Go away saggy skin :(

Have you ever seen a deflated balloon? Or the jowls of a dog? Yup, that's my stomach. For the most part my body has bounced back pretty good and I don't have a lot of saggy skin from losing weight. But my stomach is terrible! No matter how hard I work at it, it's hard underneath but the skin literally just hangs there... It is probably one of my biggest insecurities about my body.

I often say "if you don't like what you see, don't look." I have worked very hard to get where I am today, but I am human and still have insecurities. I can't help but stare at it, and feel it in my clothing.

How is it that I can feel so good about myself, but this one thing holds me back from feeling completely confident in my own skin? At 203.4 lbs I would've given anything to look this way now, and feel how I do about myself. Our bodies take a serious beating and are absolutely amazing how they can bounce back time and time again... Maybe after two pregnancies, and losing 55lbs+, this is as good as it gets? Just part of the deal?

My Love/Hate Relationship with The Scale.

Not that this is healthy, but possibly obsessive... I weigh myself every morning when I wake up. Literally, every single morning. I have been around the same weight for a couple of months now give or take a pound or two, but lately the scale has not been my friend. I really didn't intend on losing much more weight, but my "ultimate" goal is to get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight of 143. I decided when I got to my goal of 50lbs loss, I would keep doing what I am doing and my body would eventually get there. I haven't been overly concerned about it, but it seems like no matter what I change up I am stuck at the same weight, 148/149.

I started tracking again, and have been very good about it for the last several weeks. I was training hard for my marathon, and now I have started back at the gym with my freed up time. And still, the scale won't budge.

Maybe this is the weight I am supposed to stay at? I really don't think so, I think my body can get down another 5lbs. I am not a big girl, I am 5'4" (barely) but yet for months, I am still here. Some days I am way down, and then the very next day I am up 2lbs. SOOOO frustrating.

But instead of throwing in the towel, I am going to keep trucking. Continue working out, eating right, and most importantly tracking. This just goes to show, that even after you have lost the weight it is still a struggle. Nothing comes easy, at goal, you still have to work to stay there.

Let's hope for some scale movement next week :)

I did it!!!! Marathon - done, done, and DONE! :)

I did it, I did it, I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not only did I finish my first Inline Marathon (26.2 miles), I knocked it out of the park! It was the absolute most amazing thing I have ever done since starting this process, and I can't wait to do it again! My dear friend Sarah and I have been training for this together, and I can't imagine doing it without her. She was a great partner, we started together, finished together, and kept each other motivated along the way.

Leading up to this past weekend, I was having some anxiety about the race. I was scared, nervous, anxious, excited, and just the fear of the unknown was eating at me! We have been training hard, so the distance was not my concern, I am not sure why I was so anxious. When we arrived to Duluth on Friday, we went to the DECC to pick up our racer packets. Once we got to the arena, I saw the finish line, and was surrounded by the atmosphere of the race - I WAS READY! I just wanted to get started and do it already :) Sarah and I agreed that we were not going to push for a certain "time" to finish, but just wanted to finish. We have been pacing at apprx. 2hrs and 30 min while we have been training, and thought as long as we did our best and stayed near our training time we would be happy. THEN, once we got around everyone, we decided it would be even more awesome if we finished around 2hrs 15 minutes. Hey, what can I say, we are competitive :) Saturday morning, we woke up, ate a nice protein filled breakfast and headed down to the race! My nerves faded, and I felt more ready than ever to get this under my belt. Team "Pink" was ready to dominate!

Once we got moving, and started the race we felt strong, and confident :) The view was amazing, it was along the North Shore of Duluth, and was truly breathtaking. Each time we passed another mile marker, we were getting closer and closer to our victory, and making GREAT time at that! Our husbands were our biggest fans, and stopped along the 26 miles to cheer us on, and take pictures of us in action. It was such a great feeling to have them there pushing us along the way. The support of the local residents was so incredible. It was very emotional to see the people lined up, just to support all of us. This is nothing like I have ever experienced before!

The last three miles, we pushed it hard, and wanted to finish strong! Crossing that finish line was the best feeling ever, hearing the crowds, I get chills just thinking about it. We both killed our time and finished 2hrs 7 minutes! Woot woot! Cannot wait for next year :) So awesome! Here are my official stats: Time: 2 Hours 7 Minutes 41.8 Seconds Paced: 4:53 per mile (view kilometer pace) Placed:1005 out of 1586 Placed: 240 out of 603 Females Placed: 32 out of 108 Females in the F2529 Age Group

Update - I've been tracking!!!!!! Yay!

Since my last post was setting the goal to start tracking regularly again, I am proud to say - I am sticking to it and have tracked every single day!

It's been a rather eye opening experience to see how relaxed I was getting... But is making me more aware again, and it feels great to be "on track" :)

It's been sort of crazy lately, getting super excited for my first Inline Marathon on Saturday (YIKES!)

More to come, wish me luck and pray for decent weather!

Goal for this week: Continue tracking, and make the best choices I can!

My new goal... to track.

From the beginning of my journey, I was very good about tracking my food/beverage intake each day. Anything I put in my mouth, I wrote it down. This is something that is absolutely crucial to WW weight loss (or any weight loss really), it keeps you on track and is an eye opening tool that makes you more aware of the choices you are making. Just by writing something down, you WANT to make better choices :)

Since spring my tracking has been basically not existant. I don't know how I got out of it, but I just felt like I could handle not tracking and continue being successful. I have managed to continue making decent choices most days, my portions have started to creep up on me, and my compulsive "grab" snacks seem to be happening more and more. I absolutely NEED to get back on the tracking wagon. I bought a new tracker, and started it again. And boy, just that alone has already made a difference. I didn't realize how powerful writing everything down was, it had been so long that I almost forgot the impact it has. Just keeping track "in my head" wasn't good enough. You can writing things down in a little notebook, buy a WW tracker, use ETools, by a WW points clicker - whatever you need to do, I cannot stress the importance of this.

So my new goal for right now, is to rebuild tracking into my daily routine.

Have a great, and safe Labor Day everyone :)