Losing the Pregnancy Weight…Twice!

One of my goals with marathon training and changing my eating habits was to get back into my pre pre-pregnancy clothes. You’ve had a glimpse inside my closet before :), and by now you know that I love clothes. Getting back to my size was so important; there’s no way I could afford another closet in a different size!

With my daughter, I went from starting the pregnancy at 135ish (my goal weight) to weighing 180 when it was time for her arrival April ’12. Post pregnancy, I waited the full 6 weeks before starting any exercise. I began with hot yoga and loved it! I thought it was the best transition into beginning to do other exercises. I began casually running soon after and then decided to register for RnR Arizona 2013.

When my daughter was 7 months, I was around 15lbs away from my pregnancy weight when we discovered we were pregnant again. I was happy I had lost enough weight to have a starting point that wouldn’t make it impossible to lose once I was done with this second pregnancy. I continued to run throughout the second pregnancy and ran a 5k when I was 8ish weeks and then RnR AZ ’13 when I was around 15 weeks.

When it was time for my son to arrive that July, again, I reached 180lbs. I thought this was great though considering I had an extra 15lbs at the start.

Left: 40 weeks with my daughter Right: 39 weeks with my son

Left: 40 weeks w/ my daughter; Right: 39 weeks w/ my son

And finally, six months later and after 2+ years of not wearing my “normal” clothes, I’m finally back to my pre pre pregnancy size!

Left: 3 days post partum with my son; Right: about 2 weeks ago

Left: 3 days postpartum w/ my son; Right: about 2 weeks ago

I know that deciding to have goals to work towards, RnR AZ 2014 and of course my first marathon, is the reason I was able to get back to my size so quickly (for me, 6 months is quick!). And I didn’t make extremely drastic changes either; I still indulge–In n Out is my replacement for McDonald’s–but I’ve just become better at limiting my indulgences. This biggest change I’d have to say, have been curbing my fast food intake and decreasing my soda intake. Just those two alone have made a huge difference. Of course training for Phoenix marathon has made me workout like a machine, so with changing my eating habits and exercising, I’m finally here, finally out of maternity clothes and stretchy pants lol!

It takes a lot of discipline. Anyone training for a race knows that it does. But, having small goals and big goals have been my motivation and fitting into my clothes was one of those goals. Dusting off a pair of jeans I haven’t worn in years (yes, there was dust on them!) and finally being able to put them on was pure joy!

–Have you ever worked towards losing weight?
–Does setting goals help you lose weight? (It definitely did for me!)
–What is your biggest struggle with losing weight? (Easily fast food 😦 )

Marathon Training Recap Weeks 10 & 11

So it looks like with all of the craziness of RnRAZ, I missed Week 10 Recap. In a nutshell:

Week 10
Sunday, 1/12–Cross Training Day, 12 miles on the bike

Monday, 1/13–Rest Day

Tuesday, 1/14–Tempo 5 miler

Wednesday, 1/15–Typically, this is my speed day but my husband had to work late. I did 4 miles when he got home at a faster pace than usual for this distance. 8:30/mile pace. It was hard!

Thursday, 1/6–Cross Training Day, 10 miles on the bike

Friday, 1/17–Rest Day

Saturday, 1/18–Warm up 2 miler for #megsmiles

Week 11

Sunday, 1/19–RnR Arizona 1/2 Marathon!! Read all about it here 🙂

Monday, 1/20–Rest day. My husband went out of town this day for the rest of the week so I knew I wouldn’t be able to run. It worked out because I was forced to let myself recover from the half. I needed it. I knew that if he was here, I would have been back out running and not giving myself the rest I needed.

Tuesday-Thursday, 1/21-23–I did several Blogilates videos at home when the kids were in bed.

Friday, 1/24–Husband came home!! I immediately handed the kids over and went for a 2 mile run. When I got back, my daughter was saying, “Out!” So, I put her in the jogger and went for a 1 mile jog with her for a total of 3 miles. Boy, it felt good to be back out there.

Saturday, 1/25–18 MILES!!! I was worried about this long run all week. It was on my training plan, but I was concerned that since I hadn’t run all week (since the 1/2 on Sunday) I wouldn’t be able to make the full 18 miles or that I would really struggle. Luckily, a girl in my run club also had an 18 miler in her plan so we made a date to run together. It made the run sooo much easier and even though our times weren’t the best, we had a blast chatting it up and enjoying our beautiful Arizona weather.

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I hope everyone had a great week!!

–How was your running week?

–Did you have a Saturday long run?

–Do you like running with a buddy or are you a solo runner? (I typically run by myself but this long run needed a partner 🙂 )

RnR AZ–Fave Photo

This was the picture I was telling you about in yesterday’s race recap! I love it and shelled out the money to have it forever 🙂

yay!

yay!

 

You can’t really tell that about 5 seconds before this picture was taken I was about to melt into the concrete. I have no idea how I mustered the energy to attempt a smile! Regardless, this one is a def keeper ❤

Have you ever bought a race photo? I usually look like a hot mess during and after lol!