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Keeping Me Honest

I wrote last week about realizing that I am who I am and that's the way it'll always be. What I failed to mention is that there are some aspects of myself that I'm not entirely happy with, aspects that I do need to change, for a variety of reasons. And no, I'm still not talking about making the beds in the morning. I'm talking about losing weight.

Sigh.

I was overweight when I got pregnant with Phoebe. But I only gained 12 pounds during that pregnancy, and she was a 9 lbs 12 oz baby, so by the time I was home from the hospital I'd lost the baby weight. Then, through some miracle of post-partum metabolism and nursing non-stop for months (because she never liked taking a bottle), I lost a lot more weight with no effort whatsoever. By the time Phoebe was 6 months old I'd lost about 30 pounds. And I still wasn't what you would call skinny, but I was thinner than I'd been in years. I felt good about myself and I was wearing skorts, people! Skorts!

But I should have realized that the weight-melting would end eventually, and it did. In fact, as soon as I stopped pumping breastmilk for Phoebe, when she was about 10 months old, the weight started coming back on. And it happened pretty quickly and almost without me noticing it, and now I'm almost back to where I started.

I'm kind of annoyed at myself for that. But, rather than wallow in recriminations, I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to start dieting on Monday. No, scratch that. I'm going to change my eating patterns on Monday. I did Weight Watchers a few years ago and lost 9.2 pounds and then stopped because I hated it. I hated counting points, it was tedious, and since I'm kind of an all-or-nothing girl, anytime I accidentally went one or two points over my daily quota I'd think, Well, that's it for the day anyway and eat a whole bag of Fritos or something. So, I'm just going to 1) change the kind of food I eat and 2) eat less of it. (Specifically, I'll be following the "Best Life" diet as set forth by the guy who helped Oprah lose weight, and then lose it again, and then lose it yet again.) Plus, I'm going to start walking around our office-park block at lunch (weather permitting) and doing Pilates at night. (I got a DVD entitled, no lie, Pilates for the Inflexible. Just right for me!)

This isn't just for me, it's for my kids too -- I need to set a better example for them. Unfortunately neither of them are genetically programmed to be skinny little things and I don't want them to struggle with their weight as they get older.

Anyway, that's the plan. To keep myself honest, I'm going to post my weekly weight loss here every Friday. Stay tuned and wish me luck!

And now I'm going to McDonald's for lunch. For the very last time!

Comments

aimee said…
Good luck Krista! I know how hard it is to change eating habits (I am still trying to do that--I know my metabolism is starting to slow down as I get older) but I think you will succeed because you are doing it for the right reasons. I believe in you!
Anonymous said…
Good Luck. I think that if I were eating something for the last time though, it woould not be McDonalds but something sinfully chocolate! Talk about a good example for your kids!!!

Mom
H Noble said…
That's a good plan Krista. Justin and I have done South Beach twice with very good results, but we got tired of depriving of ourselves of McDonald's! We could live on french fries.

So now we're working on portion control, less cokes, more water, and exercise. I do Pilates occasionally, but right now I'm hooked on the exercise ball and a variety of exercise ball DVDs. Its more fun and I feel better with this than Pilates.

Hope you find something that works for you though.

Good luck to you!
H

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