Reflecting...

So my son was born almost 2 years ago. For some reason today, I decided to run my weight loss report all the way back to his birthday. I was curious... what did my pattern of weight loss look like over the last 2 years. Am I really still losing "baby weight" or is it something else?

My first weight entry following the birth of my son was about 2 months after he was born. 183.5... my highest ever non-pregnant weight that I have on record. Surely that was expected, because I had started his pregnancy with a heavier weight than I had with his sister (I was in the 140's when I got pregnant with her in 2007).

I had several 'fresh starts' and restarts over the last 2 years. Heck, I had several starts and restarts in the time between my pregnancies. My weight fluctuated, I made excuses... you know the pattern.

So looking back at my weight pattern over the last 2 years, I notice a pattern. The times that I was checking in on sparkpeople, even just to track my weight, I at least maintained and sometimes even lost. From July to December 2010, I floated around the same 2-3 lbs.. never getting above 185 but never getting below 180 either.

I must have had one of my restarts that January because I dropped to 178 and finally broke that 180 barrier... and then by March, ONE YEAR AGO, I even hit 176! Whatever I was doing, it must have been working! (I can tell you what I was doing... I was exercising! I was a member of Curves for a while, and I was out walking)

The next thing I notice when looking at my weight tracking here on sparkpeople is a WHOLE LOT OF NOTHING from the moment I hit 176 (March 2011... around the time I quit Curves and stopped weighing in anywhere) until I weigh in again. October 2011. 185 lbs. REALLY? What happened, I tell myself? Where did I go wrong?

I can tell you where I went wrong. I gave up. Curves wasn't working for me as a gym, so I quit. But I didn't join anywhere else. I just outright stopped. I made more excuses.

Then a wonderful thing happened. Some lovely ladies that I've gotten to know from a forum I'm a member of, we all got together and made a facebook group to inspire and encourage each other. We all have our ups and downs, and we try to pick each other back up. I started to exercise again... sure it wasn't on the regular basis that it should have been, but I was moving. And so was my weight. By December 2011 I was back down to 180. And I knew I could do it.
I bought a Wii Fit in January so that I would be more inspired to do workouts at home. The track record on that thing says it all. I enjoyed the novelty in January and used it a couple times a week. I dropped a few pounds. I even got down to 175 by early February. Then the novelty wore off and the excuses began again. I drifted back up close to 180 again. I look back and see the same # at the beginning of March 2011 and at the beginning of March 2012.

So here I am now... the last couple weeks since I had my doctor appointments and heard some not-great news about my body (I blogged about in another post.. high cholesterol), and I think it was finally the kickstart I needed. I NEED TO DO THIS. I HAVE TO MAKE CHANGES. And I'm actually making them. I'm doing 'runs' on the wii fit, working it in to my busy schedule. And I'm changing how I eat.. which in turn is changing how my kids eat. And that's a GREAT thing.

And I am now, according to the scale last night, at my lowest weight in two years. And it feels great.