*I always think of my friend Viv who, when interviewing a potential nanny, asked the person to, “tell me a little about yourself” and her response was “where should I start….like when I was born?”

I won’t start quite that far back. Also, if you’re particularly sensitive (no, I don’t hate fat people) or don’t want to hear my opinions on health/fitness/size/food etc. You might as well tune out now.

All through high school I was a nice 110-115 lbs. I remember in college my roommate Melissa and I had gone to the gym and we ‘dared’ to step on the big scale there. Me? 120. I had reached one hundred and TWENTY pounds. I couldn’t believe it. I guess you can’t have french fries and chicken cosmo sandwiches at the dining hall and not gain weight. I also had no idea that going to Late Night Libby (fellow Buff’s know what Im talking about) and getting bagels or frozen mini pizzas or (gross) burritos for midnight snacks was also not a wise choice.

I obviously didn’t expect to weigh 115 pounds into my 20’s but I continued to slowly go up to my absolute max when Nathan was born: 190lbs. Many of you probably know I also had gestational diabetes with Nathan. Not surprising when I weighed ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY pounds. When we lived in Colorado and was working full time I loathed working out. We lived in an apartment complex that had a nice workout facility, pool and a “lake” (man made pond) to run around. I thought I could go “phone it in” for 15-20 minutes on the elliptical machine lift a few weights and call it a day. I can’t imagine why I never lost any weight.

When we moved into our house we lost the workout room so I joined the YMCA in Boulder, figuring it would make the sense to go workout after work and then go home. I dragged myself there a few times a week, put in my 20 minutes and went home. After working all day long the last thing I cared about doing was going to workout. I would get up at 6, be to work by 7, work all day dealing with people that “didn’t understand HOW I HAVE NO MONEY, it says right HERE in my checkbook I do,” (yes, I really did have people- many in fact, that assured me that their ‘rough math’ in their check register was correct. The bank was incorrect but they couldn’t pinpoint our error) all I wanted to do is go home, make dinner and watch TV. And for the most part, I did.

When PC joined the Marine Corps and I quit my job I made a serious effort to get into better shape. I started going to the gym in Quantico and doing classes 3-4 days a week. I enjoyed it and did it well into my pregnant days. Once I was diagnosed with diabetes I was really diligent about walking every morning. I wasn’t on insulin so I had to keep my blood sugar in check with diet and exercise.

Lets just talk about diabetes for a minute- its not fun. You don’t want to get this/have this/develop this. I wasn’t sure how I would survive the last 12 weeks of pregnancy on what I thought was a very restrictive diet. I mean pregnancy was supposed to be your one-time excuse to eat what you wanted….not hot dogs with no buns. It wasn’t fun poking my finger 4+ times a day- after a couple days all your fingers all have scabs on them and you’re repoking the ones that haven’t been healed. Your skin starts to get tougher so you have to set the needle higher so it pricks harder. I knew I didn’t want to live like that for the rest of my life. I knew I’d never take my insulin for granted again. Because I became so well versed in the diet plan it definitely spilled over into how we eat today. Turns out the ‘diabetic diet’ is pretty much how we should be eating, all of us.

Once Nathan was born I gave myself 6 months to be back to my pre-pregnancy size. I did it in 5. Here is my plug for breastfeeding, I love the breastfeeding weight loss plan. I mean-its so great I think they should find a way to induce lactation and people can just pump and pour calories all they want. Breastfeeding lowers your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, it also protects the baby from both type 1 and type 2 diabetes as well as no fewer than a bajillion other things. Don’t worry- Im not a card carrying LLL member or anything, but Im a firm believer in the benefits of the boob.

Once we got to Japan I got a POS jogging stroller and started walking a little more regularly. My friend and neighbor Stephanie convinced me (dragged me? hehe) to do a 5k with her one weekend. It pretty much sucked to just go run a 5k without having been running at all. And Stephanie could just run the whole thing! And she had a cool stroller! And she looked fantastic! So, I decided I should start running and once a month do the 5k’s on base as my measure for improvement. I kept running, eventually upgraded to a better stroller (when the handlebar snapped off mine while running, it made for a good reason to get a new one) and then got pregnant again. I distinctly remember the last time I went running; it was a Saturday morning, PC was deployed and we were coming back from Dunkin Donuts when Nathan puked in the stroller. A few days later I caught it. I had a dr. appt the next day and had started to loose weight at which point I was told no more vigorous exercise.

After Mackenzie was born I lost the baby weight in about 4 months. Granted, I had gained a lot less. Since having her I’ve been running some but mostly, as I think we are all well aware, I do the 30 day Shred with Jillian. That brings us to the present.

*****
to be cont.

Filed under: This Is My Life