six and twelve

I thought I'd actually start with the positive half of my post today.  Six weeks down, a lifetime to go on the path towards a healthier me.  TWELVE pounds down (2.6 last week!), sixteen more to go to get to my first main goal.  That is right, I actually lost an average of two pounds a week over the last six weeks.  I am surprised.  I'm so excited and proud.  I have freaking stuck with this new way of life, even while I'm sitting here watching my husband eat Tostitos and trail mix (sorry Chris).  Hopefully I can continue losing at this pace and in four more weeks I will have lost twenty.

The other awesomeness that happened this week?  I put on a pair of jeans a size smaller than what I've been wearing.  Before I was pregnant I was wearing a size 8 from Gap.  Although I dropped down to my pre-pregnancy weight shortly after Ryann was born, I ended up having to buy some 10's because my clothes just didn't fit right.  Sometime over the winter I had to buy some 12's.  That was pretty tough for me.  I'm happy I did, instead of just being miserable and willing my clothes to fit, but those were the biggest jeans I'd ever had to buy.  But last week I cleaned out my closet.  And there were a pair of 10's hanging around, so I tried them on.  THEY FREAKING FIT!  They still feel a little snug in the thighs, but I think that is because they are the long and lean (ironic right?) fit, and lately I've been liking the curvy fit, as well as the jeggings.  Anyway, yeah.  Woot!  I dropped a pant size.  I still don't feel like I look any smaller, but I must be making progress.

And back to being my negative nancy self.  This lifestyle change is incredibly tough to stick with.  To begin with, I love food.  I love tasty incredibly terrible for you food.  I am also a stress/emotional eater.  I've noticed that when Ry is having a good day (therefore I'm having a good day) I don't notice being hungry, and I don't really think about food.  If Ry is having a tough day (like the last two weeks when she was sick, or today when she didn't take a nap AT ALL) everything in the kitchen is calling my name, and I want to drive myself to McDonalds and get a six piece nugget and a large fry, and I want to down a bottle of wine.  I could definitely do a bottle of wine right now.  Oy.

But is so nice to see the number on the scale moving (in the downward direction).  And I can actually start to see a tiny bit of muscle definition in my thighs from all of the running and walking I've been doing.  So for now I am still convincing myself to stick with it.

Oh and for the record?  I'm also really loving the iMapMyRUN app I downloaded this weekend.  I really wanted to have an idea of how much ground I was covering when I was going for a walk with Ry, and this app tracks my route, pace and milage.  Being able to see those stats makes me want to go a little bit further and a little bit longer.  (I really wish I had been tracking all my miles for my workouts, because just last week I'm pretty sure I covered over 15 miles.  It feels good to see it add up!)  I paid for my version, because I have an excessive amount of credit on iTunes, but there is also a free version (with ads).

Who else is on this health kick/fitness bandwagon with me?  What has been working for you lately?  Get motivated by some other ladies over at Heir to Blair.