Week 8

Previous Weight- 183.6

Current Weight- 182.0

____________________

Total Lost - 1.6

Last Friday I took a run, a ran a mile, without stopping and really without feeling like I was going to die, which was amazing to me. Considering that I hadn't run since November at least, 1 mile was pretty good. On Saturday I took another run, this time I ran 1.75 miles without stopping I felt proud. I haven't run since. But I will.

I also have to admit that sometimes I forget to eat, I get really busy with the boys and I really have to stop and say, "Now, right now I have to eat" if I don't then I realize that it is 11 am and I haven't had breakfast or 3 pm and I have not had lunch. Today I have done better, I made time today, well really I wore the baby in the sling while I made and ate breakfast and I entertained him by playing peekaboo while I ate lunch. I want to avoid accidental anorexia- that is what I have named it- I am sure that forgetting to eat will help me loose quite a bit of weight, but I am also sure that as soon as life slows down and I remember/have time to eat each meal, I would gain quite a bit of that precious weight back, and I don't want that. So I have renewed my desire to eat well and eat enough. (I type that sentence right after I finished off two chocolate mint chocolate chip cookies- they were yummy, and hey, I will probably go run today)

Week 7

Previous Weight- 186.4

Current Weight- 183.6

__________________

Total Lost- -2.8

I may be off by .2 or but I am declaring that I have officially reached my Pre-Pregnancy weight! Now I just need to get out there, work hard and attain my next goal, which is to lose 10 more pounds, at that point I will be down to my Pre-First-Pregnancy weight. And from there I can set new goals.

Last night I did some research, figured out that I have a Medium/Average Frame and that a healthy weight for my height and frame is 139-153. I have asked for help in coming up with a final goal, after some thought of my own, I think 140-145 sounds good. Strangely it almost sounds attainable.

Week 5

Previous Weight- 187.4

Todays Weight- 186.4

___________________

Total Lost- 1 Pound

So that is half a pound a week, nice consistent weight loss. I am secretly hoping that I can lose 2 pounds before my 6 week postpartum Doctors appointment, but I don't think that is going to happen. Why? Well it is hard to lose 2 pounds in one week when the only exercise you are approved to do is Walk. I am sure I will get the Okay to Jog or Run at that visit next week, and so I can deal with not being at my pre-pregnancy weight for a week or two, I am sure it won't take too long to get rid of that extra 2 pounds once I can jog.

Week 3

So I figured we would start counting weeks again. Let's see how many weeks it takes for me to 1- got down to my pre-baby weight (183.4) and 2- to get down to my goal weight, which we will say right now is 145- it may change once I get closer but that is what it will be for now.

So here goes.

Last weigh in- 196.6

This Week- 187.4

__________________

Total Lost- 9.2 Pounds

I think it has been 2 weeks or so, and I have lost another 9.2 pounds. For the first week I really didn't do anything other than try my best to stay alive. Having a new baby doesn't really threaten your life, unless you go driving around while completely sleep deprived, which I haven't done. But sleep deprivation does seem to be a good diet, your body has to work overtime and it must burn calories, I make this assumption because most of this weight loss occurred last week.

I realized that my weight loss was slowing down a bit, and that I was getting a little more sleep and had some extra energy and so I decided it was time to start walking again. I put together the new double stroller and the past 3 days I have had at least a little bit of a walk, a little exercise, outside. Hopefully we will walk a little faster and a little farther each day.

For now I am pretty happy. I have 4 more pounds to loose to get to my pre-pregnancy weight. Yesterday, my Sister told me that she was jealous of me. This made me laugh. I reminded her that I may have gained less than she and I typically do during pregnancy and as such lost it more quickly, but I am still at least 40 pounds overweight and so I still had a long road ahead of me. The good news is, I have renewed desire to make sure I get healthy and lose the weight. Five years from now I want to be able to write a blog post about how I am NOT a Diabetic. I hope to write another post like that 10 years form now too. I feel like I have been given the tools to make the necessary changes and the opportunity to make those changes as well. Now I just have do do it.

A New Baby, A New Body....

Last Week- 210.8

This Week- 196.6

_______________

Total Lost- 12.2

Well, last Tuesday night my water broke, 4 1/2 hours later there was a sweet new baby in my arms, he weighted 6# 10 oz. So that half of the weight was pretty easy to lose, painful but easier than diet and exercise. The other weight I am sure came from somewhere but I won't dwell on that, I will just say, I have had the best week of weight loss you will ever see on this blog.

Next week I am going to start walking 1 mile per day, My doctor gave me permission! She also told me I could do sit-ups if I used my yoga ball, I am not so sure about the sit-ups, never really having been a fan of sit-ups and all, but I guess it would tone the large squishy area that I have in the middle of my body right now. I will think about it some more before I decide if the sit-ups are in or out.

It has been just over a year since I started this blog, and I weigh just about the same now as I did back in July of 2009, so I am feeling pretty good about my chances of continued weight loss and more importantly, better health. I just so happened to post a weekly weight last August 11th. On that day I weighed 193 pounds. So 196. is just under 4 more pounds. I kind of think that is cool, I mean it could have been much much worse.

One other change from last year to this year is that I have 2 followers. One of you I know quite well, and I was glad to see you following my progress. The other follower, I don't know at all, but I assume you have found something in this blog worth hearing about. So to both of you I say thank you! Don't feel that you need to stay silent, if you want to cheer me on, give me some verbal support, tell me I really shouldn't have eaten those brownies, FEEL FREE!

See you next week!

37 Weeks....almost

Last week I went to the doctor and AMAZINGLY their scale said I had lost 3 pounds! I was astounded because according to my home scale I had maintained, if not gained 0.2 pounds. I go to the doctor again today and so I weighed myself this morning. Last week I was 210.8 this week 208.6, so yeah, as hard as I try to get sufficient calories, I am just not doing it very well....bad thing? I don't think so, I did the necessary checking for ketone's, (a byproduct of fat burning that crosses the placenta and if received by the baby in high enough quantities could possibly cause lower IQ) and I have not been anywhere near the danger zone, in fact most times I am negative for them, so does that mean I am not burning fat? I don't know. I do know that after this baby is born I will probably continue this diet, because apparently it works. Who knew!

So, my goal for this pregnancy was to NOT gain 60 pounds, closer to 30 or 40 and I would be fine. So far, my total gain has been 25.4. I really want a chocolate shake though.....just a week or two more.

35 Weeks

Absolutely no change! That is right, over the past 35 weeks and 3 days I have gained 27 pounds. I am pleased with myself. Not terribly pleased with the Gestational Diabetes, but I am pleased that I feel somewhat in control of my diet now. The rest of this pregnancy is going to go fast!

34 Weeks

Well it has been a few weeks, and in those few weeks I managed to gain 2 pounds, getting up to 213+, then I found out I failed my second Gestational Diabetes test and was put on a diet where I have to really watch how many Carbohydrates I am eating, because carbohydrates turn into glucose and glucose is blood sugar and high blood sugar and pregnancy induced insulin intolerance are the main issues in Gestational Diabetes. The first week of my new "Diet" I lost two pounds. As of today I weigh 210.4 (if this had been a year ago I would have GASPED and possibly passed out, but hey 210.4 means a total gain of 27 pounds so far over the course of the pregnancy, and that is right in line with my goal, if not better than my goal, so I will take it!)

So, I may maintain this weight, I may gain a pound or two more, hopefully I don't lose any more, because that would be bad for baby butterball. I have found that my focus has changed a bit, from only gaining 30-40 pounds this pregnancy, so that I only have to lose 30-40 extra pounds, to wanting to be as healthy as possible so that my baby has the best chance at being healthy after birth (it would break my heart if they have to intervene and give him sugar water to keep him from becoming hypoglycemic) and also to make sure he doesn't get too big to deliver. An 8 pound baby would be Okay with me, a 10-12 pounder.....well that just scares me.

So we have 4-6 weeks left, and then the real fun begins!

29 Weeks

27th week - 207.6

26th week- 206.4

______________

Gained- 1.2

not bad for one week.

Current Weight- 211.2

Previous Weight-207.6

____________________

Total Gained- 3.4

So we went on Vacation for a week. Vacations are hard when it comes to weight, that is what I have discovered over the past 2 years. If you are trying to Maintain, Lose or even gain slowly, Vacations will help you pack on the weight because you are 1- not cooking for yourself and 2- at least for me, snacking way more than usual. But I am pretty happy with my weight gain so far. If my memory serves me correctly I have gained about 28 pounds over the last 29 weeks, which is right on target for NOT gaining 60 pounds, in fact if I can, I don't know if it truly is possible during the last trimester, but if I can gain a pound a week I will only gain 40 pounds this pregnancy, and that will make me happy.

26 Weeks

Last Weeks Weight- 208.8

This Weeks Weight- 206.4

_____________________

Total Loss (yes loss) 2.4 pounds

I had the most horrible flu EVER! I really thought I was going to never eat or drink again and that I would die, or worse, something would happen to my baby. But I got better, started to drink and eventually eat again. And amazingly lost 2 pounds. I say amazingly because under non pregnant circumstances I may lose weight while I am sick but I gain it back very quickly, in this case I have been eating again for 3 + days..... we will have to see what next week brings.

25 Weeks

This weeks weight- 208.8

Previous weight- 202.0

________________________

Total Gained 6.8

I think I say Oops too much, but really, more than 3 pounds a week over the past two weeks.....Arrggh. I really must stop baking treats and focus more on baking my baby. Yesterday I was reading about how I should be limiting my "Sweets" intake to 100 calories per day. Ha! Guess I should try that.

23 Weeks

This Week- 202.0

Previous- 199.4

______________

Total Gained- 2.6

I would say not too bad for 2 weeks. I have my good days and my bad days. Mostly I love Swiss Rolls, I am pretty sure that at least a pound of that weight gain was from Swiss Rolls, I love them because Butterball Loves them.

And Butterball......he's a boy!

21 Weeks

This Week- 199.4

Last Week- 199.0

______________

Total Gained- 0.4

I think that the babies activity and growth rate caught up to my increased desire to eat, and my increased desire to eat sugary foods. I have been pretty happy with this week, I am learning to watch my portion sizes, I do eat a little more but most meals I am able to keep my self to a reasonable serving size. Though, like with last nights dinner, if it is particularly yummy I don't stop myself if I want seconds. I also have been trying hard to limit myself to 1 (maybe 2 small) sugary treats a day, this is hard because I know that my little Butterball, about 20-30 minutes after my sugary treat, will put on a show. I love it when the baby puts on a show!

Next week we find out exactly what kind of Turkey Butterball is, is my baby a Tom or a Hen? Come back next week and see!

20 Weeks

This Weeks Weight-199.0

Previous Weight- 198.8

______________________

Total Weight Gained- 0.2

See, I can be good. I decided that maybe it wasn't the best idea to eat sweets constantly, and I tried my best to only have one really sweet treat a day. So that makes the total over the past 20 weeks 15.6 pounds gained. That's an average of just over 3/4 of a pound per week. I can live with that. I think I can do this, I can NOT gain 60 pounds this pregnancy, I may hit 40, maybe 45, but not 60. And I hope that the weight I do gain is a little easier to take off too. Just as a heads up body, I bought a double jogging stroller, that right you have no less than 26 weeks to prepare yourself to run again. You may run really really really slow, but Yes, You will run. and you will like it.

Until then, I am enjoying being pregnant, I don't know if the differences between this pregnancy and my first are related to anything I did in the 2 years between, like trying to eat better and get more exercise, or if it is just the fact that each pregnancy is different. But I have finally hit the phase of pregnancy where I know there is a baby in there, not just because my body looks like there is, but because that baby is moving, sometimes a lot. I give little Butterball some of the credit for the 0.2 pounds we gained these past two weeks, keep up that exercising Butterball, it is really helping Mommy out!

18 Weeks

Oops.

Current Weight- 198.8

Previous Weight- 193.6

___________________

Total Gained- 5.2

Yeah. I this sucks. I feel shame. I wish I could blame it solely on the birthday cake, but I also know there were lots of cookies in there too and other crap that I shouldn't have been eating and a lack of eating good things that I should have been eating. Sorry Baby. So I vow to eat better, though I do not promise not to eat cookies and candy, they will not be my primary source of calories. And to prove it, today for breakfast I am eating oatmeal with 1/2 and apple chopped into it, seasoned with cinnamon and just a little sugar.

16 Weeks

Sadly, if I miss a week, it is probably because I really couldn't come to grips with the weight....

So here goes

This weeks weight-193.6

Previous weight- 191.6

_______________

Total Gained- 2.0

Yeah, more than the 1/2 pound per week that I have been hoping for but I know exactly why it happened, I ate A LOT of cookies and got sick and laid on the couch more than I should have.

Here's to hoping next week is better.

14 Weeks

This Week- 191.6

Last Week- 190.4

_____________

Total Gained- 1.2 pounds

I did it, I have been really good, but last week I pretty much lost control. I ate Ice Cream, because I wanted to. I ate Lots of M&M's, once again, because I wanted to and I ate half of a Pumpkin Dump Cake (over the course of a few days, and with the help of 23 month old J) because I WANTED TO. So apparently, I wanted to gain a pound too. It all works out in the end. Over the past 14 weeks I have gained an average of .6 pounds per week which is pretty much right on target for a 30 pound weight gain (I will be happy even if it is 40, just as long as it is not 60!). So I will try a little harder over the next few weeks, not to eat as much ice cream and to only eat 1/4 of the cakes. All in all, I am pretty happy.

13 Weeks

Last Week- 190.0

This Week- 190.4

_______________

Total Gained- 0.4

OK, so I kind of cheated, I waited 2 extra days because I overdid it with the valentines candy (Thank You, Valentine) and it took a while for my body to adjust, but I think this weight is pretty accurate, and I am pleased. If next week I have gained 3 pounds, I will still blame it on the candy.

12 Weeks

Last Week- 190.0

This Week- 190.0

________________

Total Change 0.0!

I had a doctors appointment yesterday and I noticed that according to their scale I had gained 2 pounds over the month. I was happy with that especially when I considered the fact that I was RAVENOUS for Dessert last week, I was sure that I was going to go into that appointment with a 5 pound weight gain, most of which would have been gained last week. But surprise, surprise- my body apparently needed extreme amounts of sugar and fat and it did what it took to get it (i.e. cravings for chocolate cake, brownies and apple crisp) and it put all that sugar and fat to good use and used it all up leaving me with no weight gain. What a good Baby!

I still want to do better to fight the cravings, maybe replace the brownie with a banana.

11 Weeks

This Week- 190.0

Last Week- 189.2

_______________

Total Gained + 0.8

I will take it, less than a pound. Sure I wish it was closer to 1/2 a pound but it wasn't 1.2 or 2 or more, which it could have been with how I have been craving things this week. I have promised myself that I will not overeat and that I will get more exercise. I hope to walk/exercise 3 times per week.

Week 10

Previous Weight- 183.4

Current Weight- 189.2

___________________

Total Gained- + 5.8 pounds

I am not too upset by this number. If you take into account that since the last time I weighed in there have been 2 major eating holidays- Christmas and New Years- then I think I did pretty well.

I did some math, in order to gain 60 pounds during my pregnancy I would need to gain 1.5 pounds per week, but 5.8 pounds over 10 weeks is closer to 0.6 pounds per week, so really I am right on track to gain much less than 60 pounds this time around. I plan on keeping track of what I am eating and doing my best to eat well. Plus weighing in weekly will help keep me honest.

They're BaaaaaaAaack!

So yes, it has been 6 weeks or so since my last post, but I have good reason and I want to tell you all about it. One of the reasons that I wanted to lose weight was so that it would be easier to get pregnant and so that future pregnancies would be easier than my first. When we were trying to get pregnant with our son we heard over and over again the same two pieces of advice. The first was, just forget about it, once you forget about it, it will happen. The second was that it will happen according to God's timing and not before, so don't stress about it. And from my experience that first time getting pregnant the second piece of advice is true. Now I can say that the first piece of advice is also true.

I got focused, I started seeing some really good results too. And then I found out I was pregnant! Thus the "They're Back" instead of "I'm Back", because now it is me and my baby "Butterball".

So here I am, today I am 10 weeks pregnant. I have known since December 12th. I have been tired since December 10th and I really haven't worked out much, maybe 4 or 5 times in the past 6 weeks. The first trimester will be over soon and I hope to have my energy back. I have a good friend in my neighborhood who is also pregnant and also in need of some exercise and 3 days a week we are going to go walking together. YEAH.

So my goals have changed, now I MUST gain weight, but my plan to document my progress has stayed the same, then after the baby is born I will get back to losing the weight again.

During my first pregnancy I gained 60 pounds! I threw up at least once a day for 33 weeks in a row. I was working full time and I was nauseated at least 75 % of my day, I ate what I wanted to eat and unfortunately what I wanted to eat was sugary carbohydrates.

I read somewhere that the higher the amount of saturated fat a woman eats in the year proceeding a pregnancy can dramatically increase her chances of having and the severity of morning sickness. Last year I made a concentrated effort to lower the amount of fat my family ate as well as up the amount of fruits, vegetables and whole grains we consumed. I know there are lots of reasons why a woman can have different experiences during different pregnancies, but I would like to take at least a tiny bit of the credit for the fact that my Morning Sickness with this pregnancy is 90% better than the last, I have my times where I am nauseated and don't want to move, but I have yet to throw up let alone spent whole days not being able to keep anything down. So maybe this baby is a girl, or maybe I just ate better last year. We will just have to wait and see.

As of right now I have two goals for this pregnancy. The first is to NOT gain 60 pounds, I would be happy with 40 or under. The second goal is to stay physically active. I know I can walk and I was running and I hope to at least be able to jog. I don't plan on running in any races, but it would be nice to get out and move. So each week I will document my progress, this time celebrating small gains instead of small loses. See you soon.