To help hold myself accountable and on track this year, I decided to bring back my monthly weigh-in posts! I’m also going to touch on a lot more than just weight, such as my diet and exercise too, so it's a bit more all-encompassing.
I used to do this back in 2012/13 during my first weight loss “journey.” I consider what I’m doing now to be “Journey 2.0” because it’s totally different this time. My approach is different. I’m trying to lose it slower and more sensibly. I’m trying to do it in a way that’s more maintainable, too (i.e. NOT dieting and not going overboard or to the extreme again). Not to mention, back then, I had no kids, worked PT instead of FT, had no house and wasn’t married yet… and could work out 6-7 days a week, and did so for HOURS some days. I also logged every single bite I ate on MyFitnessPal.
I lost weight super rapidly during 2012 and 2013, for a grand total of 118 pounds lost in just about a year and a half. For the first time in my life, I liked how I looked and felt. I was so proud! I’m still proud! But it proved to be too much too fast. Over the course of my two pregnancies (plus my ectopic and the ensuing grief and struggle), I managed to pack on the pounds. New motherhood and lack of sleep/energy didn’t and hasn’t helped either.
Journey 2.0 has finally begun though because we’re 99% sure we’re done having babies. That means no more pregnancies… and THAT means I can start to re-claim my body as my own again for the first time in almost FIVE YEARS (I got pregnant with Caleb in 2014 OMG WHAT?!).
This time, I’m still trying to work out quite often (4-6 days a week), but I capped it at 30 minutes for January, and will gradually work my way up to slightly longer work outs each month. We also have a treadmill at home as opposed to gym memberships like we did the first time (working out at home is just much more practical with full time jobs and two babies at home).
Needless to say, things are different this time, but the end goal remains the same: I just want to be healthier, happier, and fit again. I want to look in the mirror and like what I see. I want to be able to run again once my fitness levels are back up, and I want to find joy and pleasure in it like I once did.
My monthly recaps will summarize the work outs I did for the month (primarily treadmill walking for now), how my diet was, what my goals for the next month are, and of course… the weight I lost. I will be weighing in on the first of every month, and sharing that here. Not only will I share what I lost that month, I will also share my total loss. My total loss is the amount I’m down from my heaviest starting weight (270) in 2012. I am still counting that in my totals because I’ve managed to keep off SOME of the weight that I lost back then, and though it’s not a lot, it’s still an accomplishment. It’s super embarrassing sharing numbers here and it kind of makes me cringe, but I was fully transparent the first time, and intend to be so this time, too. I’ve been hesitant to publish this post because who wants to share their weight?! However, my hope is that me being open and honest will help someone out there on their own journey.
Right now, I haven’t set an ultimate goal. My goal for the year is to lose 30 pounds total, then I’ll set another new goal next year and so on. I definitely need to lose more than 30 in total, but as I said, I’m taking a completely different approach this time. I honestly think that slow is the way to go if I want to take it off and then KEEP it off. I need to change my lifestyle enough that I can lose, but not so much that I do it rapidly and in a way that I cannot maintain or keep up with. Does that make sense? I hope so.
Here we go with month one!
šŖ Exercise
This was my first month on Journey 2.0, and I wanted to start it off with a bang. I set a goal of working out 15 times in January, and then crushed it! I made a very concerted effort to work out most days that I could, and only skipped on days that I really couldn’t due to work, appointments, and scheduling conflicts. I ended up working out 4-5 days a week, and am super pleased with that. It wasn’t always easy, and there were many times that Jerry wasn’t home where I’d have to drag both boys downstairs with me while I worked out… but I got it done and I’m finding new routines for myself now. My work outs this month consisted of 30 minute walks on the treadmill at varying speeds. I’m really, really happy that I’ve developed a good habit of exercising again and think that it will be less challenging to keep it up now, going forward.
Workouts completed: 21
Total time: 10.5 hours
š« Diet
My diet was not great this month, but I didn’t intend it to be, so this is totally fine with me. We had a lot of birthday celebrations — so that didn’t help — but I also didn’t track my food at all (yes, this was an intentional choice). I used MyFitnessPal to log work outs, and that was all. That said, I didn’t “diet” at all, nor did I eat super consciously or make healthy choices. I just kind of ate like I normally do (plus lots of extra cake) because I wanted to see how I could do on my weight loss with exercise ONLY.
Logging food and limiting calories is super helpful, but also super frustrating, monotonous, and time consuming. It makes me feel like I’m on a diet, and I don’t WANT to be on a diet. I just want to make better choices on my own. For now, I’m just not ready to “diet” or log calories again. I am, however, ready to work out and be active again (as you may have noticed!). My first journey started this way too: exercise only at first, then adding in the food logging a bit later.
What will the future hold for my diet? I’m not sure and am just kind of playing it by ear for the time being. I may take up food tracking again in the future, and I may not. I’ll have to see how my weight loss progresses without it, and if it’s suffering, then I suppose I’ll need to. In February, I just want to try and make better choices by cutting back on my sweets and portions a bit.
Bottom line: I didn’t clean up or cut back on my eating at all this month, but I went into the month knowing I wasn’t going to, so I’m not mad at all. I had a lot of sweets and a lot of birthday celebrations.
š Weigh-In
My goal for January was a fairly easy one: lose one pound. January is a crazy month for my family, full of celebrations: my birthday, Caleb’s birthday, Jerry’s birthday. This means lots of cakes, parties, dinners out, and party food. I wanted to be able to enjoy these things without guilt, so I set my weight loss goal fairly low. I also wanted to set it low since it was my first month getting back into the swing of things and being really active again. Let’s see how I did for the month:
January 1: 246
February 1: 244
Monthly loss: –2
Total loss: –26
šÆ February Plans and Goals
February will most likely be another month where I don’t track my food. As I mentioned earlier, I’m really not enthused about the idea of “dieting.” For now, I’m going to exercise and just eat. If I find that my weight loss stops or stalls, despite my exercising, I will have to consider adding food tracking back in. For now, here are my numerical goals for February! I am also going to increase my work outs from 30 minutes to 35 this month.
- Work outs: 15
- Weight loss: 2 pounds
✨ And there you have it! I’d say my year is off to a fairly good start!
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