Finally!

Yesterday, I got on the scale and was very excited to see I now weigh what I did when I got pregnant with Wyatt. Quite frankly, I was beginning to think that was an impossible goal. I actually dreaded getting pregnant because I had grown up with the idea that after you have a baby, that's pretty much it for your body. I'm not exceptionally image-conscious, as is obvious from my lack of make-up and fancy clothes, but I do care about being a healthy weight. This weight thing, though, hasn't been my focus over the last few months. It was more a happy outgrowth from our growing good exercise habit.

Back in December, Oliver and I had a talk about what was keeping us from committing to working out regularly. We'd made a goal before we moved here to get back in shape, and his schedule is such that that is very possible, but we didn't do much of anything the first few months here. We hashed over incentives and maybe a competition, but couldn't find something that would motivate both of us (we've done stuff like that before and failed for the same reason).

Finally, we decided to take a harsher route. We made a rule that we couldn't use the computer until we'd worked out. It is in effect Monday through Friday, with the option of swapping a day out for Saturday. Or, you can just forgo using the computer and not work out, although that hasn't happened too often. We didn't quantify what type or how long to workout, although it needs to be more than walking to the park or the store. That takes all of five minutes here.

This is by far the most effective thing we've ever done. Whether that is a commentary on how addicted we are to computers or not, I am loathe to investigate, however, we are still working out almost five months later. In the beginning, I quite honestly was only working out because I wanted to use the computer as I was exhausted and had aching muscles from being so out of shape. Now, though, it's become part of our day. I always take lunch time to go because Oliver is typically home for about an hour and a half. Then, when he gets home, he'll go workout while I make dinner. We also haven't turned on the Wii Fit to do anything but weigh ourselves and track our time, but in the beginning, we used it almost every week when we were too tired to run outside or go to the gym.

So, losing the weight has been fantastic, but I'm most happy about building exercise back into our day. That's got to be the hardest part about exercise, at least for me. When it's a habit, I enjoy it very much. I feel so much better now, and I can finally run a mile in less than ten minutes, something I have always wanted to do. I can still tell I gave birth twice, but that's ok. Some sacrifices are totally worth it.