A completely different kind of 9 months

I'm talking about the same 9 months that it's been since my little angel was born, but this time it's not about her weight, what she's eating, or whether she's crawling or walking.  It's about my weight, what I'm eating, and whether I'm walking or running.  Women all over the world stress out about their post -pregnancy weight, especially if it is their last baby because they know they have no excuse to keep it on or put it back on.  Within the first few months you hear the kind compliments of "You look amazing for having just had a baby." or "Wow, don't even look like you had a baby."  Such sweet people....or smart people that know a new mother's hormones have her staked at the edge of a building and anything less than words of kindness may send her over the edge.  Time goes on and many of us find ourselves not quite reaching that pre-pregnancy goal we had in mind, or worse, putting the lbs back on.  People then start to come back with "Don't worry, it took you 9 months to put it on, so give yourself at least 9 months to take it off."  9 months to take it off, my ass.  Literally!  Whoever (read: whatever man) decided that was a good rule of thumb never considered the food addict, full-time working mother of two, whose husband works long hours too, whose baby doesn't sleep through the night until almost 9 months, who is so busy doing so much around the house in the evenings (that the family is actually at home) it's 9:00 p.m. before she even gets to sit down to eat supper. 

Yeah, I lost the baby weight.  Well, at least all but the last 4 lbs.  Then, the time came to start working back in exercise.  When was I supposed to do that??  I never had the energy when I got home from work, after making dinner, getting kids to bed, doing laundry, washing bottles, etc.  I was still getting up once, sometimes twice a night with Delaney, so an early outing was painful.  My eating habits didn't change, but I wasn't having time to run or do weight training.  And the pounds came back.  Many of you know my history with weight, so I can see how you would think  that I spent enough time at 120 lbs overweight, what difference is 20 lbs?  But, I have to tell you, this extra 20 pounds is more miserable feeling than the 120 ever was.  Because now I know different.  Finally, about a month ago when Delaney started really consistently sleeping through the night, I started getting up for a run at 4:45 a.m. At this stage of my life, this seems like a completely reasonable time to start my day.  In college, it seemed like a completely reasonable time to end my day.  Funny how things change.  I've been doing it several days a week with the C25K plan and am back to running my old 5K time....but still not quite covering the same distance in the amount of time.  It's a work in progress, but at least it's something.

With the upcoming holidays (offensive amounts of deliciousness time of year), I'm evidently not alone in my quest to drop a few.  Someone in our building organized a Biggest Loser Challenge, which starts today!! 15 women and 10 men.  We each put money in and whoever wins for each group gets the pot.  There's no training, it's all on our own.  Call it gambling, call it bribery, but I call it incentive.  If, in the end, I've done nothing to improve my situation, I may be a totally different kind of biggest loser, but I figured this would be some kind of motivation.  Do you know what kind of fabulous meal georgeous outfit I could get with $300??

Wish me luck!  Here's hoping I don't make an idiot of myself.  It's 3 months.  How bad can it be, right?