Mommy got back.

This is my weight loss post. lol

I am just coming off a week long hiatus of sick kids/mommy/daddy so bear with me, I am feeling the need to talk positive thoughts about feeling good and being healthy.

For a long time I've dealt with weight issues, pretty much all my life. I've never been what i would consider heavy, at least not long term. I have had times where I've been overweight, but that's usually following the birth of a baby, which in my mind doesn't count so much as I really don't think not gaining anything in pregnancy is safe. Anyway, I have however managed to put on a little too much weight with some of my babies. They say you should gain between 25-35 lbs , well trust me I have managed to far surpass that with several of my kids lol! I have had some where I only gained 31,..(the least i've ever gained and nearly my biggest baby mind you) and I've had other pregnancies where I packed on a good 50+ lbs.

So, where did that leave me after baby #8? I managed to lose a ton of weight after baby #4, but my last 4 pg's were so close together that while I would start to lose a good portion of it, I never actually reached the point I had after #4. I was well on my way after #7, I was just about 10 lbs over what I am now weight wise, but well, I got pg, the rest if a year of history.

Upon jumping back into the game this time, I knew that I had a long way to go. I gained a ton of weight with this last baby, which is odd because my diet was better than I think any other pg was, anyways, that left me with a good 75lbs' to lose according to the national health standards, I should weigh between 129 and 169lbs. I can tell you, I haven't weighed 129 lbs since...7th grade? lol I'm pretty athletic, and because of that I have always carried a decent amount of muscle. My military days were proof of that as well....I was marching 3-5 miles a day and running 2-4, and I still weighed 165lbs, but wore a size 10 clothes (I could wear hubby's jeans back then ahhhh! lol). I'm never going to be one of those 120lb girls, and it took me a long time to realize that.

My goals. My goal is weight loss is one of several things. First and foremost, it's for health. I have parents (love them they are amazing :) ) that have health issues that I personally do not want for myself. I am already at risk because these things run in my family, so in my mind making sure I don't go down that path is the least I can attempt to do. Second which kind of ties into this as well, I want too feel good well into old age. I plan to live to be 100 anyways (won't I be a blast at 99? lol!) so I figure being able to get up and get fresh air and feeling good physically and emotionally is one of the only ways I will be able to accomplish longetivity , and feeling good at the same time.

Third, I'm not going to lie...I want to look good ;) I like looking good, I love the fact that my hubby likes my body and thinks I'm sexy. I feel more confident, and emotionally I feel better when I don't have excess fat hanging off my body.

With that said...I have always been into exercising. Ever since I learned how to run Army style, I've been hooked. And I have always liked weight lifting, but up until recently I have not really understood the dynamics involved with weight loss. What I don't want, is to lose a bunch of weight and have no muscle to show for it. I like having a sleeky body that has muscle tone, not just *skinny*. The only way to accomplish this is weight lifting. And I'm not talking endless rep's at 10 lbs a piece. I'm talking heart pounding, muscles maxing, throat grunting weight lifting. The tragic part of this is that so many women think this will make you look like a man. Not true...the only way you can look like a man is if you a. take steroids or b. have a serious boy like physique anyway, and most women don't have that. Most women have curves, so a little bit of muscle will look sexy and fit, not man'ish.
The benefit of weight lifting too is that it creates a one person inferno. More muscle= higher fat burn. And hey...who doesn't want that?!?!!

Anyway, the point of this is, i've been on the weight loss/exercise train since Sept. '09, and so far i've seen a 37lb loss. I would say *only* and while that is a significant amount of weight lost, the even bigger difference is the fact that i'm wearing clothes that used to fit me only when I was 15 lbs lighter on the scale. That in and of itself screams volumes to me about the benefits of weight lifting and exercise.

It has not been easy though, I'll tell you. Losing weight for me isn't easy, but mentally when I get focused,...I go for it and I don't stop until I get some kind of result somewhere. I've had things that I've tried that did not work (Acai berry, that was a waste of $40! :P ) and I've had other things that worked wonders...for example a few weeks ago I was having severe body aches after my workouts, and massive fatigue before during and after. After doing some research on bb.com I realized that I needed to supplement, so I've been using Scivation's Xtend (watermelon, yum!) and it is helping me big time. I never realized how old I was getting until this issue, but this has helped me make it through and not feel totally wiped out the next day. it was getting bad enough that I could hardly get out of bed, and didn't want to hit the gym again for 2-3 days...that's not conducive to weight loss.

As of right now i am a little over half way to my goal. Weight wise I'm not really sure that I have a goal because as I said I am at a higher weight now but in smaller clothes because of muscle gains, so the scale is a little skewed in my mind. I'm thinking right now I probably have roughly 15-25 lbs at the most left to lose weight wise (fat weight mind you). I've had to bump up the motivation too because I'm nearing that last 10-20 lbs of fat that takes much longer to get off...so my progress has slowed, albeit not entirely.

If you want to follow my progress, here is the link to my body blog:

http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/babymama7/

I am not on there often, and don't have before and after pics up yet, I'm working up the nerve to post them still lol. I'm hoping to take some current pics soon, I've actually wanted too for a few weeks but it seems every time i plan too (I need Dean's help, it requires both of us...) something happens. I guess I'm busy, no? lol