sneakers and spice

So, I've decided to get serious about losing the rest of my baby/back injury weight. Not that I wasn't serious; I've been very seriously thinking about it while I've laid on the couch watching the entire Grey's Anatomy series and popping back M&Ms. (Boy, those cravings just don't ever go away, do they??) But I have a spring/summer wardrobe that I adore, and I refuse to buy new clothes for warmer weather just because I've lacked the motivation and energy to get my butt in gear and back into my short shorts.


THE GOAL
I want to lose 8 pounds by Easter. When I did the quick math and realized that was 2 pounds a week, I got an ego boost. Certainly I could pull that off without even having to end things with Mr. E.L. Fudge. But then I decided that not only did I want to lose weight, but I need to lose about 5 inches from my waist (and about everywhere else, but I'll start there). Ok, to be fair, I have been exercising about 3-4 days a week, and housework and taking care of an infant do count for something. But if I was going to do this, I had to go all in. I'd been stuck at DEF-CON 1; it was time to raise the stakes.


THE PLAN:
There's really no secret to weight loss: more calories out than calories in. But, since I am still nursing my six-month-old, I can't restrict calories and still have to eat a balanced diet, so cutting out all carbs isn't possible, either. And to be honest, besides my raging sweets addiction, I eat pretty healthy. So what I will cut out is sweets. So long, you cute little elf-shaped, fudge-filled cookies! So long peanut butter M&Ms! So long icing out of the can, peppermints from my purse, or anything else that I would scrounge up to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Then there's exercise. I'm a stay-at-home mom, so a gym membership is not in our budget. However, our roomy basement has afforded me the space for a home gym, and I have in my arsenal just about every workout DVD you could imagine: Pure Barre, Jillian Michaels, Insanity, P90X, postnatal boot camp, 10-minute Pilates Solutions, just to name a few. Not to mention a punching bag, jump rope, exercise ball, a weight bench and dumbbells, and a jogging stroller for arguably one of the hilliest neighborhoods in Birmingham. I have workouts for when I only have 10 minutes, and workouts for when I want to slave over my dumbbells for an hour or more. Workouts for when I need to tote our little tyke with me, and ones for when I'm flying solo. The only thing I don't have...is an excuse.

And since I'm still pumping and nursing, I can count the 300-500 calories a day that I burn from that...I just can't replenish that deficit with candy or chocolate.

DAY 1:
So I got off to a great start today: Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance for 40 minutes and punching bag drills for 10 minutes. I also had no sweets. (Granted, I've eaten most of them out of our house...but I did throw away the icing can, and that was the last item.) I intended to do a second workout, a Pure Barre DVD, this evening, but I ended up rocking my sweet, teething son instead. It was a nice trade-off.

Even though it's been six months since I gave birth, my joints are still a little wobbly, and my herniated disc is waiting in the shadows, eager to rear its ugly head. But I WILL do this. I will be back into my regular, fabulous warm-weather clothes soon enough!