Summer Shape Up and Friday Follow....

Okay, now that did come faster than the others - 4 day work weeks (turned 3 due to a nasty sinus infection) really skew your perception on the week!  Anyways...two orders of business as usual - accountability and making new friends.

I like to be accountable first so here goes:

This week was a total loss.  Noah's been fighting somethign which finally turned into a sinus infection and lucky me caught it so on Saturday evening a little tickle in my throat turned into a full blown upper respiratory infection.  Knocked me on my can (and I'm still recovering).  So, needless to say I didn't work out at all...heck, I barely made it off the couch for the first few days of this thing.  The only bounus is that I wasn't really all that hungry so I was able to control my eating and account for the lack of activity in my caloric intake so all was not lost.

This was a hold steady week - no wins, no losses...

Stats for this week:
Week 1 - 142lbs
Week 2 - 138lbs - woohoo!
Week 4 - 140lbs - ouch...no excuses, I have a new workout regime and a new resolve for eating healthy...we should start seeing that number drop.
Week 6 - 139.5 - okay, .5 lbs!  I attribute that to the fact that i'm putting on muscle and muscle weighs more than fat right??:)
Week 7 - 137.5 - woohooo!  Now, we fluctuated a bit this week but as of this AM this is where I'm at!!
Week 8 - 135 - Hallelujah!  Real progress now! I don't expect it will continue at this rate but we'll see.
Week 9 - 135 - With no exercise all week I'll take a steady number over what it could have been

Okay, on to making new friends!!!

Two Friday Follows....



I'm also participating in the same Follow Me Friday I did last week from from Trendy Tree House.







Hello to all you new folks! I hope you find something here that you'll want to come back over and over again for! This blog was started to keep the fam up to date on my first pregnancy and has continued after my little Noah was born. Topics range from smitten momma ramblings to hard hitting pieces about 529 plans and the like (haha...hard hitting..maybe not but it's fun to dream that I could actually write something that could be considered hard hitting) and has a smattering of photography (of my little man of course) thrown in for fun.

Me? I'm an almost a 30 something (gah!) working mamma who would love to ditch her mortgage in order to stay home with little man but sadly bought when the housing market was at its peak and probably couldn't even break even in the sale. Some day I dream of leaving the corporate world to do something more creative - like photography or crocheting!:) But for now amuse myself with hobby photography and blogging.

Anywho...glad to e-meet you and I hope you leave a comment to let me know you stopped by!

Friday Follow and Summer Shape up Check in..

Good golly these Fridays keep coming faster and faster...I feel like I just wrote this post for last week! Anyways...two orders of business as usual - accountability and making new friends.

I like to be accountable first so here goes:

This week I tried a bunch of new things and they seem to be working! I did a mid week weigh in and couldn't believe my scale so I waited until boxing to use theirs (it has to be spot on right? they're weighing these guys to match them up with other fighters...it's all official and stuff..) and if my shoes do indeed weigh 3 lbs then my scale at home was right!

This week I added Yoga Burn on my off days plus I installed a calorie counting app on my iPod.  Between the boxing, the yoga burn, and the counting calories I'm making progress! I was actually able to get my wedding rings on!  I didn't leave them on because they were still uber tight but we're making progress!

This week I'm switching to Pilates instead of yoga burn - gotta keep things changing so the body doesn't adapt!

Stats for this week:
Week 1 - 142lbs
Week 2 - 138lbs - woohoo!
Week 4 - 140lbs - ouch...no excuses, I have a new workout regime and a new resolve for eating healthy...we should start seeing that number drop.
Week 6 - 139.5 - okay, .5 lbs!  I attribute that to the fact that i'm putting on muscle and muscle weighs more than fat right??:)
Week 7 - 137.5 - woohooo!  Now, we fluctuated a bit this week but as of this AM this is where I'm at!!
Week 8 - 135 - Hallelujah!  Real progress now! I don't expect it will continue at this rate but we'll see. 

Okay, on to making new friends!!!

There's a new Friday Follow on the block! Thanks to Ian, Harriet, and Tami we have an all new and improved Friday Follow! I'm excited to try it out! Maybe one day I'll even try for a host spot. For now I'm just a spectator!



I'm also participating in the same Follow Me Friday I did last week from from Trendy Tree House.






Hello to all you new folks! I hope you find something here that you'll want to come back over and over again for! This blog was started to keep the fam up to date on my first pregnancy and has continued after my little Noah was born. Topics range from smitten momma ramblings to hard hitting pieces about 529 plans and the like (haha...hard hitting..maybe not but it's fun to dream that I could actually write something that could be considered hard hitting) and has a smattering of photography (of my little man of course) thrown in for fun.

Me? I'm an almost a 30 something (gah!) working mamma who would love to ditch her mortgage in order to stay home with little man but sadly bought when the housing market was at its peak and probably couldn't even break even in the sale. Some day I dream of leaving the corporate world to do something more creative - like photography or crocheting!:) But for now amuse myself with hobby photography and blogging.

Anywho...glad to e-meet you and I hope you leave a comment to let me know you stopped by!

Friday Follow and Summer Shape up Check in..

Gah! Again, here we are at Friday - I can't believe it!  My week did go a bit slower than normal but still was blazing fast!

Two orders of business today as usual - Friday Follow and my accountability check!  We'll be accoutable first (as always)...

I was down right sick this week! It all started with a very unpleasant incident at 3:00am on Saturday that I'm not going to get into and continued into a full blown cold - yuck!  The lack of energy, congestion, runny nose, and coughing kept me from going to boxing most of the week.  I did manage to get back there yesterday and even did some Jillian Michaels today (her 30 min Yoga Burn DVD is pretty good...I'm definitely feeling the burn..) but my success this week revolved around the fact that I'm counting calories...trying to be VERY careful about how much I'm taking in as compared to my output.  Fortunately for me I wasn't all that hungry anyways:)

Stats for this week:
Day 1 - 142lbs
Day 8 - 138lbs - woohoo!
Day 24 - 140lbs - ouch...no excuses, I have a new workout regime and a new resolve for eating healthy...we should start seeing that number drop.
Day 38 - 139.5 - okay, .5 lbs!  I attribute that to the fact that i'm putting on muscle and muscle weighs more than fat right??:)
Day 45 - 137.5 - woohooo!  Now, we fluctuated a bit this week but as of this AM this is where I'm at!!

I think next week I need to switch over to weeks instead of days....I'm having a hard time counting the days each time:)  I originally started on days because I was going to do the 30day shred...ya, we see how long tha lasted!  I'm still proud of myself for keeping with boxing though!  It's still totally fun which makes me want to go even more.

This week I'm adding as many evening walks as I can with Noah as well as either Yoga or 30 day shred on my non boxing days.  Let's see how that works!


Okay, all accounted for....on to fun things....this week I'm trying a different Friday follow group from the folks over at Trendy Treehouse (such a fun name)






Hello to all you new folks! I hope you find something here that you'll want to come back over and over again for! This blog was started to keep the fam up to date on my first pregnancy and has continued after my little Noah was born. Topics range from smitten momma ramblings to hard hitting pieces about 529 plans and the like (haha...hard hitting..maybe not but it's fun to dream that I could actually write something that could be considered hard hitting) and has a smattering of photography (of my little man of course) thrown in for fun.

Me? I'm an almost 30 something working mamma who would love to ditch her mortgage in order to stay home with little man but sadly bought when the housing market was at its peak and probably couldn't even break even in the sale. Some day I dream of leaving the corporate world to do something more creative - like photography or crocheting!:) But for now amuse myself with hobby photography and blogging.

Anywho...glad to e-meet you and I hope you leave a comment to let me know you stopped by!

Summer Shape Up Check in

So it's Friday again - we survived the first week of daycare and both mom and baby are still happy and sane!  In fact, the consistency has been great for Noah and he's sleeping better than ever (and now that I say that he's going to throw me for a loop I'm sure!).  And I'm actually getting work done for work which, in order to keep my job, is a necessity!

Time for an accountability check with the Summer Shape Up!

I've done well with boxing - it's fun enough that I want to go on a regular basis and the workouts are different and challenging every time!  I've managed to do the 3x a week that I wanted to so far and forsee that continuing.  It's tricky when we go out of town for the weekend and means I end up doing three days in a row which is tough but hey, whatever it takes right?

I also started to watch my calories more closely.  You can't lose weight unless you take in less than you burn but if you take in too little then your body enters starvation mode and it's completely counter productive so I've had to start watching.  So far so good....

Stats for this week:
Day 1 - 142lbs
Day 8 - 138lbs - woohoo!
Day 24 - 140lbs - ouch...no excuses, I have a new workout regime and a new resolve for eating healthy...we should start seeing that number drop.
Day 38 - 139.5 - okay, .5 lbs!  I attribute that to the fact that i'm putting on muscle and muscle weighs more than fat right??:)

My clothes are starting to fit better and I can feel my abs getting stronger.  I need to figure ot how to get a bit more cardio in there now...maybe on my off days a quick run or even fast walk will probably help -let's see if I can do that!

Friday Follow and Summer Shape up Check in..

So it's Friday - wow this week went fast!  It was my first week back to work and I'm starting to get into the swing of things.  However, my anxiety is growing as I have just one more week with my little Noah home with me:(  I'm scrambling to figure out a way to keep him here - there are lots of college students that would love to Nanny I'm sure, now I just need to find them!  I'm actually surprised at how well I can work even with him here (of course, as long as someone is watching him).  I even moved my office out of the loft and into the guest room so that I can close the door and have some quiet as he's playing downstairs.

Anyways, two topics at hand today.  Time for an accountability check with the Summer Shape Up and then a quick hello to all my new friends from the Friday Follow!  So...summer shape up first...

I've fallen off the wagon already:)  Doing the 30 day shred here at home with Noah was just too hard.  By the time I got him off to a nap, I found 10,000 other things I needed to do so the best I could muster on semi regular basis was some sit ups and maybe a walk.  Nothing hardly enough to start shedding the weight.  Since hubs is home for two weeks I thought I'd try a different work out - something my girlfriend told me she does and loves - Boxing!!:)  There is an LA Boxing gym just down the road and it happens to be the gym my friend goes to so I begged her to take me along one day.  HOLY COW! I love it!  Beating the crap out of a punching bag is a fantastic way to spend a workout!  You get your cardio and your strength all in one with the added bonus of some much needed stress relief!

So, my goal is to go to a class three days a week.  They say you can burn up to 1000 calories in an hour (of course, that's only if you last the entire hour going balls to the walls crazy...) but even burning 400 or 800 is a great start!

Stats for this week:
Day 1 - 142lbs
Day 8 - 138lbs - woohoo!
Day 24 - 140lbs - ouch...no excuses, I have a new workout regime and a new resolve for eating healthy...we should start seeing that number drop.

My ideal weight - the weight I'm shooting for - my lowest post college, non-starved-like-I-was-in-highschool weight  - is 120lbs.  I'd settle for 125lbs if it meant that I was more muscle than pudge and that the baby belly remnants were gone.

Okay, I'm accounted for now!:)  On to Friday Follow!!



Hello to all you new folks! I hope you find something here that you'll want to come back over and over again for! This blog was started to keep the fam up to date on my first pregnancy and has continued after my little Noah was born. Topics range from smitten momma ramblings to hard hitting pieces about 529 plans and the like (haha...hard hitting..maybe not but it's fun to dream that I could actually write something that could be considered hard hitting) and has a smattering of photography (of my little man of course) thrown in for fun.

Me?  I'm an almost 30 something working mamma who would love to ditch her mortgage in order to stay home with little man but sadly bought when the housing market was at its peak and probably couldn't even break even in the sale.  Some day I dream of leaving the corporate world to do something more creative - like photography or crocheting!:)  But for now amuse myself with hobby photography and blogging.

Anywho...glad to e-meet you and I hope you leave a comment to let me know you stopped by!

Summer Shape-up Check In

Okay....so we're on Day 8 of the summer shape up.  I'll admit I've not been very good at keeping up with the 30 day shred. I have however spent at least 30 min each day getting my pulse pumping. I invested in 3lb weights to use (instead of the 5lb weights) in hopes that I wont cheat as much during the workout (5lbs is just too heavy to start out with).  I also invested in a few new workout clothes that fit better than my old ones (and ones that I hope i get to say are too big some time soon!).  And for all that work...I've lost a few lbs:)

Day 1 - 142lbs
Day 8 - 138lbs - woohoo!

It may have been a fluke - we'll see if I can keep this up.  I was very good about watching what I eat but have fallen a bit of the wagon the last few days - sweets are just too tempting.  I need to just throw out what we have here so I'm not tempted to eat it.  I've tried it in moderation but I have little self control when it comes to chocolate so I need to find lower fat/calorie ways to imbibe.  Thoughts? Any treats that you've found satisfy your sweet tooth but are not super high in calories and/or fat.

Operation Summer Shape Up

I've always been a pretty fit person.  DH and I spent most of our free time while we were in California out hiking and/or biking.  Even here in Va we managed to get out and do some biking or hiking on a regular basis.  I loved it - feeling fit and trim.  Then pregnancy hit.  I vowed to continue to exercise in moderation and try to keep the weight monster at bay however between stresses at work, morning/all day sickness, ice storms making walking dangerous and the general aches and pains of pregnancy, I fell of that wagon pretty quickly.

I went from walking the dog twice a day to only managing the stairs on most days.  My weight ballooned to a number I've never seen before and hope never to see again.  Now, at least half that weight was necessary for the pregnancy, the other half - well, let's just say I had a raging Panera Broccoli and Cheese soup habit.  The final total on my pregnancy weigh gain was 42 lbs - the morning I was induced I weighed in at a cool 162lbs at the dr's office.  Oh how I hated that scale!

After Noah arrived I quickly dropped 20 odd lbs in the first three weeks.  However, now things have plateaued and I've been stuck at 142lbs for the last 3 weeks.  Now, 10lb of that is probably the extra heft of my milk laden boobies (okay, maybe 5lbs...anyways, I digress) but that still leave at least 10 more that have settled on my belly, arms, thighs, and butt (OMG - i tried on a number of my pre-pregnancy work out shorts and none of them would fit around my arse - I didn't think it expanded that much! I had to buy a new work out wardrobe!). 

Cue Jillian Michales!  I've heard great things about her 30 day shred and since it was on sale on Amazon ($8 anyone??!) I decided to give it a try - today is day 1 and I almost died!!  I knew I was outta shape but oh wow - she's a hard arse and I'm all squishy marshmallow! 

So, I'll try to keep up a weekly check in on here to keep me accountable.  DH has lots of plans this summer for beach volleyball tournaments which means bathing suits and I don't want to have to buy a new suit - I LOVE the ones I have now.   I'm not brave enough to post before and after pics here - sorry.  Maybe if the results are spectacular then I'll post a beach shot later this summer (haha..yea, right!).  I end to fall off the wagon pretty quickly so I'll need all the help I can get to stay on track with this.

My motivation - Jenny McCarthy!  If she can look that amazing after a baby - then I certainly can (even if I dont have a personal trainer, chef, and nanny to watch the baby so I can work out 10 hours a day:) ).

Day 1 - 142lbs