Fitness Friday: 6/28/13

Well, this is my first time writing a Fitness Friday post since March 1. It’s not that I haven’t been working at it, I just haven’t felt like posting until I made more progress. I guess I was tired of posting the same old, same old every week. I’m not sure if the original group of Fitness Friday bloggers I started working with last year are even still doing these posts or not. One of them is pregnant, I believe, so she’s probably not too concerned about weight loss!

I’m 5’10” tall. When I became serious about losing the weight I gained while pregnant, I joined another group of bloggers for Fitness Friday. I wrote my very first Fitness Friday post on Sep. 14, 2012, and I was 182lbs. If you know me in person or you’ve been watching the MyFitnessPal ticker at the side of my blog, then you know I have been losing weight.

On March 1 -the date of my last Fitness Friday post- I weighed in at 173lbs. Yesterday, June 27, I weighed in at 156lbs. It took me months to get down into the 160s, but once I did, the weight’s been coming off quickly. Oh, especially now that Baby J has weaned…I’ve dropped several pounds just this last week! You know that story moms say about your body holding onto the last 10lbs. if you’re nursing? Well, it was true for me!

This will probably be my last Fitness Friday post regarding weight loss. My first goal was to reach 165lbs., which I’ve surpassed. My ultimate goal is to reach a FIT and TONED 150lbs. I’m still working on that. :/ I would like to start a “Body after Baby” series and have moms who have celebrated fitness goals to guest post, but we’ll see if that happens or not!

Since this is the last post, obviously I need to show pictures! I’m posting before and after photos, and I’m wearing the same shirt. I wanted to wear the same jeans too, but I couldn’t figure out which jeans I was wearing in my before photos. I think they’re maternity jeans, but I went through my stack and couldn’t find any with that stitching on the back pockets. Oh well.

So here goes:

Before and After- Front Shot
Before and After: Front Shot
Before and After: Side Shot
Before and After: Side Shot

I have mixed feelings about my successes. Part of me is very happy. I can fit into most of my pre-pregnancy clothes. When I look at the pictures of myself a year ago, I can barely believe how big I was. At the time, I thought I was “heavy” and “curvy.” I didn’t realize how big I actually looked. After all, it took me nine months to put the weight on, so I was used to looking in the mirror and seeing myself heavy like that. I feel awkward saying the “F” word, but I was fat. There’s no way around it. Now I wonder if one of the reasons why my husband acted so weird when he first came home from deployment wasn’t just culture shock, etc., but was because he was shocked at how big I was (it was 2 weeks before our son was born). I look at my face in the “before” photos, and I realize how unattractive I was. Well, it’s all in the past, and I’m not going to let it happen again! And here’s where I’m not satisfied: I’m not fit enough. It’s not about being skinny. I don’t want to look like a model. I have no desire to be emaciated looking. I want to be toned. I want to have muscles. I want to be healthy. But it takes time and a lot of effort. And that’s the one area I really need to improve: EFFORT. I’m lazy when it comes to exercise. I don’t want to run. I don’t want to do squats or push ups. But if I don’t, I’m never going to be as fit as I want to be.

What are your fitness goals? How will you reach them?
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Review: Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips

As a member of the BzzAgent community, I received several free bags of Green Giant’s new Veggie Snack Chips.

They’re tasty! I’m a salty snack person, so I loved these. There are two kinds available: Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips with Zesty Cheddar and Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips with Sea Salt. My tastebuds preferred the tortilla chips; however, my health-conscious brain prefers the sweet potato chips because they’re not as salty. The sweet potato chips only have 80 milligrams of sodium! That’s 3 percent of my daily value.

After my family and friends finished off our free bags, I bought several more. I have to admit, they are “dangerous” for me to keep around. Basically, the last bag of Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips with Zesty Cheddar that I bought…yeah, I ate that in one sitting! They’ve become my personal go-to snack, and Hubby likes them too. Baby J still can’t eat chips very well, so I don’t know about him. Well, he likes to eat chips, but he usually ends up choking a bit, so…

Green Giant Snack Chips

Keep an eye out for these yummy chips in your grocery store snack aisle. You can also check out Green Giant on Facebook and Twitter. I’m loving some of the recipes they’ve posted!

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Setting a world record: The Great Cloth Diaper Change 2013

About a year ago, I spied photos of a Facebook friend attending The Great Cloth Diaper Change at a U.S. base in Germany. What in the world is this? I thought. A Guinness Book World Record about diaper changing? What?!

At the time I still hadn’t decided if I was going to cloth diaper my son full-time or not. I’d purchased a couple cloth diapers for him, but I was still pregnant and had no idea what life with a newborn was going to be like. When my husband figured out how much we were spending a week on disposables, that pushed him toward cloth, and by 2-months old, Baby J was cloth diapered full time. Remembering the photos I saw of the Change, I couldn’t wait to attend myself and hopefully help set a new record!

Although it hasn’t been officially confirmed by Guinness yet, as of April 26, 2013, the Real Diaper Association believes we have set a NEW record of 8,331 babies being changed! More than 10,000 babies were actually changed as part of the event, but not all locations qualified, due to strict Guinness regulations. Last year, 8,251 babies were changed; and in 2011 the record was 5,026. It’s exciting to see a yearly increase!

Here are some photos from The Great Cloth Diaper Change April 20, 2013. I attended at the Virginia Beach Diaper Junction location, and 95 babies were changed!

(My bangs are so 1992 in these photos; it’s embarrassing. Don’t judge!)

The Great Cloth Diaper Change 2013 Collage

 Did you attend The Great Cloth Diaper Change this year?

 

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