weight Archives - Nesting Story

The Calm After The Storm

The waves have stopped crashing onto us. We are not trying to keep our heads above water anymore and we can finally breathe again.

For the past few weeks we have endured a flat tire, two back injuries, all six of us having the stomach flu and our 18-month-old twins having a horrible case of hand, foot and mouth disease. We were hit hard.

You can read more about our experience with hand, foot and mouth disease on Yummy Mummy Club: Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease: The Illness from Hell

But a week has passed and although we have been left with some scars, it seems like the clouds are parting.

My husband, Mike, and I have been realizing lately, that we haven’t really seemed to be able to move out of survival mode. Not just coming home from our long vacation, or dealing with tons of illness, but long term survival mode. In fact, if we are being really honest, we never shifted out of the phase we entered during my pregnancy with our twins.

Recently, Mike and I have been having a lot of discussions about where we are struggling, both as a unit and as individual people. As far as our relationship and marriage goes, we have a handle on that, thanks to date night and LOTS of communication.

But we have really started to discuss our future, our health, our finances and our happiness, and have had some eye-opening revelations.

Knowing we are finished having children and moving out of the baby phase is really exciting, but also scary. For years we bounced from planning, to pregnancy, to new baby phase and then back to planning for our next. All which gave us the constant excuse to live in survival mode: slack with tidying up, allow clutter to build up, be relaxed with our spending, stay cooped up and let our weight and health slide.

But, we are on the other side now. We are trying to learn how to be responsible, well rounded adults again. We dug ourselves into a survival hole and now we are figuring out how to climb out.

It’s going to take time, but we are on the same page.

What do you call not being in survival mode? Living? Thriving? Routine? All of those sound great to me!

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The New Way I Am Approaching Weight Loss And Loving My Body

2015 was a year I not only got to know my body after four kids (including twins), but love and appreciate it’s new curves and past accomplishments. I knew that I wasn’t completely done my weight loss and strengthening journey, and always kept my weight at the top of my to-do list.

I would tend to deprive myself of foods I really loved, or activities I wanted to participate in because I hadn’t “hit my goal yet.”

But, while away on vacation, something within me shifted. I thought, “screw it, I am going to treat myself occasionally, strut around the beach in a bikini and LIVE.”

I had fun with my kids and enjoyed an occasional dessert. At one point I did have to reel it in, and I ditched my Florida vice: cereal.

Fact: Did you know that American Corn Pops are completely different than Canadian (where I live) Corn Pops? I have to give the U.S. this one, because your Corn Pops are WAY better. Also, Cracklin’ Oat Bran is not sold in Canada… the more you know!

But something really interesting happened. I stopped stress eating. I was feeling happy and satisfied, and not feeling like I wanted to binge eat and watch T.V. while my kids napped.

When I got home I decided to weigh myself, preparing for a five pound weight gain. I hadn’t kept up with my 20 minute workouts during my three-week vacation, so I knew I had done some damage.

My jaw dropped when I realized I had only gained one pound!

This has completely changed my way of thinking about my weight, and how I am going to approach my lifestyle this year. Instead of making losing weight my number one goal for 2016, like it is EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. What if I make happiness, living, thriving and laughing at the top of my list?

I will be resuming my 20 minute workouts this week, but I will make sure they are fun, and enjoyable. I will carve out more time for things I enjoy and moments of relaxation, so I don’t burn myself out and end up comfort-eating.

Maybe having “lose those last ten pounds” as my New Year’s resolution, does more damage than good? Maybe that’s too much pressure, and it is setting myself up to fail?

Okay 2016, I am ready to LIVE!

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Oh, Hi Scale!

I did something this week that I haven’t done in a while, I weighed myself. It was pretty much what I expected, still stuck with fifteen pounds to go, until my goal weight. I tend to not obsess too much about numbers, but go by how my clothes feel. Well, you know when things start feeling snug around your thighs? Or when you put on a piece of clothing with no stretch, like a blazer? It pinches you right in the upper arm area and you start to think… hmmmm….. time to pay a little more attention to the numbers on the scale, what I am eating and how much effort I am putting into my exercise routine.

One good thing this time around is I am not angry at myself or hating my body. I just know that I am not quite as strong or toned as I would like to be. Case in point, I threw my back out two days ago stepping over a baby gate. I was more bedridden than when I was recovering from my C-section. Reuniting with my couch yesterday reminded me how I felt during my twin pregnancy. Now I am ready to move!

This thing happens to me every year. After New Year’s I start daydreaming about flip-flips, tank-tops and sundresses. I get this burst of motivation and stick to a healthier lifestyle without falter. I live in Canada and you have to daydream a little about the nice weather that is bound to arrive to get through our harsh winters. Then, when the nice nice weather arrives this laziness sets in and wine on the porch is just a little too tempting.

Time to shake things up. I am not quite sure what my game plan is quite yet, but I will most definitely be taking all of you along for the ride. If you don’t already, head on over to my Instagram account and follow me there. I will be adding lots of photos of my journey with the hashtag #mynewbodyafterbaby. I would love for any of you who are also going through your own “feel awesome with your post baby bod” journey to add your photos to Instagram with the #mynewbodyafterbaby hashtag!