Screw Baby Steps

No really. If you are anything like me, you spend entirely too much energy focusing on how unhappy you are with yourself and how it just sucks so bad and wish you didn't look and feel like you did. So taking baby steps like workout once this week, or eat more veggies this week, are small potatoes and won't get you the fastest results. Which is what we all want right? So jump in! Lets do this!

Here's a quick start guide that may help you along. Again, I feel the need to put a disclaimer that I am NOT a certified trainer or counselor or anything like that. This is just my advice, take it or leave it. But please don't sue me ;)

So here are some tools to get you started:


1. Invest in a Scale-
Scary times, I know! No one wants to know the number, but you HAVE TO. Don't get hung up on numbers or goal weights or whatever, but you need something to keep track of. And you need accountability. So get a digital scale, and either have a spouse or friend be there to witness your weight (so you can't tell your brain to imediately forget the number), write it down in a log, or get a scale that saves the information. That way you can't lie to yourself, which we get very good at when we are in denial about the size we are. I recommend only weighing yourself weekly on the same day and same time each week. Don't obsess about daily fluctuation, that will make you crazy.


2. Buy a pedometer-
This is the easiest way to motivate yourself to get moving. Wear it ALL the time, not only when you are working out. I mean, only take it off for the shower. Seriously, you will be shocked how 5 more minutes walking with the dog or one lap around the playground adds up. A great workout is 10,000 steps a day, but that is difficult, so don't get hung up on it. Buy one that is flat enough to wear on your waistband under clothes, has a miles counter as well as calorie counter. Target has some great ones!

3. Think about how you eat and change it-
I'm working on a chart that you can download that will serve as a menu template. But to sum up what that will include is a good range for daily calorie consumption while losing weight is 1250-1500 cals a day. You also need to consider how to fit veggies, fruits, dairy and two snacks a day in there. So food journals are great, but since I'm a visual person, it's easier for me to see it broken down for me. Then you can hang a new one on your fridge each week and fill it out as you go! It is important to keep track or you will not remember what you're eating. I'll have it done soon, promise! :)

4. (Optional but helpful) Buy simple exercise equipment-
*Big Exercise Ball
*Set of Resistance Bands
*Set of 5lb weights
*Yoga mat

5. I forgot! Get a good water bottle. Something you will carry with you to the park or wherever. Mine has a straw and a water filter in it so I can refill it whenever.

Step away from the sweatpants, and no one gets hurt.

First of all, welcome all one of you (Hi Mom)! So, I'm Courtney, I have 2 kidlets (Jackson is 3, Eliza is 1) and I have been married to my husband Kurt for 5 years now. This may be one of eleventybillion blogs about moms and fitness out there, but let me break it down to you why I'm doing this.

I'm a stay-at-home mom who gained a ginormous 50+ lbs in my first pregnancy, hated myself for 2 years while losing about 30 of it, got pregnant again, stayed super healthy to a point of never giving into cravings and exercising all the time... still gained 43 lbs. That felt like the ultimate failure to me. Here I am trying to stay healthy, doing everything right and I still gained a lot on a frame I wasn't happy with in the first place. Neither one of my children took to nursing, and I wanted to punch every person in the face that said "You should really breastfeed. It burns like 500 cals a day". People can make light of "baby weight" saying you'll lose it eventually, but at a certain point you find yourself with kids who are far from newborns and you still have the weight. This can seriously screw with your psyche, adding guilt about even thinking about yourself because we think we should focus all our energy on these new tiny people. Add sleep deprivation, stress of a completely different life, blah blah, we've all been there.

And there I was, not knowing what to do, or where to start. I always thought I was a fairly healthy eater and went to the gym semi-regularly before kids. But I had never been in a size 16 body, and I felt like it wasn't really mine. I didn't want to look in the mirrors, avoiding them except for the 5-10 mins I would take on my makeup and hair a day. I stopped taking any time on myself, even if I did have a spare few minutes during overlapping naps. I lived in my 2 to 3 pairs of sweatpants and baggy shirts, not wanting to buy clothes unless there was an occasion I HAD to attend that did not include cotton lounge wear. We're talking someone had to die or get married occasion. Every time I thought about all this, I'd be racked with guilt for feeling sorry for myself when I was "suppose" to be worrying about my children and their lives. So stuck in this vicious cycle, dangerously close to some serious depression, I had to do SOMETHING.

So I did. And that is what I will be writing about for the most part. I went from a size 16 at my heaviest, to a 8 where I am now. I've lost probably 55 lbs total in this yo-yo coaster so far. It's still a journey for me, but I wanted to write it down for myself and hopefully for others to be inspired. I will tell you my own stories, share exercises that work into the mom at home lifestyle, give menu ideas and recipes I've found or created, but most of all hope to get you all involved. In this day and age, there seems to be no community foundation for encouragement and support. Everyone keeps to themselves and gone are the days of the neighborhood mentality. Sometimes it takes a village, and if you can't physically have that, I hope to facilitate that here. So I hope you come back and I look forward to chatting! I have to warn you though... I'm a smartass and have a little bit of a mouth, so I should just apologize ahead of time ;).

Before (MY EYES! OH GOD MY EYES!)


After (In Progress)