Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Happy 1.5 Birthday Bella!

Today my baby is 18 months old. It completely blows my mind that we have reached this milestone as quickly as we did. The day she was born really just seemed like yesterday. I do love this age though. She can get around on her own, she feeds herself, is starting to communicate and potty training is just around the corner. She's no longer my easy baby. She knows how to hold her own with her 2 older sisters and is not afraid to express her feelings. She is crazy about baby dolls and loves to try to do everything Caroline and Summer are doing. Bella can be a little stubborn, but with her adorable little smile, big blue eyes, beautiful olive skin, and bouncing curls she can make just about anyone surrender to her needs. She willingly gives out hugs and kisses, and can be completely comforted as long as she can find the tag of her Baby Suzie and her two middle fingers.

If you recall at the beginning of the year I set myself a goal to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by this milestone. I gained 50 pounds during my pregnancy with Caroline and was able to hit that goal by the time she was 18 months old. Since I only gained 30 pounds with Bella this goal should be a piece of cake. I would love to tell you that I crushed my goal and am only a few pounds from my complete goal weight, but I'm sad to report that I'm not even close.

I have lost 12 pounds from the beginning of the year, but that still leaves me short of my first goal for the year. I am completely disciplined during the weekday. By the time I'm washing the dishes from dinner I've usually only consumed between 900-1000 calories. On top of that I've spent my day chasing 3-4 little girls, and used their nap time for cleaning my house and doing either cardio or circuit training. The problems come in the evening. If I've had a bad day or the kids have pushed me to the point I want to pull my hair out, the first thing I want when I walk down the stairs after they are all snug in their beds is something sweet. The weekends also spell trouble for me. I have an extremely handsome husband that has worked hard to maintain his health. He should absolutely enjoy a treat or two over the weekend, but it does make it hard for me to not want to join him.

So, am I going to admit defeat and go back to being fat and happy for the rest of my life? No, this may take longer than I had hoped but I will get there. I've found a lot of tools to help me along the way. My buddy Angie recently introduced me to 2 websites that can help me keep up with my calories. www.fatsecret.com and www.myfitnesspal.com. Both of these have databases with the calories for almost all the foods you eat and even menus from restaurants so you can keep up with your daily count each day by entering it in on your home computer or even on your phone. I can even scan the barcodes on the packages of food as I am preparing my snack or meal and all the nutritional information is entered in automatically.

To keep up with my workouts I have found www.logyourrun.com and www.nikeplus.com very helpful. Nike + is programmed on my Ipod so all the information is entered as soon as I plug it in to charge each day without me doing anything. I like the Log your run site because I can enter in my elliptical workouts as well as my strength training daily. I'm also a huge fan of the Jillian Michael's books and workouts. She gives you this formula to help you figure out how many calories you should eat each day if you hope to lose weight. 655+(4.35 X the weight you want to be) + (4.7 X your height in inches) - (4.7 x your age). So for me 655 + (4.35 * 120) + (4.7 * 63) - (4.7 * 33) = 1318 daily. This of course is also based on the fact that you will be active and not just laying on the couch dreaming of the foods you wish you were eating.

I'll keep plugging along and let you know if I find anymore tools and tips. I hope I will have better results for you when I hit my next goal date in July. Good luck to those in the same boat. I know it's not easy.