With so many joining MILF's and trying so hard to loose weight and get in shape. I thought it might be nice to understand where we are comming from what brought us to the point of finally committing to being a healthier person. I'll go first.

I used to work out like as in running for an hr. then several hrs. of karate training, then followed by at least an hr.to two of weight training five days a week! Yes, I was very fit and when you see my before pictures your jaw will drop as to what happens when someone stops keeping in shape. I was a bit zelous about keeping fit but even moderate excersize can do numbers. Just don't stop! My baby started kindergarten this week and I have NO more exscuses for keeping this extra 100 lbs! litterally! I'm not pg, not bf and not trying to conceive so all mental and physical reasons are gone except the longer I stay like this the more likely I will be for having physical problems and internal problems as well. Weight it's time to go!

I got off my butt this morning and excersized instead of at night. I remember reading somwhere that if you excersize in the morning you will burn calories all through the day and help with weight loss. Your energizing your muscles. The more muscle you build the more your body will loose weight. Your muscles work round the clock consuming calories and the more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn whether you are working out, sleeping, or watching tv or in our case on the computer! Personally I feel super charged when I work out so night time is making me miss sleep! Sleep is also important as well as healthy eating.

Yes, I have that number in my head that I would love to reach that long ago number I used to be and that long ago size. Oh that would be terrific trust me On a bad day my "fat" jeans were size 8. I weighed 115-125 and it fluctuated depending on my cycle. When I started college and quite working out so much I gradually got further and further away from those numbers. I had all sorts of "start" dates in my head of when I woud get back to it. Little did I know that a simple evening walk would have done wonders instead of that streneous workout I thought was the only way to work out. As time went on I gained more and more and my healthy eating habbits went with it. Eventually when I got pregnant with our oldest dd I threw it all to the wind and decided to eat whatever I wanted whenever because I had a great exscuse and when the baby was born I would work really hard and get ALL the weight off and be a "perfect" mom. Looking back I thought I was "really" overweight, I was a size 12!~ What I wouldn't give to be wearing a size 12 right now that would be a LOT less further to go to be that healthier me.... I wanted to be the mom that wears dockers and those cute little sweaters walking her kids to school with the little loafer shoes. Yep, that's what I immagined as the "perfect" mom. Together mom. Well, a c-section emergency surgery left me with considerable pain and no desire to do a crunch at all. Fast foward another baby and another c-section later. I was bf and decided that I would loose weight after I stopped. Well, I don't know what happened to time but now that baby is in kindergarten and here I am. Heavier than I have ever been in my life including when I was getting ready to deliver that beautiful last baby. I have been in denial for a long time. I am still shocked when I try on clothes at the store and they dont' fit! I cant belive that I am a size gasp 24! Other people lookoverweight to me, but to me , I don't see myself that way. I still see myself as that little person I used to be! I was so shocked when the other day a lady I work with very sweet lady was telling me about a garage sale and told me well you and I are about the same size so I'm sure the clothes would fit you too. Now I took one look at her and thought, ya right! lol I'm NOT as big as you. Well, I climbed up on the step stool in the bathroom when I got home (we dont' have a full length mirror except in my dd closet) and looked in the mirror and almost started crying. WHO on EARTH was I looking at? I couldn't see my face I could only see my body and I was shocked. I was so FAT not in the oh do you think I'm fat??? way I mean I didn't recognize my own body. I was not just a bit "heavy" or plump but I am seriosuly overweight! Even after I loose weight it is seriously going to require some tummy tucks and maybe lipo to even look ok wearing shorts. My skin is going to be baggy I am STRETCHED to the max! No wonder my skin hurts on my legs. They are swollen! Had I really took a good look at myself in the mirror before I might have really realized but I even wonder if I was ready mentally to face that mirror. Would I have just said nah its' not too bad, I'll loose it soon. I realy saw me for who I really truly was or what my body looked like for the first time and I really was scared. I really truly am thankful that I haven't had complications from my weight yet. It's just by grace that I haven't because WOW!

Its' been a roller coaster of emotions and embarrassment, pain, tears, and self confidence problems. Let downs to myself over not doing what I had planned and feeling like I have failed. I wanted a miracle transformation because lets face it all I wanted was to look like something that I DID look like before. Not someone that was in a magazine or anything else. I just wanted ME back!

Now I realize as I have for a while that I am only going to get ME back with a lot of hard work. It's been almost 13 yrs since that cute thin little miss started gaining weight and letting go of exercising. It has been hard but I have accepted the fact that after a week of working out I'm not going to be there, nor after a month, or even a six month time. It will take a while. Changing eating habbits, forming and KEEPING exercise routines and sacraficing sleeping in on my day's "off" because daddy is home to let me when instead I should get up and lace up and go fora walk or jog. Because life is different now there are kids involved. ...speaking of kids. I have a role to fill and I am a ROLE model! I would never let my kids spend time around someone that I didnt' think was healthy to them. Fowl mouthed, etc. But what kind of an example am I setting? Even though outwardly I'm a very wonderful person and excellent example of a good person, I am also outwardly a bad example to my children! I never realized how my weight and eating habbits were life altering to them and horrible examples to them. Their weight or excess will effect them for the rest of their lives. Their eating habbits are being formed now just as their emotions are and dealing with weight issues will effect their emotional state of mind forever. Just as it has effected me for the past 13 yrs. The LEAST I can do in this busy crazy life is provide a sound stage for healthy eating AND living and not just preach it but practice it!

I have always wanted to find an exersize partner. And a few time have walked with someone but they never stuck with it. Then I would fall away. Until I realized that I have to do this for me. Yes, I'm also thinking of my family but I am important too and need to retrace my path and be that healthy, in shape person I was. I may never physically have a work out partner, someone with the stamina or drive or motivation that I have but I am very thankful for all you ladies here. Being accountable is to me being honest. I would never intentionally lie to someone ever and I made a committment to work out and I'm a person of my word. Having to report and keep up every day my committment and not let it "slide" is very hard. because it's physical excersize! That is hard! However because I have to check in every day and stick with my committment to someone else other than my self. I am regaining ground that I had lost years ago and putting one foot in front of the other and working slowly toward the goal of being a healthier me! A healthier mom, wife, daughter, friend, and a good example to my beatiful children whom do stretches and excersizes with me everyday because it looks like fun! lol They encourage me to loose the weight and are so sweet, and they are only 5 & 7! They in their little world know that it is important to be in good health and have told me often that they wanted me to be more healthy so I can feel better. Even their litle baby minds know that obesity is not healthy. I'm so glad that I can put their little minds at ease about mommy. I had no idea they worried about me! I feel realy bad about that! DH is supportive of whatever I want to do and has NEVER said that I need to loose weight. He has never commented he has just love me unconditonally for who I am and not the outside package. I appreciate his unconditional love and support but I think it's time he got his wife back! Without our health we really don't have much and I thought that I was a really well rounded good mom but I had forgetting something really important. I'm not less of a mom but now I feel REALLY well rounded incoorperating excersize and more health into our lives. and BTW I didn't practice what I preached when it came to eating. I was the midnight bandit when I put them in bed! NO MORE!!!!

So thank you everybody and especially Ember who decided it was time to get off our butts! I'm up, I'm off of it and doing fun things outside is actually starting to sound like fun for real not just because the kids want to do it and I want to be a good mom! Lol

That's my story

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~Home is where your heart is~

Thank you for sharing your story. You reminded me that even though we all have different stories, ultimately we are answering to ourselves and have to make the decsion ourselves to change to a healthier lifestyle. Thanks!

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Pain is temporary, quitting is forever....

Thanks! I was hoping that by sharing my story that others that are in a position with the desire to loose weight but lack the motivation or drive will know that they aren't the only ones. It IS difficult but you have to find what works and just stick with it. Don't give up and fight hard for what you know is good for you! Eventually if you keep up excersizing loosing weight WILL happen!

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~Home is where your heart is~

wow. Your story is very inspiring. Thank you for sharing it. Mine isn't quite as inspiring but I thought I would help keep this post going. It's a great idea.

All my life, since birth I think (ha ha), I have been athletic. Always playing sports. Always being the tomboy. Always having an athletic build. NEVER having to worry about weight. NEVER. However, as any normal girl was in highschool I cut myself up quite a bit. Looking back I could just slap myself, but hey....hindsight is a beautiful thing.

I got married and moved overseas ( I was 23 at that time ). We lived in Italy for three years. It was an increidible experience to just be there, but unfortunately I came back stateside to Newport, RI weighing 20 pounds more than I did when we first moved there. I called it my "pasta build up". For many months I would blame my dryer for shrinking my clothes after being washed, or that the manufacturers were making their clothing smaller than they used to. The wake up call for me when I saw myself in pictures. I was disgusted.

The problem that I had never had before was that as an adult, I was not as active as I used to be therefore anything I ate, stuck to me VISIBLY. I wasn't playing sports (aside from slow pitch, which was only once a year) or working out. So after seeing that picture I started working out. And why not? I taught at a preschool at a Y!! I had no excuse. So five days a week I worked out. After a few months I needed something more challenging so I used a personal trainer. She worked with me for a few months. By the time we left Newport I was in the BEST shape of my life. I had a four pack of abs which I had never had before ~ not even as a teen. I was into a size 6. I felt and looked great. (yes I did say that)

Then, as planned, I had my first son. I didn't show for the longest time because my abs were so tight. It was great. I like I was close to six and a half months before I started showing. Then I got HUGE!!!!

I had my son and lost most of my weight, but obviously things were not like they were. Even though some of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit (from Naples, not from Newport!!!), they didn't fit the same way.

My sister asked me to be in her wedding party so again, after seeing myself in pictures and not liking what I saw and having a goal to work for, I stepped up my efforts and got busy. I bought THE FIRM, which I highly reccomend by the way. Becuase my baby was young I would need to pay for a sitter and a gym membership in order to work out. So instead I decided I would just do it from home. The Firm was great that way. By her wedding I was back to how I looked in Newport. One week later, I got pregnant with my second son!

After Ty was born, I was huge. I was completely unhappy with my body. To the point where I was almost discouraged to even try and work out again. There was just too much work ahead of me. I could never see myself getting my body back to where it was ~ EVER. I did try the firm again and some other work out videos but never stuck with it. I really wanted to get to a gym because that is what I am most familiar with and knew if I could just get there I could get this BABY BUILD UP off of me. However, that would require, yet again, getting a sitter or paying for a membership with child care for both kids.

So instead we bought a treadmill in January this year. I used it 5 days a week. If I didn't get on it first thing in the morning, I got on it when the kids had their naps in the afternoon. I was making awesome progress. Our garage turned into my own personal gym. I had the treadmill out there, my pilates ball, my work out videos and free weights. THEN I got a stress fracture, and we had to move so EVERYTHING got put on hold. Until recently......

Thanks to my foot healing, Ember's bootcamp, my boys' preschool, the base gym, and the Y with child care, I have many factors FINALLY WORKING WITH ME to get myself back into a routine. SO far I have been able to use the base gym three days a week and I can use the Y whenever I want. Once the boys are feeling better it will be M-W-F's followed by pool time with them too. To keep me motivated I have a trip home coming up in November. I am hoping by then I will be well on my way to getting back into shape. Then my ultimate goal is to get back into my "Newport" pants by the time we move to OKC in March which is also around the time a bunch of us MS are having a reunion. That gives me six months. If I don't get into them, that's ok...I am at least going to work myself mad until I do.

So that is my story. Full of obstacles....full of challenges....but definitely a will to want to get back to being a more fit me.

C'mon people, we all have a story to tell.....be inspiring!

I admire your effort in between pregnancy's. I was too discouraged to even start! Your doing awesome and your going to be back where you want to be in no time! I had to chuckle. I want to turn our garage into my own gym too! lol I want to start with my treadmill so I can run in climate control! :D

Thanks for sharing, I'm inspired!

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~Home is where your heart is~

Anyone else with a story.......c'mon, don't be shy

Well, my story is kind of similar to Christy's. I am 5'6" and never weighed more than 120 until I got pregnant. I was in good shape - had a trainer and all that - we were young and married and both working and living in fun, young, urban environment where we could walk to a great gym. We went all the time, even on Saturdays! Then along came ds #1 and all of a sudden I was at home all the time with a lot of time and not much motivation. I did lose most of the baby weight (gained 40 lbs.) all except 10 pounds. So I dragged that 10 pounds around for 4 years and didn't really work out that much - I went for walks and did videos every now and then. I was in a size 8 and didn't feel good about my body but felt like it was pretty average and was good enough to get by, especially with flattering clothes. Then I had ds #2 and gained 40 with that one too. Didn't exercise one single minute of that pregnancy or for 9 months afterwards. I lost all but 10 of that weight also. So here I am now, a 140 pound 35 year old woman who feels like I should be 20 pounds lighter. I look in the mirror and I am totally disgusted. I feel like I look old and I don't feel old!

So now I have decided that the baby just turned 1 and the oldest just went to kindergarten last week and there are no more excuses. I am not having any more kids and I am ready to get my life and my old body back. I have been exercising all summer and it is helping although I only lost 5 pounds over the whole entire summer. I am realizing that this is going to take a while. But I am going to keep at it. My goal is 125. I have been finding ways to work out even with summer vacation and crazy schedules. Now I know that a quick 3 mile walk pushing the baby in the jogging stroller is sure better than nothing. I do a little here and there and at the end of the day it is not too shabby. I love Ember's lists of things to do each day because you can literally get down on the floor and do some crunches any old time. I can get that stuff done sporadically during the day while I am playing with the kids. I put the exercise ball in the playroom and everyone has been using it. So that is my story. I am a mom that doesn't like the way my body looks after 2 kids. I realize it could be much worse, but I am no longer willing to settle for it being just average. I can do better.

Thanks for sharing your story too Maggie! Your going to loose it and feel so good in the process!

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~Home is where your heart is~

ok, my story is pretty lame...but I'll tell it anyway.

I had 2 boys and got my figure back inside of 6 months with regular activity, but never dieting or anything. Then I had m baby girl and Katrina hit 2 weeks later. I never recovered from all of the hormonal/emotional issues of that time and am pregnant again with #4.

I decided that if I am going to be a good mom, I better start taking better care of myself. I have worked out their schedules to allow myself an 1 1/2 hours each morning to walk, cool down, shower and get dressed. I figure if I do it everyday for 6 weeks, then I'll award myself with a new double stroller. The one I have now is 8 years old and was a hand-me-down from my SIL. I really appreciated it, but now it is falling apart.

So I figure that in about a month ( October) I'll be shopping for my new stroller because I know that keeping up with this will n ot only help me to regain my figure post baby #4 but will also get me into decent shape for labor and delivery in January. I feel so much better when I exercise daily and know that everyone will benefit form this lifestyle chage I've made.

Like I said, pretty dull, but a huge change for me. I always say I don't have time...and with 3 1/2 kids 4 and under that's not so hard to believe.