Just a little bit more...

Finally, I had my little miracle baby.  And she brought about everything I expected, joy, happiness, smiles, cooing, giggles and more.  Motherhood also brought about a few things I wasn't ready for sleepless nights, colic and an additional 30 pounds to lose.  Once I got clearance from the doctor, I started to gradually add exercise back into my life.  My workouts consisted mostly of walking on the treadmill, while my daughter was soothed to sleep in her papasan chair by the hum of the belt whirring as I walked at a 3.0 mph pace.  I couldn't do any abdominal exercise for a very long time as my ab muscles had gotten very weak.

Well, this all worked out fine and well for the first three months but then it was time to go back to work.  At this point I still had about fifteen pounds to lose.  But with working full-time, breastfeeding, night feedings, I had no energy or time to work out.  My only saving grace - which I hate to admit - was my daughter had a dairy and soy intolerance.  Doctors orders were. "If I wanted to breastfeed, I would have to cut out all soy and dairy from my diet."  So I did.  And off came the fifteen pounds, and an additional ten that I had wanted to lose pre-pregnancy.

After nearly fourteen months of breastfeeding, my daughter weaned herself.  And I added dairy and soy back to my diet - and an additional ten pounds.  But my body was my own again and I started exercising on a regular basis again.  Slow and steady, I gradually worked back up to exercising six days a week.  But I had to adapt, I had to make the transition from being a morning exerciser to becoming an evening exerciser.  This has been by far the hardest transition.  I enjoyed morning exercise because you get it done, over with and out of the way.  Evening exercise lends itself to so many excuses and obstacles for fitting it in.  Which brings me to the purpose of this blog - motivation and accountability.  Now all I need is some readers...