I don't brag about myself very often. However, I decided that right now, this week I want to brag about me just for a minute (okay lets be honest I can't talk/blog/write for only a minute, just ask my husband!)

Almost 2.5 years ago I topped out at my heaviest weight ever. Granted I was pregnant and as big as a house. I gained somewhere between 55-60 lbs.... yeah you read that correctly. Doctors recommend between 20-30 lbs depending on your starting weight.

I started off the pregnancy not gaining any weight, for weeks and weeks. It wasn't really till the 2nd trimester that I started to gain weight, and once I started I never stopped....

After having Emma I lost 20 lbs pretty quickly, and then nothing for months and months. I don't care what anyone else says, breastfeeding doesn't always help loose the weight. Some of us women loose some and then get stuck till we're done breastfeeding our little ones. While breastfeeding I was STARVING all the time. I'd wake up in the middle of the night with my tummy growling and feeling nauseous because I was soo hungry. There was a while where I took a granola bar or two to bed, one to eat in the middle of the night when I woke up starving, and another for when I woke up to start my day and was soo hungry that I needed to eat something before I got up. I'd eat and eat and eat, but I was hungry all the time.

Once I stopped breastfeeding Emma at about a year, I still continued to eat, not as much, but I'd been eating that way for well over a year (I was always hungry near the end of the pregnancy too). I tried to cut back, and I don't think I did it a good way. I'd skip breakfast, get a headache because I was hungry, so then I'd eat a big snack, and so on. When my blood sugar gets low (aka its time to eat again), I get very cranky very quickly (just ask Brian!).

I tried exercising, but some days it wouldn't happen so I'd loose a pound and then gain it back. I played that game for quite a while. About a year or so ago, I bought two step aerobics dvds. One was cardio, and one was to tone. I did them five days a week for six weeks and lost 10 lbs. I felt amazing, finally I was headed in the right direction. Then life happened and my grandfather died, I was back in New Mexico for a few weeks, but busy packing and getting ready for vacation, and then heading on vacation, and my exercise routine got pushed aside.

Last winter we were in San Diego and Brian and I were watching people run along the harbor and decided we wanted to run the Air Force 5k in September here in Ohio. I started training, realized how terrible slow I was, and again life seemed to get in the way. Mean while the whole time, I thought I was watching what I was eating and being careful not to over eat.

We got here in August, and after getting settled I decided it was time to refocus on loosing the rest of my pregnancy weight. I was tired of not feeling good about myself and I was finding I missed working out regularly, making working out a priority. A friend of mine who was also trying to loose pregnancy weight told me how she had started using a website to count her calories and how she was loosing weight and keeping it off.

So, using this site: http://http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/, I've lost the rest of my pregnancy weight. I've also been trying to exercise regularly. Some weeks this goes better than others, but I've decided that I NEED exercise. It helps me deal with the stresses of raising a two year-old, running a house and supporting my husband while he goes to school for his Masters. It gives me something to do for ME, which is always something Mommy's need to remember.

I feel better about myself, my clothes fit better, though lets me honest they'll never fit the way they did before having a baby, something about carrying an 8lb 12 ounce baby moves ones hips in ways that just can't recover from. I'm going to work to loose a few more pounds because I wasn't really at my 'happy' weight when I got pregnant, and I have some toning I'd like to do. It's great to feel great about myself!