I’m excited to join other mommy bloggers and their readers (and you too, I hope!) for Fitness Friday! Every Friday we’ll post our current stats (weight loss, inches, etc.), failures and/or successes, and goals for the following week. If you have a blog, you’re welcome to join us by posting as well!

Not a blogger? Post your info. in a comment below on this post, so we can encourage you! Our goal in posting is to motivate each other!

Visit here to see this week’s Fitness Friday linky at the bottom of that post. If you’re a blogger, add your own! Remember that bloggers will be adding their links throughout the day, so check back periodically, visit their blog posts, and help encourage them!

Because this is my first week posting for Fitness Friday, I want to give you a little background info. Before I became pregnant with my son, I was about 165 lbs. The photo on the left shows me roughly 2 months before I got pregnant. Sorry, it’s not a great photo, but I’ve never liked having photos taken of me (I like taking photos of other people), so I don’t have many of myself. Being 165 lbs. wasn’t my best weight, but I still fit most of my clothes. My ideal weight is between 150-155 lbs., but only if I have a lot of muscle.

When I became pregnant with my son, I ballooned and gained at least 70 pounds. I always said I wasn’t going to be that pregnant woman, but I was. Within five days of giving birth, I lost about half of it, so obviously a chunk of the weight was baby/water retention. I settled at 195 lbs., and it was slow to come off.

I’ve heard many times that if you exclusively breastfeed, the pounds should melt off. But with me, they weren’t. I started using the MyFitnessPal app on my iPhone and realized that my portions were huge. I was averaging more than 600 calories for breakfast alone! I checked out Kellymom.com for guidelines on losing weight while BFDing. After researching, I started aiming to eat 1500-1800 calories a day (plus exercise). This seems to be working!

My Goal:

I actually have two goals. Initially, I just want to reach my pre-pregnancy weight of 165 lbs. After that, I want to concentrate on my fitness level and end up somewhere around 150 lbs.

Current Stats:

I’m currently 182 lbs. at 5’10” tall. I was excited to find out a couple days ago that I can fit back into one pair of pre-pregnancy jeans. Granted, they are my “fat” jeans, but it’s progress, right? I think I’m probably about a size 16 in misses clothes.

Since I joined a gym a few weeks ago, and since I started using the MyFitnessPal app on my phone, I’ve lost about eight pounds.

Photos:

While my son was napping this morning, I had the chance to shower quick and put some makeup on…didn’t make it to getting my hair fixed, but that’s probably too much to expect to get done all at one time with a needy baby in the house, right? =D My son never naps longer than 30 minutes at a time during the day, and usually it’s 15-20. Please excuse the poor quality of the photos! I snapped them on my iPhone in the bathroom mirror. I hope next time I can get hubby to take some photos of me.

And here we go:

Ugh! I’m so wide! That’s probably what I like the least about my figure right now. Yes, my arms are big with almost no muscle, and my tummy is still flabby. But I’m seeing improvements in those areas. My hip, thighs…really, the entire pelvic region…is just very, very wide. I know that many women experience widening of the hips when they have children, but I’ve always had wide hips. I don’t think it’s gotten worse (I hope not!); I think I’m just fat.

Activities Performed:

We were busy around the home this week, and I was only able to make it to the gym a couple of times. Actually, it may only have been once; I can’t remember! I also went to the park one evening with hubby and Mr. Stinky Pants, and we walked around for about 30 minutes at a good pace. We also climbed a steep hill. That’s not much, but it’s something.

I have to wait until my husband is home from work to watch our son before I can go to the gym, so that makes it a little more difficult to plan. His hours vary. I wouldn’t call this week a total failure when it comes to fitness, but next week I definitely need to do more.

Diet Changes:

As I mentioned above, I’m using the MyFitnessPal app on my phone, and keeping track of my calories is proving very, very effective at losing weight. I’m exclusively nursing my son, so I do have to be careful to reach a certain amount of calories every day in order to keep my milk supply up. This week, I did make a point to avoid junk food and sweets, and eat more veggies. I would say I was successful!

Next Week’s Goals:

Next week I plan on making it to the gym five times, and I also plan on staying for at least 45 minutes each time. I will continue to do a variety of cardio exercises, but also add in more strength training. There are many exercises (like leg lifts and pushups) that I can do in our home, and I need to be more disciplined at doing them regularly during the day. For meals, I’ll continue to track my calories, but add in more veggies, especially for snacks. My weight goal is to break the 180 lb. mark, and get into the 170s!