Weight Loss Journey

Well, like with most of my blog posts these days, I don’t have a lot of time to write, so I’m going to jump right in.

Since I last updated, I’ve lost another .5lbs! It’s not a huge loss, obviously, but it’s a loss. 🙂

I weighed in at 208.5 lbs. this morning.

I haven’t weighed this amount since shortly after I gave birth to Nathan, our firstborn. I had ballooned up to 252 lbs. (I started at around 155lbs.) during my pregnancy with Nathan, and got down to 192 lbs. after he was born. But then I stopped losing the pregnancy weight and started to see the scale go back up!

In the wrong direction.

I think I got to around 200-something and then started on Weight Watchers. I remember being 208 lbs. while on Weight Watchers. This was back in 2000.

12 years ago.

Wow.

I didn’t stick with Weight Watchers, and after losing around 10lbs. on the program, I quit. The weight loss also quit. No big surprise there.

Fast forward to May 14, 2012, and I am finally down to 208.5lbs. again! It’s been too long!

But I’ll take it.

And I’m going to keep on working to lose the rest of this weight.

We are juicing regularly, which I’m loving immensely. Today, I drank an entire 1lb. bag of carrots & an apple. Yum! It was soooo good. I also made fresh apple juice for Breanna, and I’m happy to see her requesting juice regularly. We still don’t have the entire family juicing, but we will…..little by little.

Anyway, here’s what my progress looks like:

Beginning weight: 220 lbs.

Current Weight: 208.5 lbs.

Goal Weight: 170 lbs.

# of total pounds I want to lose in 2012: 50lbs.

# of pounds to go until I reach my goal: 38.5 lbs.

Total # of pounds lost to date: 11.5 lbs.

Are you trying to lose weight this year? How is your progress going?

 

I’m planning on sharing my weight loss post tomorrow. In the meantime, I wanted to share the kind of juicer we’ve been using to make fresh juice to drink in the morning and throughout the day. It’s called a Breville Juicer.

It’s the same type of juicer that was used in the movie that made us venture into juicing in the first place. The movie is called, “Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead.” I won’t go into a lot of detail about the movie, except to say that it was one of those eye-opening movies for us – much like when we first watched the movies, “Food, Inc.” and “Food Matters.”

Anyway, we’ve been using the juicer nearly every morning to make fresh juices, and Ruben, my husband, has done 2 short juice fasts. Since we’ve moved to Georgia and started getting back to healthier eating along with juicing, he has already lost nearly 10 lbs.

Don’t you hate it how guys can do that?

Kidding.

But this is a great juicer, and since I’ll be sharing more about our juicing experiences plus recipes, I wanted to write a post to share the type of juicer that we are actually using.

On a side note, if you were thinking about buying this juicer, it seems to have a pretty long shipping wait on Amazon. When we wanted to buy it, it was completely out-of-stock (on Amazon & other websites), so we ended up going through ebates and purchasing it on the website, Sur La Table.

I’m looking forward to sharing more about juicing with you guys!

*This post contains affiliate links.

As promised, I wanted to show you guys some updated pictures of how I look after losing 11 lbs. since I began the Losing the Baby Fat weight Loss journey. I’ve actually lost a total of 39.5 lbs. since I came home from the hospital with Elisabeth 4 months ago, but I’m not counting all the weight that basically fell off of me in the first weeks after I gave birth.

Here’s how I look today!

 

And there you have it.

This is me.

Currently.

I love that my clothes are fitting me looser, except when they’re a little too loose by mid-afternoon and start to look saggy. I don’t like that. But I’m not ready to spend money on new clothes, either. If you are wondering what size I wear….I currently wear a size 16. I wore a size 7 when I met my husband. I’m not sure that I’ll ever get back to a size 7, since having 5 children has permanently altered this mama’s body, but I am hoping to make it to a size 9 someday. Size 7 would be a total bonus!

I know I don’t normally do weight loss updates on Saturday, but since I have a few spare minutes and this post is easy to write, I’d thought I’d give an update since it has been awhile.

My weight this morning was 209 lbs.

That means I’ve lost 2.5 lbs. since my last update almost 4 weeks ago.

Not bad. 🙂

We ate out more often in the days surrounding our move from Illinois to Georgia, which was to be expected since we had to pack up our kitchen and drive the 800 mile trip to Georgia. During those days, I basically tried to maintain my weight by choosing healthier options at mealtimes and by purchasing cold food (salad/fruit/granola bars/healthy smoothies) from the grocery store.

After we got to Georgia and got at least the kitchen mainly unpacked, we started using our Breville Juicer to make healthy, natural, homemade juices packed with the vitamins and nutrients we so often neglect to feed ourselves.

I’ve decided NOT to do a total juice fast while breastfeeding. I came to this conclusion after doing some research online. If I did a juice fast (or juice feast as it is also called), I would risk my body dumping toxins into my breast milk (as it tries to detox), forcing Elisabeth to drink them when I nurse her. I know some people may disagree with this, but I’d rather be safe than risk giving my baby girl toxins in her only food source at the moment.

Instead, I’m drinking juice while trying to eat a balanced diet. And even though I’m not doing a total juice fast, I’m still seeing a difference.

What are we juicing?

Carrots, Celery, Cucumber (lots of juice in cucumbers!), apples (Breanna, our 9yr. old, loves fresh apple juice in the morning), pears, spinach, kale, ginger, lemon, cabbage, and even an orange (peel & all). 🙂

How does it taste?

It tastes juice like you are drinking the fruit/veggie itself. For example, apple juice tastes exactly as if you were drinking an apple. Our green juices usually consist of a variety of veggies with a couple of apples or pears for sweetness. The juices are very tasty, although, I like mine without the ginger. Adding ginger to the juice definitely gives the juice a strong, almost spicy flavor, which I’m not a fan of. Without ginger and over crushed ice is how I like to drink my juice. 🙂

What does my weight loss progress look like so far? 

Beginning weight: 220 lbs.

Current Weight: 209 lbs.

Goal Weight: 170 lbs.

# of total pounds I want to lose in 2012: 50lbs.

# of pounds to go until I reach my goal: 39 lbs.

Total # of pounds lost to date: 11 lbs.

I haven’t gotten back on the treadmill since we’ve moved, but I have been spending lots of time on my feet walking and putting things away, carrying the baby, and going up and down the stairs, so that counts for something, right?

How are you doing on your weight loss goals?

P.S. I know I said in my last weight loss update that I’d share a picture, and I’m going to. I’m just trying to get a picture of myself where my hair is combed (this = straightened to me), and I haven’t been waking up early enough to have time to fix my hair. I will tomorrow, though, whether I get up early or not, because we are going to church. I can’t leave for church without my hair straightened. It just wouldn’t be right. 🙂