Baby Steps go like this....

My youngest is at that stage where she is starting to scale furniture.  I sat the other day and realized something as she attempted to walk along the couch towards me.  First she took a hestitate step forward, but before her foot hit the ground she pulled it back and put it back down.  Then she tried again, a smile on her face as she pressed that tiny little foot onto the floor infront of her.  Then she gave up, or so I thought as she lowered herself to the ground, plop on her little butt.  She hadn't given up though, she had figured it was easier to go with what she knew as she crawled the remaining foot to where I sat, and used the couch to stand up again.  Reaching for me she smiled at her accomplishment.
It doesn't matter how you reach the goal as long as you feel good about yourself when you reach it.  Baby steps are not taking one step in front of the other slowly, but rather taking one step forward, one step back and then finding another route to reach your goal.  Up until then I thought, "what am I doing wrong", I was taking baby steps, changing little things in my diet, running occasionally and always lifting weights (weights being my 16 pound daughter and my 30 pound son).  My children keep me pretty active but not to the point of breaking a sweat like 30 minutes on a treadmill.  Who has time for a treadmill though.

With that little butt flop though my dear daughter opened my eyes to the fact that even though the holidays are coming up, and my goal still looms like an unreachable quarry, I can do it.  A few days ago, stepping on the scale for the first time in months I was shocked that it read...149.8!  The number made me both happy and sad.  Happy because the small changes I have been making are working, sad because I know it could be better.  I have sabtoged myself on numerous occasions. Food, good food, is a weakness and I fight not to go for seconds when seconds are available.  I also fight to resist eating a big bowl of cereal at 9pm, fight to leave the snacks I buy for my sons lunches alone, fight to regain motivation to get out and do anything. 
Here's to the holiday's and the challenges they bring.

Weight Loss Magic

Though it's been 10 months since I posted last, I wish this were a post about my amazing ability to lose all the weight I set out to lose before I got pregnant the first and second time.  Sadly no, this is a post on my amazing Photoshop abilities.  You see a picture can speak a thousand words and I thought maybe I could motivate myself to actually use the Wii exercise programs I insisted DH buy bought.  So here's my before (a few months prior to finding out some of that pooch was because I was pregnant) and my dream "after" courtesy of the magic of photoshop.  Pretty good right?  Now to make that a reality.

 After & Before

So as of today my weight sits at 156.7.  Not my lowest in the last month...that was 153.4...but still below 160.  With my yo-yo weight I've kept a steady goal of staying below my first goal weight.  Needless say I  have lots of work still ahead of me, including but not limited to the weight loss are to get motivated, stay motivated, and motivate others.  Why the last one?  Frankly speaking, I do better myself when I see people inspired by what I am doing for myself.  I get lazy though once I start peaking, maybe it's boredom, but I have to find that motivating factor and that dream number of 132 is just not enough.

Maybe it's being a role-model of eating right and good fitness for these two: