Having fun & Losin' It

One thing that mortifies the heck out of me is being seen in public in a swimsuit.  I'm a big girl and bathing suits and me have never really been friends.

But, there comes a time when you gotta do what you gotta do and just bite the bullet. And that time was last week when I joined some friends from MOPS for the afternoon at an aquatics center nearby.  I'd never taken the kids there before but knew they would have a blast from the way everyone described the place. I was also curious to check it out since that was a job site of Fernando's for a really long time a couple years back. He helped to set the footings and poured the foundation for the aquatics center and it's parking lot and as a carpenter's wife, it's always fun to me to check out places that Fernando has worked to build. :)

Open swim time during summer there at the aquatics center is from 1-3 so we ditched our usual routine (and naptime), and met our friends just in time for pool opening. When we walked in the doors, the girls and I were super excited to see what was basically a play gym in shallow water. It was so cool!

They had so much fun checking it out and going up and down the stairs and down the slides.  Their favorite part was getting to have the water being poured on top of them from that big blue bucket up high that filled up with water and poured out every few minutes!

Because Alivia is still small, I obviously had to get in the pool right there with her.  At first I was able to get away with wearing my swim top and capris, but not too long into it, I got pretty wet with all the splashing around the girls were doing.  Not long after that, Liv started getting antsy seeing her big sisters get to go down the water slide and wanted in on the action too.  She couldn't go alone so guess who had to take her down?  Yep, momma!  I decided to just bite the bullet and hope nobody judged my big ole self in a bathing suit and got up in there with the girls.  

I'm glad I got past my self-consciousness because I ended up having such a fun time!  Liv and Audrey made me take turns holding them down the slide and begged me to go again and again!  I felt like a little kid again and in that moment for a while there, I forgot how embarrassing it was to be in my swim suit.  It was just me and my girls and we were having FUN!

A lot of my summer has revolved around doing things that are for the kids and I've been totally fine with that. But a couple weeks back I had an awakening when I went to put on my jeans and they were super tight!  I decided to step on the scale and was shocked when it read 198 lbs!!! Horrified was actually a better way to describe how I felt. I'd been eating a lot of junk and sweets and had started noticing my face getting more full in pictures but nothing up until that moment had stopped me from continuing down that awful path.

Seeing that ugly number on the scale is what it took, and so the next day (which was two weeks ago Monday), I decided to start eating better and exercising again.  The first three days were a nightmare, with constant headaches and nausea. I was mad and wanted to give up, but I knew I couldn't.  I pulled out my Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds DVD and started exercising again, just like I did last year when I worked hard to lose 20 lbs. (I gained back all but two of those pounds, so I was basically starting all over).

The DVD is broken up into 5 walking miles, so for the first week I did two miles a day.  The second week, I stepped it up to three miles a day and this week, I decided to do three miles a day plus 30 minutes on the elliptical (which I have here at home). This morning, I got a wild hare to do four miles and it felt great!

I've lost count of the number of times I've tried to lose weight and failed, or lost and gained it all back, but this time, I'm really determined for it to be "it."  Fernando has been encouraging me a lot and so have a couple of sweet friends who believe more in me than I do and have encouraged me a lot. :)  It's been a challenge and yes, I'm just at the beginning, but I'm encouraged already, after seeing results from my hard work!  In just the last 2 1/2 weeks, I've dropped 10 lbs!  My goal is to lose 25 lbs by the time I start school, which is next month. I know that's a big goal, but if I keep up the exercise and eat right, I know I can do it.

Will you say a prayer that I will continue to be encouraged to move forward and stay with this healthy new lifestyle?  I hesitated even sharing that I'm trying to start over because I've said these exact words before and then gone back to my old self. I just know that in sharing this, I will have people who know what I'm trying to do and can be there to encourage me and help me stay on track.

10 pounds down, 40 more to go!