I think I can!!

[MamaMis]

Hello all! My name is Melissa, and I am ready to do this!!

My son was born at 28 weeks and 4 days, and spent 71 days in the NICU. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend that entire time with him, but living away from home and extreme stress meant eating out every day, terrible diet, and NO exercise. This was on top of justifying eating ice cream every night because I was pregnant and getting fat was acceptable Our son is now home, 3 months old, and mama is F-A-T!! Luckily I have always carried my weight well, blood numbers are good, blood pressure is low, however I have about 60 pounds I need to lose to feel comfortable in my body again.

I am no stranger to competition or teamwork! I was a pitcher in fast-pitch for well over a decade, played collegiate and semi-pro, and am competitive by nature. I tend to do best on a lower-carb diet, and all my weight goes right to my lower half - a true pear body shape. Working in Human resources and safety means a desk job that doesn't allow me to be as active as I would like to be (or like to think I am), and I am the QUEEN of making excuses after a long day of work and an hour and a half on the road drive time (see...told ya ).

Ultimately, I want to be pushed. I want to lift heavy again. I want to feel that soreness of a hard workout!! I don't want these HIPS anymore!! I want to feel strong and sexy...and you know what? Imma gonna do it!!

Tomorrow evening I am trying my first Crossfit workout at a designated Crossfit gym to see if I like it I have been half-doing a paleo diet this past week, but junk food is abundant, my willpower has been weak, and exhaustion has set in with a newborn son (BIG stress eater here). I'm done with the excuses, I am ready, and I will be healthy for myself, my husband, and my beautiful son!!!

So hello all, I look forward to 'meeting' all of you, and I will hopefully be a support to you all as well as I travel this path!!

[GOT2KNOW]

Hello MamaMis and congrats for your son, i wish both of you best of luck and health.

I'm really happy to see your enthusiasm and I will support you on your road.

As a starting tip, I highly advice you to not set any short-term goals. Those short-term goals are tricky, because if you fail one you get frustrated and sooner or later you will drop the whole thing off. And we don't want this, right ?

I'm sure that you beat me at competition area and motivation, therefore I will resume at that little advice.

Looking forward for future posts.

[Laureleye]

Hi MamaMis. I like to think of goals more as part of a road map. If you were driving from Ohio to California you wouldn't just start out blindly and hope you got there; you'd figure out what roads to take and where you'd stop for the night. You might take a wrong turn, or get delayed because of road construction, but because you had a plan with milestones, you'd know how to adjust. Likewise the trick to short-term goals is how you make them. Just like you wouldn't try to drive to Hawaii or drive crosscountry in 1 day, your goal has to be something realistic and timely. You know where you are and where you want to end up, so what baby steps do you need to get there? You say your willpower is weak, so some possible goals would be not to have anything in the house that's not paleo, or rearrange the pantry so the snacks are all out of sight.

Glad you joined in and hope you have fun and regain your fitness. The challenge is nearly over, but another one starts 1/1/13. If you're interested, see this thread. Join one of the guilds; it will give you a cheering squad and some folks to give you a little nudge if you need it.

[MamaMis]

Welcome and good luck!

If you're breastfeeding, remember to keep weight loss at a slow and steady rate; anything more than 1kg/2lb per week may possibly impact on milk supply. If you're bottle feeding, it's not an issue of course.

I am breastfeeding, and this is something I have been trying to weigh out. My supply has been dropping a bit since we have been home, and I have to exclusively pump because we never established a latch since he was so premature. But I still pump enough for several bottles a day, and have enough frozen to last a minimum of 30 days. I am going to keep my diet clean and try my best to keep supply up! Thank you for the advice!!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome aboard, glad your child is home. I agree with Laureleye, short-term goals are good if they are increments of long term goals. What I would recommend is quanitfy your long term goals with some measureable numbers so you can track how you are doing. Cross-fit is great, I've had a lot of friends do it and love it, though I haven't tried it for myself yet.

[Laureleye]

I can't think of a better motivation for eating well than the fact that you are breastfeeding. Starting now has certain advantages too. I think you'll have a much better feel for your goals for the challenge.