Losing The Baby Weight, A New Fitness Contest and Running Updates

Slow and steady, slow and steady…Each Monday I remind myself that even a little bit of progress is still progress. Despite being back into running a lot over the last 3 months or so, my food choices have not exactly been the best. Losing the baby weight wasn’t happening anymore and I definitely hit a plateau. A weight I was not thrilled with seemed to pop up on the scale each day. It was time to start making some changes. Luckily we kicked off a new fitness contest at work as 2017 began. As it turns out, it’s been the exact motivation I needed to keep losing the baby weight.

Losing The Baby Weight – Figuring Out What Works

When I went through the journey of losing the baby weight after Little Man was born, I did it through healthy eating and running. Healthy eating became so addicting that a meal filled with salt it would take me down for days. No matter what I tried after Baby B was born, getting back into the healthy eating habits have been the hardest. Having a cheat meal seemed easier than making salads, cookies for desert became a regular thing and ice cream was always in the freezer.

Kicking off our new fitness contest the first thing I needed to do was cut out back the sugar. Ice cream is my favorite evening snack so I’ve slowly broken that habit. A smashed up banana with a few chocolate chips satisfies the craving. The calories and sugar are not as bad as a bowl of regular ice cream and my sweet tooth was happy.

Being back at work, my biggest struggle was snacking. Packing my lunches with healthier snack options was helping to an extent. Unfortunately healthier snack options aren’t always as filling. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what is best for lunch but that’s part of the healthy eating game.

Last time I was working on losing the baby weight, I had stopped nursing since Little Man was over a year old. This time I’m trying to make sure I’m getting the calories needed to keep feeding Baby B while maintaining the healthier food options. It has been a lot of back and forth but it is slowly starting to work. Remember, that slow and steady thing? Yup, that’s my motto right now.

Keeping Up With Running

With each run I do, I try and push myself a little bit more. Overall, picking up the pace has been my main focus since I started running again. Most of my runs have been around 3-3.5 miles but have included speed work or a variation treadmill speeds. I often tell myself that the faster I can make each mile, the more miles I can do.

Two weeks ago I pushed myself from 3 runs a week to 4 runs during the week with two of the runs being at least 4 miles. Last week we had some alarm clock issues (whoops) but I was able to work on new morning treadmill PRs for my 5ks. This week I’m working on ramping back up the miles.

It’s not always big progress, but progress is progress.

Seeing A Difference

I’m about four weeks “back on track” with eating, running, etc. and I’m finally starting to feel and see a difference. There are days when I can tell when I’ve had way too much salt. In a weird way, that is a feeling I love. I’m down about 8 pounds and have another 15 more to go to be at my ideal weight. It might not seem like a lot, but it’s a start to feeling better and getting a lot more of my energy back.

What are you fitness goals in 2017?