I'm baaaack!

I'm back! Sorry for my absence here lately, I've been busy completing my Masters degree in speech-language pathology! I had a wonderful graduation and was reminded this past Sunday how much I love being a mommy and how blessed I am. This post is going to be all over the place, so hold on.

The bad news McFatty Monday officially took a back seat during these last few weeks and I've gained weight. I'm going to start charting my meals and such again and I'm continuing to work out. Working out didn't stop while I was so busy, but I definitely didn't work out as hard.

More bad news is that I'm pretty certain my PCOS and endometriosis are coming back, despite my reproductive endocrinologist's best efforts. I'm going to the doctor this month for bloodwork, and we may have to decide quickly about conceiving again.

Good news! I got a job!!!!!! Yay!! I'm officially Ashley Lastname, MS SLP-CFY!! Woohoo!!!

Have a wonderful week, everybody, I'm tired out from my internship and hospital rounds!

Tracking sucks...but it does work

Ok, so I posed Monday about how I was going to track my food using myfitnesspal.com. Courtney over at TypeBMom is keeping me accountable by asking me how I am doing on my previous post, so here is your answer: pretty darn good. I must say, it sucks when I have to admit that I actually had two servings of chips, but seeing that reflect on my calorie totals sucks. I am finding it hard to eat enough calories once I count in working out, but I know I need to! So overall, I'm doing well. I haven't weighed myself and I probably won't until Monday. All I know is I feel good when I see that I've had a good day on that tracker!

McFatty

Well I'm still not down any weight, and it's for lack of trying. This week was horrendous, and I did not do well. I'm still wearing a size 10, and I haven't exercised since.....Tuesday evening. Wednesday Sarah came down with strep throat and Friday I came down with it. So we've been working on getting well. Over at The Heir to Blair she listed reasons to be healthy and also about using myfitnesspal.com. I also read about it over on Type B Mom so I signed up. I entered in that I had exercised based on the fact that I intended to exercise, but the husband ended up having a meeting tonight and that has derailed my plans since I had the baby instead and it's raining. So no evening walk/jog tonight. I'll get one in tomorrow morning during my break at school. Here's my list of why I'm losing weight:

1. To be a good example to Sarah
2. To fit into a size 6 again
3. To get my self confidence back
4. Because I know my stomach will need plastic surgery (even my OB said so), I need to do the absolute most work I can so that my results are the best they can be once we're done having kids and will have the surgery done.
5. So that I feel like I can wear shorter shorts than bermudas this summer
6. To help my PCOS and Endometriosis from returning

So there are my reasons. They mean a lot to me, although some are deep (children and health) and some are shallow (appearance). I'm hoping that by signing up with my fitness pal that I'll stay on track. Wish me luck!

love,
Ashley

McFatty!!

Well I lost a pound last week, which is good, but was horrible at eating all weekend. It really just seemed like one thing after another happened where for some reason we couldn't eat at home. It was mostly bad time management; it was gorgeous around Missouri last weekend and we spent as much time as possible outside with Sarah. She adores the outside and we had so much fun! We did fit in an almost 3 mile walk/jog with the dog and Sarah outside, which is always good! And, I ran through the sprinkler last evening with her, which must count as something, right?! RIGHT?!

Seriously?! Does it get any cuter than this? I really don't think so!

All in all, this week suffered because of two things: lack of exercise, and lack of water. I need to keep my big water bottle filled up and ready to go so I'll use it. I can feel my throat is sore because of allergies and I know water would help that too. So, not a horrible week but not a great week, either. This week will be warmer weather, as it appears Spring has finally decided to arrive and stay, which should help me too!
Have a good Monday, everyone!

McFatty um....Tuesday? (let's pretend it's Monday)

Hi all! I'm pretending that today's Monday for McFatty Monday, although it's Tuesday. No real update here; I didn't lose weight last week but I didn't gain. I'm not sure I"ll actually lose again until after this semester is over and I graduate in May!! Something about my thesis, a 15 page research paper, a 10ish page research proposal (theoretical, I don't actually have to do this research the proposal is about), a couple of finals and my national certification exam all happening before May 4 have me a touch busy. They also have me eating cookies, like the easter egg sugar cookie from Panera, not that I have any favorites.

I am, however, going to the gym at least 5 days a week and drinking a ton of water. This not only helps my sanity and stress, but helps me not gain, but not lose. I'll try hard this week to watch what I eat in addition to the exercise and water, and we'll see if I can't lose a pound or so!

I'm also happy to note that I now have a new follower! Hello, fellow loser of baby flab! I'm so happy to now have two followers to my little blog! :)

Blessings!
Ash

The little things in life..

In case you can't tell from some of my posts, my daughter is 14 months going on 14 years. She's wildly independent and basically lets me know this on a daily basis. Tonight, however, I got a much-loved reminder that she's still my baby.

She always wants to put herself to sleep (with pink puppy and small dog, of course). Tonight, though, I put her in her crib, she stood up, lifted her arms up, said "mom?" (yes, my baby calls me Mom, not Mama, not Mommy, but Mom. My husband is also Dad) I said, "What, Sarah?" and she picked up her dog and pointed to the glider for me to rock her to sleep. For 30 minutes. 30 glorious minutes she wasn't my independent girl, she wasn't a free spirit, and for a while I even got to forget that her 33 inches of height is overwhelming to my 5'1 frame as she snuggled in close. For 30 minutes, she was just my baby again. And I loved every second.

McFatty monday after vacation!

One of the greatest things about still being a student while all of my other friends have actual jobs is that I get a Spring Break! And my hubs works from home, so he can take one with me! So we went on vacation this week, which is the reason for the lack of posts last week. Before I left on vacation, I weighed 163.4 and this morning, after no exercise last week and eating only semi-well, I weigh 164.2. So I gained less than a pound (but just barely!).

I link up to McFatty Monday over on The Heir to Blair where she is chronicling her baby weight loss, too! Her question today was what motivates me to lose weight. I can tell you absolutely, it's not the number on the scale. I want to look good for myself, not anyone else. I don't need to be a size 2 to look good for me. I just want to be a size 6, what I wore before Sarah. Right now, I'm a size 10ish. Sometimes I can do an 8, but mostly it's a 10. And that size 10 is directly related to my tummy flab. My skin got stretched TO INFINITY AND BEYOND with Sarah and I have the stretch marks to prove it. You know they're bad when you're getting prepped for a C-Section and the nurse comments on them. Yeah, folks, she commented in front of a pregnant woman in pre-term labor. The results were not pretty for her. The results of pregnancy were also not pretty on my body. But I've come a long way, and I have a long way to go. At least 2 pant sizes, to be exact. Because while I'm a 10 maybe 8, I'd like to be a 4-6. I wore a 4 or a 2 (GASP!) when I got married a short 3.5 years ago. So my success isn't weighing 120 pounds. It's wearing a size that I know I feel I look good in. A size 10 is a good start though, and seeing myself go from a 12 to a 10 is definitely motivation!