I did a thing, y’all. After over a year of struggling with some post-breastfeeding weight gain that had me back at my full-term pregnancy weight, I joined Weight Watchers. I’ve never done any sort of diet plan in my life. I’ve also never really struggled like this with my weight. I’ve gained weight, and I’ve lost weight in years past. But never this much (other than while pregnant, and that was only 20 lbs!) and never with this much trouble getting it off. I’ve also never struggled with time as much either. Time for the gym, time to de-stress, just…time in general.
So, Over the past year and a half, as my life changed with stopping breastfeeding, starting a new job, and therefore a new schedule, getting older – because y’all, it’s no lie that as you get older it’s easier to put on the weight and harder to take it off – I found myself gaining weight faster than I knew how to handle. I went from losing all the baby weight and then double that, to gaining it ALL back, plus a few more pounds. It was devastating. I bought a few new outfits for work, but I simply refused to buy a whole new wardrobe in my “new size”, because I couldn’t accept that this is where I was going to remain. I rotate the same 5 or so outfits at work every week, switching out tops with pants so it’s not EXACTLY the same, and I live in the misery of this new body I have. I hate taking pictures, and when I saw a video J had taken of me and Nat at the beach in early June, it was the last straw. I felt like I’d been living in a delusion. Like, I knew I had gained weight. I knew I wasn’t where I wanted to be. But I didn’t know I looked that bad. I felt like I was looking at a beached whale version of myself in that video. And it absolutely crushed me.
How did I let myself get to this point? I gained almost 25 pounds from November 2017 to now. It may not sound like that much, but it’s closer to 40 lbs from where I had gotten down to in late 2016, after having Nat and losing a ton.
I did WW strictly for a solid month and I lost nearly 10 lbs. It was just the jump start I needed, but counting points is not something that I can realistically maintain. I did learn some great things about food that we sometimes think is healthy, but really isn’t the best option. I’m taking that knowledge forward with me, as well as the plan to start incorporating more exercise into my daily life. Hopefully the combination will help me to lose the rest of the weight by the end of the year.
Aside from that that little adventure that I undertook in July, we have entered the month of birthdays. So many birthdays in August. My Grannie turned 90 this month!! 90!!! I turned 39 this past weekend, my mama’s birthday is tomorrow, and my baby girl turns 3 on Monday! I also have an aunt, niece, cousin, and sister in law with August birthdays. So, like I said…the month of birthdays!
Last year, the weekend of my birthday we went to the beach, and this year we decided to do it again. We didn’t make it to the Texas State Aquarium last year, but by golly we were going to make it this year. Nat loves animals and was super excited about getting to see dolphins. She clapped and waved and danced and squealed all the way through their show.
We had a good ol’ family day. They also have a splash pad there, which she really enjoyed once she finally got out there.
I still remember being 19 like it was yesterday, yet it feels like another lifetime, at the same time. Does that make sense. Like, who was that girl?? Because I’ll tell you what – 20 years between here and there certainly does feel like a lifetime. But I have amazing memories, made amazing friends that I still have to this day, and I had time to find myself and then the partner and life I was meant to have.
Did I get married and have my daughter later in life than I thought I would? Yep. Sure did. But, I wouldn’t change it for the world. It was perfectly timed, even if it isn’t how I thought (at 19) that it should happen.
We ended August birthday month with sweet girl’s 3rd birthday. We had a party at our house, with a Unicorn theme. I’ll be posting pics and more details about that over on the Baby Bites page soon!
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