Charlotte will be 2 in June. This means that I have been trying for almost 2 years to shed the 40 pounds I gained in pregnancy. I'm halfway there, but these last 20 pounds are a bitch to lose.
So far I've adjusted my diet toward more whole grain and power types of foods like chia seeds, local honey, fruits and vegetables, and healthy oils like coconut and safflower oil. My kitchen pantry is like a showcase of Trader Joes, New Seasons and Bob's Red Mill. I've also been pretty good about going to yoga once a week. But this is obviously inadequate.
I know this isn't particularly profound but I've been realizing that your body is the physical appearance of what you do to take care of it. Exercise tones and shapes it. Healthy foods make it glow. Stress wears it out. Trans-fats make it flubby. Throw in a late-night visit to McDonalds and more than a few trips to starbucks (why would I want it nonfat and sugar free? I don't want to taste the coffee!), a not-so-recent pregnancy and a lack of regular exercise and you'll get something similar to what I see in the mirror every day. Although I must say that all the coconut oil has made my skin really nice!'
The point is, for as much as I've managed to do, I'm still not back to where I was. So I thought perhaps I should take a walk down memory lane.
Before I got pregnant I was on week 3 of couch to 5k (perhaps I had been working on it for more than a week but who cares?!). I was also going to dragon boat practice for 4 hours a week. I ate salads for lunch most of the time and my portions were under control when I didn't eat salad. This was enough to keep me at about 170 pounds. I'd like to be more like 150 so I'd have to increase my exercise from this level.
This brings me to now. What should I do now? Well, I have been feeling the running itch. It's a love hate relationship though so perhaps walking will suffice or even doing the elliptical 3-4 days a week. I just need to do something. Every day. Yoga is good because I feel like it's really helping me improve my core strength and my posture. I also discovered yesterday that Clackamas County has its own softball league. I'm going to look into it for both Paul and I to try to participate this summer.
The next step is eating. Sure I eat food that appears to be amazingly healthy. It's beautiful really. Trouble is this beautiful food only happens when I'm home - something that's getting to be more and more rare with my insane schedule - and it's so beautiful I just have to eat large amounts of it. At least twice of what a normal portion ought to be of course.
I need to adjust my portion sizes and get back on track with a mostly veggie diet that avoids the drive-thru window. I've been thinking about going on a juice fast or doing smoothies for dinner or something just so I'm limited in portion by virtue of the size of my glass. I feel this idea has potential. I refuse to count points/calories/fat grams etc... so I need to figure out something for my eating that is sustainable.
I think that so far I've made some small steps in the right direction with my good quality food and my yoga, but it's a matter of keeping it up so that I don't suddenly find myself with an empty french fry container in my hand at 11pm wondering where my self control disappeared to and how the 5 pounds I just lost came back!
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