Just over halfway

There are many reasons why I wouldn't recommend having your children 16 months apart. One is that it leaves you precious little time to lose babyweight before you tack on some more. When we got pregnant with Griffin I still had 15lbs to go before I was back to my "normal" weight, in part because I really gained too much when pregnant with Penelope. You're not really eating for 2, you're eating for 1.2. You actually don't need that many more calories a day when pregnant but I ate everything that wasn't nailed down and gained almost 40lbs w/ Poe.

Most of what I ate was healthy, but you can still pack on the pounds eating healthy foods if you eat too much.

I didn't gain as much with Griffin, closer to 30lbs, but when all was said and done I was about 43lbs overweight after G was born. For me, nursing did not help me lose baby weight (although it does for some) so I carried around and extra 40-ish lbs for 9 month after G's birth.

Around New Years I started losing weight. It was mostly unintentional at first, my goal was to eat better and cut down on soda not necessarily to lose a bunch of weight. I figured that weight loss would equal milk production drop (and I was partially right, I lost some milk production but not all) and so I wasn't quite ready to sacrifice nursing in order to move out of my "fat" jeans.

But once I started to lose a little it motivated me to lose more. I just feel better (physically and emotionally) when I'm not overweight.

It's been slow going. I don't have a ton of time to exercise, I don't belong to a gym, and I have this horrible habit of eating what the kids don't finish... BUT I've finally gotten to a pretty big milestone in my weight loss journey. I am officially halfway to my goal weight.

So I have lost 22 lbs.

I would really like to lose another 20 or so by the time my 30th birthday rolls around in September. My original goal was to lose another 25, but while I think I can do it, I don't think I can maintain that weight. I don't need to be a size 6 again - I'm almost 30 and have two kids (plus my Grand Canyon-like hips) but I think I can maintain a size 8/10. And really, it's not about being super skinny, it's about being healthy and setting a good example for my kids... which means not killing myself with diet/exercise while still being active and eating right.

So there. 22lbs. Go me! :)