Gettin' healthy... or die trying

I have a confession to make. I didn't gain very much weight when I was pregnant. In fact when I got home from the hospital after having Brooklyn, I only weighed 2 pounds more than the day I found out I was pregnant. I'm sure you are wanting to swear at me and punch your computer and hate me. But the reason I am finally confessing this is because I totally blew it after the pregnancy! I forgot that my body is weird and that I really pack on LBS during breastfeeding. I know a lot of women lose tons of weight during breastfeeding, but for some reason I just pack on the pounds. On top of that, life was crazy after the pregnancy. Brooklyn had to have surgery, my grandpa died, I was unexpectantly in Utah for a month without a husband, I was famished from breastfeeding and I forgot that nuts have a lot of calories. You see, my parents are health freaks lately. They don't have much junk in the house, so while I was staying with them, I pounded almonds like the end of the world was coming. What I'm saying is, I got chubs.When I was in Utah and Travis would call me to check in, I was always hogging down on something. One time he called me and I actually lied to him after he asked me, "are you eating again!"Anyways, when I came home from Utah, I was not fitting in my jeans, which I fit perfectly into 4 weeks previous (and post-pregnant). I gained about 6-7 pounds in 5 weeks.

Travis also has a confession that I will tell. Research hospital is a great hospital to work for because they provide free food from sun up to sun down. Travis really likes pancakes, and ironically, they make great ones. He likes to pound them every early morning. With that and 4 years of mostly studying and limited exercise unfortunately, his waste line has also expanded through the years.

It was time.

A lot of friends in our neighborhood have confessions as well, but I will leave that for them. Long story short, we decided to do a neighborhood weight loss competition. There were 20 people involved, 5 teams of 4 . We did a month long "lifestyle change." We based it off of the game on diet. I picked this diet because it isn't another one of those fad diets, where you lose 10 pounds a week. Its a diet that focuses on eating all things in moderation (sound familiar)? It helps you with portion sizes, balancing carbs, fats and protein and eating natural foods. It is a competition. You get points for eating 5 meals per day, sleeping 7 hours a night, drinking 3 liters of water, exercising 20 minutes, changing a bad habit, picking a good habit and communicating with your team. We were on teams of 4. This was serious because each person put 20 bucks in the pot. After 4 weeks of doing it, I was fitting back into my jeans, I was feeling great, I was detoxed from my sugar addiction and I was $150 richer! Our team barely squeaked out a W, it really was a close one!

We have been off of the diet for almost two weeks. I have splurged a little, but I feel like I have picked up really great habits. I really don't need to stuff my face as much as I have been, I don't need a dessert every night, I loved doing the habits, my teeth have never been flossed so much in their life! I feel like Travis and I got a lot closer too. We were totally on a mission. It is kind of funny though, because we know its the right way to live, but it is so easy to go back to bad habits, and of course we have slipped a little bit. The part I hated about the diet was that it was so regimented. I felt like I was on a breastfeeding schedule because I had to eat every 4 hours or I would lose points, but not sooner than 2 hours apart. I felt like I was always fighting the clock and trying to figure out when to squeeze my next meal in, etc. It was really fun to do with a group, and I felt like I couldn't cheat because I would let my team down. I do recommend this if you need to lose a few pounds, or even to just get into good eating habits.

Going along with the theme of being healthy, I ran in the Kansas City temple first annual 5K last Saturday. Kansas City is finally getting a temple, and the whole exterior is finished. What better way for us Mormon's to party hardy than by running a race! I haven't ran an actual 5K race in awhile, and I forgot how hard 5K's are. Its such a short distance that you feel like you don't need to pace yourself, so I ran hard throughout the whole race. I seriously about died on the last stretch. I ended up finishing first out of the girls with a time of 21:26. I can't lie, my friend Rachel would have probably beat me, but she had to stop and tie her shoe two times, and I only beat her by about 20 seconds, bad luck Rach! Here are some pics:

Me and my girls

Kim, Rach, Me and Brooklyn. Look how red faced I was

Accepting the awards, the temple is in the background (side note: Avery is pretty much potty trained, but we kind of forgot to ask her if she needed to go potty through the whole race, and she totally pooed her pants on that podium)

The people were nice enough to offer snacks for the runners... oh and their kids?

Sugar crash!

I think she got bored

So that is our little success story. I swear the older you get, the harder it is to keep up these days! My parents are coming in town this week, I hope they leave their evil nuts at home! Sid and I are doing a sprint triathlon. Stay tuned!