Week 12: 12 weeks down, 12 weeks to go!

Total Weight Lost:  12 lbs
Total Waist Lost:  2.75 inches

Some of my more faithful readers may have noticed that I failed to blog last Saturday.  I don’t have much of an excuse.  Mostly it was because I woke up cranky and spent so much of my day stomping around, yelling at people, slamming doors and muttering under my breath that I had no time left to sit down and write.  Which just goes to show that time can fly whether you are having fun or not.

But today the sun is shining, the kids are napping, and I am back to the wonderful world of blogging.  And that ghastly scale of mine has not budged for 3 weeks.  It’s not even the batteries.  I checked.  It’s just that I seem to have mastered the fine art of maintenance.  I’m not really complaining--I’d much rather maintain than gain.  However, I am not nearly as close to my goal weight as I am to my 30th birthday.

I have a couple of theories about my stunted weight loss.  One of those theories involves the batch of snickerdoodles I made (and almost single handedly polished off) last week.  Another is that my doctor’s prediction was right, and my weight loss has indeed tapered off to about 2 or 3 pounds a month.  Finally, there is a general consensus among baby books that a nursing mother often cannot lose the last ten or so pounds until the baby is weaned.  Whatever the reason, I’ve decided to not let it bother me.  I will just focus on eating healthy whole foods (most of the time) and see where it gets me.

Speaking of whole foods, my first trip to Whole Foods was an enormous success.  As suggested by my dear friend, Colleen, it is truly the Nordstrom of grocery stores.  We have now been enjoying only grass fed, humanely raised beef.  It is more expensive, but it doesn’t affect our budget much since we only eat it about once a week.  For the time being, I am still buying all of our chicken in bulk at BJ’s.  You have to crawl before you can walk, right?

And speaking of walking, that is still the entirety of my exercise plan.  I always thought I would switch to jogging at some point, but I’m beginning to agree with my wise (not to mention good-looking) husband: there is simply no need to run unless someone is chasing you.  Happily, I am rarely chased.

I’m sticking with walking as my cardio exercise of choice, but I do feel the need to amp up my workouts.  With the arrival of warm weather came the necessity of short sleeved shirts and skirts, and my problem areas have become a bit more apparent.  I’d like to start a toning program, but I am having a hard time committing to more than 30 minutes of structured exercise a day.  A question for my readers that know a thing or two about exercise (and I know you are out there--I’ve seen your ridiculously toned arms and flat abs in your Facebook pictures):  Would it be beneficial to give up two of my cardio days in exchange for resistance training?  Readers who have naturally toned arms and flat abs:  please keep your comments to yourself.