Mini-Me Friday #1

Yes, it's back. Well, I'm back. Hmmm - well, my efforts to slim down a bit and get healthy are back.

I gave myself the 6 weeks after the baby to let my body heal without getting too crazy, and lucky for me - the very next week my First Place group started up again! (It's basically like weight watchers, but is a christian group - so therefore, not much like weight watchers at all, I guess. Well, hopefully you get the point.)

So, last week was our first meeting. Let me tell you, for some reason - it's more motivating to me to eat well when I know that someone is going to be reading about everything I put into my mouth. Why it's not just as motivating to me that MY body is going to look/feel better instead of that someone else is holding me accountable, I will never know - but that's the way it is for me. At least at this point, anyway.

Week #1 - I've done pretty well. I set my goal at 20 pounds for the 13 weeks of this session. I figure that is attainable and not too crazy. Oh - and before any of you get all over me about not dieting and breastfeeding, I'd like you to know that not only did I add 400 extra calories onto my plan for breastfeeding, but that I sought and received my doctor's approval before I began, so there ya go. Besides, really all I've changed is the quality of what I'm eating -- not really even the quantity too much.

We had our meeting last night and I lost 2 pounds this week, so I feel like I'm off to a good start. Yesterday was the first day that I was able to work out. I'm okay with that because I did get a major handle on changing my eating habits this week, and I had a pretty stressful week with MUCH less kid-free or reduced-number-of-kids time than I anticipated having. It's hard to exercise with all 3 of them around. I think I'll put my exercise log in the sidebar again, that helped me stay on track last time.

Georgia got sick last week and then this week, we had a strange deal with hand, foot & mouth disease. You'd think that Miss G would get it, but it was actually Mitchell who showed up with it. Luckily, he only had sores in his mouth and not on his hands or feet, but they were pretty painful. They are almost gone, thank goodness. For 3 days he was talking like he had just been to the dentist for a filling and we had a pretty limited range of foods that he could eat without pain. We've been really, really trying to keep it away from Miss G and Mr. Magoo -- hopefully they will be able to escape it. So far, so good.

ANYWAY - having him home from school, keeping him away from the baby, keeping the other two from fighting, etc. - a good challenge for me in the ol' emotional eating department. Oh, and did I mention that Miss G is giving up her nap? Yeahhhhhh...sigh...sad, but true.

I started really paying attention to myself with regards to eating because I try to write down what I eat the minute I eat it, otherwise I'll forget. I noticed that whenever I would be talking on the phone to someone about what was up with us these days or right after the kids were stressing me out with fighting, I'd end up standing in front of an open refrigerator looking for something to munch on. The good thing is that I had really set myself up for success. I made a menu and planned our meals -- side dishes and everything -- for two weeks before I went to the grocery store so the only groceries I bought were things for our lunches and dinners and healthy snacks. Let's just say that I have eaten a lot of cucumbers and celery with roasted red pepper hummus this week...which feels like a good change from goldfish, chips/salsa, or some ice cream.
(By the way, two tablespoons of hummus is actually quite a bit!)

So, there you go. Emotional eating in the wake of the first week of mops (and all of that yummy food!), a 5 year old hand, foot and mouth victim, a semi-nappy two year old, a boob-loving newborn, a hubby with a stressful, very important week at work, a dinner date and concert, and a women's conference -- that was week #1. I feel BLESSED to have come out 2 pounds lighter at the end of all of that, now that I read it that way.

I think I'll end each mini-me update with the memory verse that I learned each week, since for me - the beauty of my First Place experience is that weight loss is pretty much a bonus. It's what it does for the WHOLE me, not just the chubby parts that I love. This first week I got to pick my own verse, and it sort of sets me in the right frame of mind. I am His, this body is His.

Romans 6:13 (NLT) "Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God."