What's up? That's what's up!

So back when I was still pregnant with Jack I bought this:

And had big plans to get to it as soon as he was born........or......6 months later. You know what they say? Better late than never!  I have been desperate to recapture the magic of 2011, when I started this blog, when I was doing great with food and started dabbling in the world of jogging (don't believe that I will ever be able to call myself a runner haha!) and I lost 40 lbs and the accountabililty of this blog was a big part of that successful year.  But 2012 came with my husbands surgery and then another pregnancy and a move and a home building project and another move and crazy crazy insane church split and another pregnancy and another baby and even though they were all very huge life changes each and every one of them, they also felt a lot like a lot of excuses.  I knew we were done having kids so at least all those major weight loss interrupters are over but I also know that life will continue to be busy and wild and things will happen and so I needed to get a handle on myself.  I needed to fight for my health and wellness, not just physically but spiritually, emotionally and mentally as well!  So leading up to New Year's resolution season I thought a lot about how to recapture that magic and part of that was getting back into the swing of things on my blog but I didn't want to make promises I didn't intend to keep.  So I decided to keep it under wraps for a bit.

Starting the week after New Years I began Jillian's exercise program and tomorrow marks the end of 16 weeks that I have been at this! I ended up stretching the 12 weeks out due to flu, my daughters surgery, spring break etc.  But overall for the last 16 weeks I have logged my food on my fitness pal very nearly every day, even when I had influenza! I have also been exercising 6 days a week (somedays twice!) and have felt myself get stronger and stronger and break barriers.  I have resumed the couch to 5k plan again and fallen back in love with how it feels to jog.  I am cooking healthier food for my family again and they have all been so supportive.  My kids need this too!

Mid february I was invited to join an accountability group my beautiful friend Sara has started as she started her own journey in November and is now a Beachbody coach and doing so amazing. She inspires me every single day! I have loved the accountability of talking about what you are eating and what you are doing for exercise and it has helped push me to be better!! Her facebook page is Stronger Everyday With Sara and you should like her page here.  You may even get me a referral point or two!

As of this morning I have lost 22 lbs (my lucky number!!!) so if I can repeat these 4 months like 5 more times I may find myself where I want to be! And even though I am still struggling with the mirror, with how I look in clothes, or those weeks that go by when the scale refuses to budge despite all my best efforts, with how far away my goal is, with the food temptations all around me and on and on, I know there are also about a hundred other tiny little changes and victories I have found; how I can walk up stairs without being out of breath (yeah that struggle was real!), how I absolutely MAKE TIME to exercise even when I am busy or exhausted, how the tiredness comes in handy to get me to go to bed earlier but yet during the day I have much more energy for chasing two little ones around, how proud of me my husband is and on and on.  I'm glad to be on this journey and make it last.  I will never give up.  And so I plan to work on this blog more regularly, it is still a little difficult to do it as often as I would like, I guess with 4 kids I am sort of busy or something!?  I hope those of you who used to cheer me on back then will dust off my blog and come back to cheering me on.  Your support means a lot to me as well. 

 

My brother in law Jeff is king of the catch phrases in our family.  I'll never forget the year of "Your heads a shell" after Tommy boy came out! When Sophie was about 2 he tried to teach her to reply to "what's up" with "That's what's up!" and I stumbled across a cute video of her the other day from when she finally learned it!  I have been trying to think of how and when to unveil you of my new way of life and I finally felt like all the pieces came together this week, it was the end of the first time through Jillian's torturous program, the scale had been on a standstill for 3 weeks and finally budged and it brought me to 22lbs which is my favorite number and an even 4 months of me doing this transformation.  So here it is, the new me, what's up with me? That's what's up!!