The Reason

I never had a problem with my figure growing up.  There was no shame when wearing a bathing suit, the word "girdle" or "spanks" was not part of my vocabulary.  I ran for fun and thought dieting was a ridiculous concept.  Just eat when you are hungry and go low on the junk food.

Then I got married.

My introduction to weight gain started with the birth control pill.  Within a month of being on it, I noticed the pounds slowly creeping up.  No matter how much I exercised or watched what I ate, I gained 15 pounds and it stuck.  There was no over-eating.  If you saw how much my husband and I made that year, you would see there was absolutely no wiggle room for extra snacks or eating out.

Then we hit year two of our marriage and we decided that I would get off of the birth control pill and "see what happened."  My ideal was to have some time to lose that extra weight and hopefully get pregnant within a few months.

Nope.  Little Miss Abby was conceived that same month.

Okay, no big deal.  So I was starting 15 pounds higher than I wanted-I could lose that after she was born.

Little did I know that my body is one of those fun sorts that does not like to lose baby weight while nursing.  Sure, I shed the first 10-15 pounds that comes off when the baby comes out.  But, after that, it was a waiting game.  My personal favorite part of the whole experience was watching my other friends who I had shared the pregnancy months with, shed all of their weight quickly.  One girl even went home from the hospital wearing her pre-pregnancy jeans.

We don't like her very much.

You know who else I don't like?  Celebrities.  These women say their secret to losing the weight quickly is breast-feeding.  Really?  So the personal trainer and personal chef have nothing to do with it?

It did not matter how much I exercised and avoided the junk food, those pounds were determined to stay.  I later found out that my mom was the same way-thanks a lot for those genes, Mom.

Eventually, the weight started coming off, but not all of it.  Right around the time when I was starting to feel good about myself, I found out that Mr. Caleb was on his way.  I still remember the day that a friend mentioned, "You look great!  Really losing weight!"  I replied, "Thanks!  I'm pregnant."

So, I went through the same routine, nursing as long as I could while holding on to those extra pounds.  Fun times.  Eventually, we came to realize that perhaps we were done having babies.  We were not the most careful when it came to birth control and after a couple of years of "let's see what happens," we figured we were done.

Then along came pregnancy number three.  I found it amazing that my body started to gain and stick out so quickly within that first month and a half.  Sadly, we lost our baby at 8 weeks.  I would totally gain all the weight in the world to have met our little baby.  Someday in Heaven...

Within a short time, I was pregnant with Mr. Noah.  This particular pregnancy was the most lazy I have ever been.  He kept me sick during the first 14 weeks so there was absolutely no motivation to exercise there.  The summer was so hot that it was way too miserable to do any activity outside.  By the time I hit the fall, what was the point?

So, here I am, with my youngest three months old.  He is nursing great and again, I am trying to go as long as I can.  I am holding steady at the same weight that I have been for a couple of months.  Thankfully, I have a husband who is motivated to lose some weight and get back to his college baseball days.

P90X it is.

I have heard great things about this work-out from people we actually know, so I tend to believe in it more than some of those other commercials that are out there.  As we started the 90 day work-out this week, I thought that keeping a blog would be a great motivation for me to continue. 

Please enjoy this blog as I begin this ridiculously hard work-out, while still managing to find the time to care for my three children and husband.

It should be a breeze.