Goals

I need motivation to continue to work on my goals... perhaps putting them in writing will help me continue to work towards my top two!


Goal Number 1: Go back on Weight Watchers.  This is very hard for me to put on a public forum, but I need to get it out there (even if no one reads this but me!) so that I will hold myself accountable for my eating habits and exercising.  My weight has had its ups and downs.  I was always very active in sports during high school so I didn't worry too much about my weight until college.  I definitely gained a lot of weight during college and started to become very self conscious about my body image.  I didn't realize how much I had gained until my sister-in-law got married and I was asked to be a part of her wedding.  I was measured for a bridesmaid dress my junior year in college and needed to order a size 16.  They actually said I would have needed an 18 but there was an extra cost to that size so they recommended I order the 16 and alter if needed.  I was in shock... I had always stayed around a size 8/10 in high school and never paid attention to the college pounds I was gaining.  So... this was the summer before my senior year in college and it kicked me into health mode.  I joined weight watchers watchers with my mom and followed the plan for about 15 months.  It was a great program to follow because of the flexibility in what you eat and I think I was very successful on it!  Here is a photo from September 2003 and Denise's wedding. 
 

For her wedding I had already lost about 15 pounds, which meant that the dress fit fine.  However, I was still unhappy and continued weight watchers through graduation which was May of 2004.

Because we weren't all digital back in 2004 this is one of the few digital copies I have from graduation.  Ignore the absolutely goofy look on my face (I was laughing because I had just graduated from college and my whole family was coming back to my apartment and I realized I locked myself out of the house... oops!).

I was really feeling great about my weight loss to that point and had plans to continue.  One of my high school friends and I ended up doing a work travel program in Ireland after graduation.  So I lived in Ireland and worked for Guinness from July of 2004 to November 2004.  I must say I did not actively follow weight watchers while there but still followed the main guidelines and didn't do too badly while there.  I gained a bit of weight but was still way below my weight in college! 

  

After coming back from Ireland I didn't go officially back on Weight Watchers but followed healthy eating habits and my life was so absolutely crazy at that point I just ended up losing more weight until in July of 2005 I was at my lowest weight ever.  I was working full time as a secretary, working 30 hours a week as a consultant for a bridal store, a full time grad student, and in the process of building a house and planning a wedding.  I had no time to eat and was always on the move.  Not to mention that I absolutely loved my job as a wedding dress consultant for my diet!  We worked non stop and didn't get breaks to eat other then a 2 minute stop in the back to eat whatever we could find and were carrying wedding dresses above our heads the entire time at work (so they wouldn't drag on the ground).  I was in the best shape of my life!  I wonder if that store is still hiring... I could really use the exercise again!  In September I quit my job at the Bridal Salon and while I didn't really gain a lot of weight back, without the constant weight lifting I did gain a little back.  However, I was very happy with my body size for my sister's wedding in October of 2005.  My dress was a size 8 and I was ecstatic!

By my own wedding in March of 2006 I was still not thrilled with the weight I had gained back from no longer working at the bridal store.  However, looking back at these photos I would love to look like this again, and know that after giving birth two times, my body shape has changed and it is no longer possible.  I wish I would have appreciated it more!  Here is a photo of me getting ready for the wedding, during the wedding and a photo from our honeymoon. 

 

 

I stayed fairly consistent with my weight until I finished graduate school.  Because I was working full time, completing my internship, and going to class every evening I stayed pretty busy and because of having to fit my meals into very short time periods I was maintaining my weight.  However, once I graduated from school and started working only 1 full time job and that job required so much time in my car, I started to gain weight back.  Because I spent about 2.5 to 3 hours a day in my car, I was sitting more then I was use to, my job as a counselor has a lot of time spent in front of a computer, and I found I was so exhausted from spending the time in the car each day I wasn't wanting to exercise when I got home.  So those three things really started to let my weight creep back up on me.

When we found out I was pregnant with Sam on April 1, 2009 I was pretty close to the weight I was in college.  I wasn't happy, but being pregnant really wasn't the time to go focus on weight.  I only gained about 25 pounds with Sam and managed to have that weight off within the first three months after having him.  However, I never continued on the weight loss plan and ended up pregnant with Ally when Sam was only 11 months old and went back to not worrying about my weight.  I gained 20 pounds with Ally and I signed up for weight watchers 8 weeks after her birth. 

One of my friends was getting married in October of 2011 and I would be 10 weeks postpartum.  I had to pick my dress size while pregnant with Ally and I was completely stressed out.  I really wanted to order a size 18.  I had no idea how quickly I would lose the baby weight after my second pregnancy, not to mention I would be nursing and had no idea how much that would affect the dress size.  However, this particular dress was only made up to a size 16...  Which much stressing I went ahead and ordered a size 16.  The dress came in, and I don't know what I was thinking I did not try that dress on until 5 days before the wedding...  I am so thankful it fit because I didn't leave myself any time to get it fixed at that point!

So... full circle at this point.  It all started with a size 16 dress that was worn in September of 2003 and I was back in a size 16 dress in October of 2011.  However, at that point I had two absolutely gorgeous children (one of which was only 10 weeks old) so I feel a little bit better about the second size 16 dress. 

After the wedding I got serious about my weight loss after the wedding.  I was very happy to be back at my pre-pregnancy weight again by the time my maternity leave was over and I used weight watchers fairly consistently for the next 2 months.  I lost 15 pounds and really felt great.  However... I stalled for the last month and have actually gained 3 of those back.  In fact, right before I started writing this post I ate two Otis Spunkmeyer cookies (and not even the cookies just the frozen dough...) and I realized I needed my motivation back. So here I was when I had lost those 15 pounds and I need to continue on with a serious look at losing the weight. 

I am going to be on vacation in 8 weeks with my family and in 12 weeks with Paul's family. I think I can realistically lose at least 15 pounds by then and I need to do it!  Just the thought of having to wear a swimsuit terrifies me.  I also hate having my picture taken and looking back on Sam's early years when I was so self conscious about what I looked like, I never got my photo taken with him and that just makes me sad.  I need to get my confidence back and to do that I need to start eating right and exercising. Whenever I need the motivation I am just going to reread this post and see that I have had success before, and while I might not ever get back to my lowest weight, that's okay, I just need to make sure I am back in healthy range.


Goal Number 2: Organize like crazy!  Paul and I don't really hang on to a lot of stuff, but we aren't so great with the organizing either.  I am great at stacking and hiding, but I don't really feel like every item in our house has a home.  A lot of the problem is that we have only a 3 bedroom house.  We also don't have a ton of closet space.  I mean, we have huge closets but I can't decide what goes in each closet.  Like the baby items we have that we are no longer using.  Some of those items I have loaned out to friends, but there are other items where I am unsure where to store.  Part of me just wants to give them away, but what if we do decide to have a third child later on and I still want them.  Ally's closet is the smallest in the house, and she actually needs all her closet space for just her stuff since we currently have a twin bed in her room so her dresser is in the closet.  Sam has a huge closet, but we are using that as a storage place for toys that he either needs to grow into or are just a tad bit to old for Ally still.  We have one big closet in our room that I organized today.  But it just doesn't feel like it is a great solution.

It just doesn't feel organized.  In our closet we have our luggage and clothes which make sense.  But we also keep random baby items and all of the Christmas decorations because there is no other closet space for them.  I also have all of my scrap-booking items tossed up on top of the shelves.  Which if I ever do get the time to put these together is not going to be very easy to get to.

So my goal... to organize every closet and room in our house by summer break.  I also need to do this to the garage.  I need to pitch or give away everything we don't use and then make a game plan on where everything should go.  I also need to go to IKEA and see what cool ideas they have for organizing.  I need to make the most of the space we have!