Last month I joined our local rec center. Initially I joined it for the pool. My little guy loves to splash and kick in the water. He's definitely a total water baby. Several people asked me if he could swim already because he spent half the time on his tummy kicking his legs and waving his arms around in what looked like a clumsy doggy paddle while I helped him float. He just can't get enough of it.
Anyway, the center is literally five minutes from our house and it's way cheaper than joining a gym. We have a stationary bike at home but I hate using it. I used to bike for real (until I got hit by a truck) so sitting in one place feels weird to me. I have been using the elliptical trainer at the rec center gym and I love it. I love that it uses more than just the muscles in my legs. I only got a 30-day membership since I wasn't sure how much I'd actually go. Exercise has never really been my thing. But now that I've had a baby I've got some extra weight I'd rather not keep as a souvenir any longer. I'd also like to be able to set a good example for my son as he grows.
A few days ago I read a post from Katie at Notes from a very red kitchen where she mentioned her recently weight loss success. She has another blog that talked about using MyFitnessPal.com. I checked it out and was immediately interested. I signed up (for free) and began logging my daily food intake and exercise.
In the last five days I have lost 2 pounds! Yeah, that's right, 2 whole pounds! I have lost about 4 1/2 lbs. since I started exercising at the rec center a month ago. Using a food journal definitely helps me. I have a vicious sweet tooth so it helps me to see on the screen just how many calories I have consumed in day. Now I'm only having dessert or a sweet treat once a week. Since it's only once a week I'm going to hold out for something really good. When I'm working really hard to exercise it seems like a total waste to eat a candy bar when I could wait for my treat day and have something really wonderful, like a pastry from here. I really love this place.
(If you live in Utah you really have to try it. It's amazing. They have the best pastries I've had since I was in Paris on my honeymoon.)
Anyway, here is what my exercise log looks like from this week. I haven't worked out today yet, but I will. I will have almost burned a whole day's worth of calories. Seeing my progress in print, along with the scale, is totally motivating me.
Minutes Calories Burned
Daily Total/Goal 0/30 0/200
Weekly Total/Goal 117/90 1129/600
How are you staying motivated to lose some baby weight, or just feel better in general?
Notes: Here are two websites that I have found for finding the calorie count of all sorts of foods that don't come with a nutritional information label: http://www.calories-nutrition.buddyslim.com, and http://nutritiondata.self.com/.
4 comments:
Good job Dagny - keep up the good work! (I'm Katie's mom over at The Skinny.)
Woot woot! Way to go! I'm so glad it was helpful!
Thanks for visiting my blog! It's nice to know that I'm not the only one struggling with the post-baby weight loss (not that I did, but it's nice that someone else is blogging about it.) I blogged about MyFitnessPal in this link http://www.honeybearlane.com/2010/07/my-big-goal.html
but I confess that I have gotten pretty good at remembering everything that goes in my mouth now that I don't use it as much, except for logging my weight progress. I've lost 3 pounds in the last 2 weeks, which I know I can do better...it's just working out with these kids around that's killing me! :) But I plan on starting a spin class every Tues/Thurs morning as well as doing yoga twice a week and weights 3x a week. I actually love exercise and I hope that you will find something that you become addicted to as well! Good luck! I'll be rooting for your progress!
That pool looks as fun as you described it. Linc is going to love splashing around there!
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