Losing Weight

I've lost 22 pounds since Nathan was born, but that's not nearly enough.  Before I got pregnant, I had lost 25 just through portion control, making good food choices, and exercising every day.  Now, I'm in terrible shape and my body protests every single time I try to exercise.  My feet are very sore from Plantar fasciitis (wear good shoes, boys and girls!) and I'm always exhausted from not getting enough sleep.  I have several friends who are having great success with a certain product line that you sell to your friends and then get them to sell to their friends, but I don't believe in using "products" to get healthy.  I want to do it the natural way, without the help of any kind of drink or powder or pill.  I've done all that before and it never did any good.  Well, I would lose weight, but then as soon as I could no longer afford the drink, powder or pill, or just didn't want to use them anymore, I gained it all back.

Jon and I are trying to focus on having a healthy lifestyle - for Nathan as well as for us.  And of course, if we are going to have to cut all eggs and egg products out of our diet, that will cut way back on eating out and other calorie-filled indulgences we are bad about giving in to at the moment.

I've been doing the Couch to 5k program for the past month and a half.  It's a 9-week program.  Today, I started over with Week 1.  When I started doing the program, I was in such bad shape that I could only walk at a speed of 2.5 and "run" at a speed of 3.0.  If you look at the treadmills at my gym, that's basically walking fast.  The jog speed is 4.0.  After working my way up to Week 4 on Couch to 5k doing those speeds, I thought it would be fun to try Week 1 over again, but this time actually walking 2.5 and jogging 4.0.  It was very difficult, but I got through it.  My legs burned and my shins felt like they were going to snap.  My feet were throbbing, but I kept going.  Overall, when the 30 minute program was over, I jogged for 8 minutes, which is way more than I have ever done.

I have struggled with my weight my entire life.  I've always thought of myself as "the fat girl," even when I wasn't all that big.  Being pregnant was extremely freeing because I was allowed to be "fat."  I didn't go overboard, I didn't eat everything in sight, but my largeness was beautiful then, because it had a purpose.  Now I'm back to just being "fat."  And that is a struggle every day.

I've worked so hard over the last couple of months and I don't have much weight loss to show for it.  Most of the 22 pounds I mentioned above was in the weeks after Nathan was born.  I want to lose 100 pounds total.  I want to be on the other side of 200 again.  I want to be healthy.  Not just for me, but for my family.