Challenge Girls

As you may recall, I have spent the last 9 months trying to rid my body of excess baby weight in addition to dropping those little sneaky pounds that crept up between the last 2 babies I birthed. I joined the Beauties and the Beast Challenge with my little sis, Rachel, back in the spring and have participated in the last 3 Challenges. You can check it out on the button on my blog, but basically it's a group of girls that hold each other accountable and use the guidelines of exercise at least 3 times a week, no sweets, and no fried foods. We are given a certain number of cheats to use during the weeks of the challenge. My goal was to be pre-pregnancy weight by Lydia's first birthday and then work on those excess boogers that crept up uninvited.

I've realized 2 things: One is that the older I get the harder this is, despite my efforts. I must try much harder than I ever used to in order to get back to where I was. Second is that my efforts are like a roller coaster. I do great, then celebrate my weight loss with a big ice cream sundae. Stupid, I know. The mind is willing but the flesh is weak.

So did I reach my pre-pregnancy goal before her first birthday? Well, not quite. I could have if I hadn't celebrated my weight loss so much over Christmas break with egg nog, cookies and Chic - Fila. I can tell myself that I almost got there and that was good or I could kick myself for not reaching such an easy goal to reach. Depending on what day you ask, would depend on the answer I would give. But I'm a fighter and not a quitter, so I plug away. I have until March to finish this challenge and I know I can get to my first goal by then. So what do I say when my sweet daughter glances at my flabby belly and mentions at the same time, "Did you notice that our Bender Buddies' mom is so skinny and she's had 10 kids??!!" I scream back, "YES! I DID NOTICE AND I'M WORKING ON IT. YOU KIDS GAVE ME THIS BELLY, YA KNOW!"... and they were worth ever flab of it!

Rachel and I wearing our "Beauties and the Beast Challenge" t-shirts.