Unfortunately Baby Furious the Wonder Baby just decided to start officially cruising... as in walking around furniture, etc... she is just over 7 months old.. this is ridiculous... so I may have to start and stop a bit as I monitor her constant hjinks. She has also just realized she can pull our tablecloth off which is potentially disastrous!
So today I stepped on the scale as I do everyday and lo and behold I weigh 118.8! I almost started crying. When I started on this journey I picked 118 as a *lofty* idealistic goal and here I am 7 months later and I did it! I have surpassed my pre-pregnancy weight by 8 pounds.
I put on my size six jeans and no muffin top! They are actually shockingly a little too big! I have not been able to fit in my clothes and I kind of stopped trying them on so as not to feel disappointed every time...so this was a very pleasant surprise. 
And before you all start to hate me I'll through this shot in too.... Let's just say I did not inherent any collagen! Thankfully for all those who will never again wear a bikini there is a new little thing out there called the Tankini... God Bless the person who came up with that one!
So anyway here is the deal having kids pretty much *destroyed* my body. And I know some of you will say "you look great" well that is easy to say when it isn't your body. Somethings in life just aren't fair and this is one of those things. When you don't look like *yourself* it is very hard to have a positive self image. And it is very hard to think you will ever be able to do anything about that. I mean I spent a lot of time between children thinking... well this is as good as I'm ever going to get. And I know a lot of people feel the same way.. and it might not be your stretched out stomachs holding you back, but your thighs, or chin, man boobs... whatever! But I'm here as proof that you can feel better and you can look better. These albatrosses that we carry around are only as big as we let them be. My stomach will never look like it did before children and I could hold on to this fact and beat myself up about it all I want... I can't go back in time and have different parents conceive me and bestow me with more stretchable skin... this is it ..this is life...this is my skin. But for years I didn't really believe I could feel good enough about my body to make a commitment to getting in shape.
Now I've never had a weight problem but sweet jesus I have felt inadequate or badly about myself most of my life. When I gained 42 pounds with my first pregnancy I was shocked, when my stomach got stretched out I was devastated. It took me over a year to lose the weight and then I started training with a pilates instructor twice a week... but I never did cardio. This allowed me to slim down and get pretty strong and I told myself I was in shape... but I also told myself that the fatty deposit in my stomach was due to my skin issue and not a lack of exercise. I completely bought into that. I really believed this was as good as I could get and I would need a tummy tuck to look any better. That was until I started watching The Biggest Loser reruns this summer and saw people lose 100+ pounds and plenty of these people had stretchmarks like mine and when they came out at the finale they had washboard stomachs! Sure they had the little extra skin... but it was just skin. And that changed my whole perception of what was possible. I'm never going to be *perfect* but I can strive for something better and I can actually believe that I am capable of looking and feeling better.... and I do.
So PLEASE stop telling yourself you are too busy or stressed out to get in better shape. Stop telling yourself that there is no point... you'll always have cankles or heavy upper arms... there is a point. The point is you can feel better. You can actually look better too. And no it really isn't that hard to do it.. it is just hard to start doing it. It is hard to believe you will stick to something long enough to see results... it is hard to stop lying to yourself. Believe me you are not busier ...or more stressed out... or living on less sleep than I am. You can do this!
