My new journey is off to a pretty solid start. I joined the Community Weight Race, which is a competition in our community to lose weight and get healthier. I was part of a team with new mamas, so we have a lot of the same struggles. I’m so lucky to have connected with these women, because they were so supportive and encouraging, even when I was beating myself up.
The first month was awful. January is so hard- it was hard to get outside, and we didn’t know what was going on with Teddy yet, so he was still tiny and throwing up, and it was the one year anniversary of my mom’s death. I ate an entire apple pie that day. Sometimes I think that it’s great that I’ve chosen to self-medicate with food, rather than hard drugs, but it doesn’t always feel great. I gained a few pounds that month.
Thank God for those teammates- they encouraged me and let me know that I was doing a great job despite these awful circumstances. I was able to restart in February, and tried my hardest to get to the gym and make good food choices.
As most of you know, I already lost 100 pounds once. I spent 4 years in my late teens and early twenties kicking my own ass and getting to a healthy place. After I lost all that weight, I got into running, and the rest is history (or easily findable on this blog😜).
I am used to restricting my food and working out hard. I can’t do that now, at least not in the same way. I’m still finding the balance of eating the right foods in the right calories to lose weight, but enough that my body still keeps making milk for Teddy. It’s also tricky as I’m mostly avoiding cow milk dairy, soy, oats, and rice- I had to cut them out of my diet completely as an experiment to see how it affected Teddy. It eliminated some of my healthy food go-tos- like Greek yogurt and oatmeal.
Finding balance is the same challenge with working out, with the additional difficulty that everything hurts! I got a second gym membership up in Weston so I can get to the gym a little easier on the days we’re staying at my mom’s house, which is now mine. It was too hard for me to get Teddy all packed up and drive down to Point to get to my regular gym, Adventure 212. I love that gym, and it has a great daycare, so it’s an awesome choice when we’re at home. The gym up here is nice, but has no daycare- so I often end up going at 9 or 10 o’clock after Teddy is settled into bed. I know that’s dedication, and I’m proud. I still run, but not as far and not nearly as fast. I give myself grace when I start comparing my previous running performance by picturing my former self running with a 50 lb weight in each hand. That probably would have slowed me down, and I’m proud that I’m still getting out there.
I miss the days when I could knock out five easy miles in 45 minutes with no problem, but I’ll get back to it.
There is some encouraging news- we did our final weigh in for the community weight race yesterday, and I lost 14 pounds since we started in the second week of January. It’s a total of 16 pounds since I reset myself after the apple pie incident. It wasn’t even a good apple pie. What was I thinking?!
Losing weight the first time was difficult, so I’m nervous because I know how much of a challenge it will be- and this time, I’m a mom, and own two homes, and have a lot of other things on my plate. I’m thankful that I have been through this process before, so I know what to expect and I have practice with self control.
I’m proud of a great first quarter and I’ll be keeping on keeping on!
As always, thanks for reading and following my adventures.
2019 weight lost: 16 pounds
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