is also subject to change!

5. Kristi and Andrea want to know how WW is going.

It is going really well! I was planning on only updating once a month so this didn't become a weight loss blog. I've only weighed in twice but the first week I lost almost 4 lbs. I got a little smug after that first weigh in. The 2nd week I worked out a TON and didn't even eat all of my daily points and I only lost 1 lb. My WW leader told me that I HAVE to eat my daily points in order for my milk production to remain up so that's what I've been focusing on this week. I haven't found WW difficult this time but I attribute that to the fact that I get a lot of extra points while nursing. My best guess is that I'm down another 2-3 lbs. this week (according to my home scale) but have to skip my weigh in because Carter's spring concert is this week during my normal meeting time. I have to give HUGE props to Al because he is doing it with me. Blessed husband! It is a lot easier to do together (even though he doesn't really need to lose weight). I feel REALLY good though and that is what really counts.

6. Andrea wants to know about my new blog banner.

I created it in Photoshop. A huge thanks to Mindy who always holds my hand through my photoshop and blog woes. I've also been working on my sister Nicole's blog. This isn't the finished look but we're getting closer. Luckily for Mind and my other Photoshop expert friends I have am starting a Photoshop/Digital scrapbooking class next month!! I'm so excited!

Whew! This has taken a LONG time to write out so I will try to be better about answering questions in the future!

Coming Clean...

So the best way for me to assure success in any venture in my life is to tell EVERYONE what I'm doing so I remain accountable to myself and others. I hate to fail and failing in front of the masses is totally humiliating. So here you go... last night I rejoined Weight Watchers. I'm so ready to shed the baby weight and the excess 15 or so pounds I've carried around since I started having kids.

Since I'm pretty sure we are DONE having babies (and really, I can't even explain what an amazingly great feeling it is to feel complete as a family) I am ready to work my tail off to lose all my weight. I've had success with WW before and even though it is expensive I'm going to keep going to the meetings so I can be accountable. I'm going with a girlfriend so that makes it all the more fun.

In the past I have had a very hard time losing weight while I'm nursing. I tend to lose about 15 lbs. within 6 weeks of quitting. I'm hoping I don't hit that plateau this time since I really, really want to nurse for a year again.

So I'm on this journey and am making it very public. Ugh. But it's really no secret that I'm a little "fluffy" these days. I'll keep you updated on my progress. If anyone else is on the weight loss bandwagon, share your tips and secrets and let's support one another!