Okie dokie… so I’m probably not going to get around to posting weekly belly shots for these weight loss posts, but I will make an effort to post milestone pics (like when I hit my pre-preg weight, my 30th birthday, etc.).

As a reminder – I started my pregnancy with Stella weighing 161# and gained around 25#. I am happy and stunned to report that I’m down to 164# this morning, so in two weeks I’ve effectively lost 22# of the 25# I gained! (that’s a 2# loss in the past week)

It’s interesting to me that I was sure I’d be one of those people that gained way too much and had tons of issues losing the baby weight (gaining weight has never been hard for me to do :P), but eating sensibly and moving my body really paid off. Sure, when the morning sickness was at its worst from 6w-13w, I ate whatever the hell I could keep down, but overall, I made smart choices, and now that I’m on the other side and wanting to take the weight off, every good choice I made is sure paying off!

My goals last week were to drink tons of water, eat healthy foods in sensible portions, and walk to the post office three times.

Well, I drank a ton of water (though probably still not enough), I ate pretty sensibly (so nice to have Mom in town still cooking for us!), and I did not walk to the post office once. LOL

Honestly, I still need to figure out if Stella’s car seat will fit with the adapter on our stroller. I guess I need to kick that up the priority list. 🙂 I did do quite a bit of walking this week though while running errands – probably too much, honestly – so I’m not too worried about the moving part of the equation yet. I can definitely tell whenever I push my body too much at this point (super sore, even more tired, increased blood loss), and there is a fine line at this point of how much I can even do. My priorities for now need to be giving my body time to heal and to take naps whenever possible.

I know this may or may not be possible since I’m not allowed to exercise before then, but it’s about 4 weeks away, and the past couple of weeks have made me optimistic that I can do this. For sure I don’t want to gain weight before then, but it’d be great if I could start my 30s with a new workout plan and clean slate to start working on getting down to my goal weight.

Speaking of my goal weight… way back when I hit my high of 172#, my goal was to lose 30# and get down to 142#, and I think I’ll keep that as my goal. That means I have 22# to lose as of this morning

Remember – I’m 5’8″ tall. I know you really should take into account body frame, bone mass, etc, but just by using the standard BMI calculator, at 164#, my BMI is 24.9. (“Normal” weight for my height is 122-164#). That means this should be the high end of what I ever weigh, which makes sense to me, because this is about the high that I ever feel comfortable in my clothes at.

At 142#, my BMI would be 21.6 (18.5-24.9 is normal), so I think that is the perfect mid-range goal. I want to lose the weight by June 1st, just in time for summer…and the rest of my life. 🙂 That gives me 23 weeks to lose 22#, which would reflect a nice, solid, steady lifestyle change that I’ve stuck with.

As one final note, quite a few of you emailed me or wrote comments on last week’s post asking if I’d mind if you joined in on the Weekly Wednesday Weigh-Ins. Go for it! The more the merrier. 🙂 Writing it all out here helps to keep me accountable, and if I know there are others of you out there doing the same thing, all the better. We can do this! Feel free to grab the icon and add it to your posts as well.