Our weekend and a commitment

What a great weekend we had! I absolutely LOVE fall and this weekend was a great "kick off the fall" weekend.

It started off perfectly- I came home on Friday night to a clean home (thanks babe!), a yummy dinner prepared by hubs and a happy smiling baby!

Saturday we took a trip down to Annapolis. We enjoyed lunch outside and walked around exploring some local shops. The weather was perfect!

Sunday was spent enjoying football and "football food". We made some new dips and watched a few games.

Now on to that commitment...

Now that I am getting out all of my fall clothes, I realize that I have some work to do. Yes, I had a baby 3 months ago but its no excuse to "let myself go". I am very uncomfortable at my current weight and I am very unhappy with my "post baby body". Instead of crying about it, I'm making a commitment to do something about it! My commitment for the next 15 weeks (through Jan 1) is as follows:

-lose 20 lbs

-track everything I eat in "My Fitness Pal" and stick to my breastfeeding calorie goal (1800-1900)

-some form of working out five days per week

-weight lifting/toning at least 3 days per week

-run 10 miles per week

Hopefully making this commitment and realizing my goals will be just what this Mama needs to get her groove back. Yes, I said get my groove back. 

Here we go!

Post Preggo Health

Wow- two posts in one day! I'm on a roll (or baby Colin is extra sleepy). Now that we are almost five weeks post partum, I am thinking a lot about my personal health. It's time to get this body back on track and get these last ten pregnancy pounds off so that I can be the best me, wife and mommy possible. I am the best me possible when I feel good about myself and take some time out for me every day.

 I made a challenge with my Mom- we have to work out at least three days per week and lose ten pounds by our beach vacation (the last full week in August). I think we can do it!

Below are the health goals I set for myself for the next few months:

-Use My Fitness Pal daily to track caloric intake. I looked up my calorie needs while breastfeeding (which are more than they would be if I wasn't) and I'm going to stick to that amount in an effort to safely lose 1-2 pounds per week without jeopardizing my milk supply.

-Run 2-3 days per week. Colin loves the stroller! On nice days when it's not too hot- we will hit the pavement!

- Lift or do Tracy Anderson post pregnancy DVD 1-2 days per week (good to do while Colin is napping!)

- Complete the 30 day squat challenge starting today! My booty definitely took a beating during the pregnancy- not as perky as before- this should get it back to hot mama status!

- Drink 8 full glasses of water daily (if not more). I was so good about water while preggo. For some reason I have been having to remind myself to drink up now- probably because my hands are preoccupied with captain cutie all day! Proper hydration is always important, but even more so when you are establishing and maintaining a milk supply.

- Take a prenatal vitamin, pro-biotic and calcium supplement daily. Prenatal vitamins are recommended while breast feeding, a probiotic is good for digestion and I am not eating dairy so I need the calcium supplement to ensure I am getting enough.

Here's to a happy healthy Mommy in no time! :)

To hold myself accountable, I am going to post updates including pictures over the next two months. Below is a  picture of me at two and a half weeks postpartum. My belly has gone down a lot and I no longer look pregnant but I weigh the same. 

Below is where I stand today, ten pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight. I still want to lose an additional 15 pounds on top of the 10 I need to lose to get back to what I was 11 months ago.

Looking forward to a healthier version of me!

Me time & a TGIF!

In 2011 I can honestly say I did not have enough “me time”.  Between grad school, wedding planning, house buying, work, etc. I didn’t get many days to do things for me. I’ve always worked out to stay in shape, but never really took the time to enjoy the process of getting fit and feeling my best. It’s always been more mechanical. This is going to change in 2012. I’ve started great new eating habits (Yeast Free) and feel great already! I’ve been lifting more weights to tone up and am reading The Help for FUN! Now that we have the house, we’ve also been eating dinner at the table instead of on tray tables in front of the boob tube. All great things that I am definitely lovin’. Hubs is feeling great too and said that he loves our new routine. J

Last night I got home from work, went to the gym for an hour and a half and came home to unwind in my new soaking tub with my book. I felt like a million bucks! Now that we are settling in to our new home and we have more free time, I plan to take better care of myself.  Better eating, more reading for fun, enjoying my workouts, better routines.

On a side note, you know what’s freaking amazing about not having cable yet? I stayed at the gym an extra half hour to watch TV. No cable= more cardio. Ha! Love it!

What’s up for the weekend?

Tonight my very generous Uncle and Aunt are bringing us the dining room set my grandma is passing down to us. She is moving into an apartment and giving us a beautiful set that will look just perfect in our great room.  Hubs’s Aunt and Uncle are also coming over to see the new place and hang out with us. Tomorrow, Hubs has some homework to do and I will be hitting the gym and unpacking. I may also sneak in a trip to the mall. Tomorrow night will be the first Saturday night in a long time where we have no plans! I plan on taking full advantage of some Hubs time. ;) Sunday of course, we will be watching some football. More specifically, RAVENS FOOTBALL!!!! A while back hubs purchased a HD antenna for our big screen (modern day Rabbit ears). Due to the fact that we had Comcast I gave him a ration of crap for making such a silly purchase. Needless to say, this silly purchase has given us basic cable in HD for the past week. This means, a sincere apology for giving you crap, sweet husband of mine! I still need my extended cable back… ;)

Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend!

Settled!!!

Hello gorgeous!!!!

Hubs and I are all moved in and settled for the most part. It has been a very busy and grueling week to say the least! We don't have any Internet yet since we are new construction. No Internet = short and sporadic lunch break/after work posts. We will hopefully be up and running with all utilities next week. I am not enjoying the lack of food  network shows and Internet access!

We settled on Wednesday morning then spent the afternoon together in awe. It was really nice having time together before the hustle and bustle of the weekend ahead. We moved in some fragile boxes (mostly our china), went shopping for some breakfast bar stools and a new desk then headed to Don Pablo's for a nice mid day meal and a margarita!
That night we picked my little brother up from the bus station and hung out until it was time to crash.

Unfortunately, hubs had to work Thursday and Friday. As he headed to work, I headed to the gym for a quick work out. When I got back, I woke up my little brother to get the day started! We packed up the car and headed over to the house to put together the furniture we bought the day before and wait for the comcast guy. At around noon Julie came over and my parents followed about an hour later. We spent Thursday and Friday painting and unpacking some fragile boxes. Friday night we went out to dinner to celebrate my Dad's 64th birthday then got ready for Saturday.

Saturday morning the movers got to our apartment at around 9:30 and worked at packing until 12:30. In between we made a few trips with some boxes and miscellaneous things in the cars and helped them pack (to save buy the hour charges!). The rest of the weekend was spent unpacking, organizing and painting (for my parents). We were so very grateful for every one's help. We are settled for the most part with a few more boxes left to unpack.

Monday we started the "yest free diet" as see on the mess's blog. We feel great so far! Since the wedding we've put on a few of those "newlywed nine" and are looking to get back in tip top shape. I also went last night to join a new gym across the street from the new neighborhood and got in a great workout! I have always been big into working out/running/fitness and I'm thinking the new weight lifting regimen and yest free diet is just what I need to get back on track. :)

I'll be back as soon as possible with some pictures of the big move!

Cheers!
Caitlin 

It's the freakin' weekend!

Happy weekend! I am so excited that we go to settlement on our house in FIVE days!!! That means my honey do list is about a mile long for today and tomorrow.

This week went by really quickly but man was it busy. The "short weeks" at work always seem to be the crazy ones. Probably because we have to cram five days of work into four! Every evening this week hubs and I packed. We also made our first home depot run for paint and paint supplies!!!! Because hubs is new to his job, he can only take off Monday for our pre settlement meeting and then Wednesday for settlement. Luckily, I have an awesome family and a super fly bff so they are heading down Thursday to help me paint and move my fragile (must be Italian!) things. Ha, I couldn't resist the Christmas Story line. I seriously cannot say fragile without adding that in. I even wrote it on some of our boxes.

Because we bought a townhouse and it's new construction, they recommend not painting the bottom floor or the stairwells due to nail pops over the first year. We decided that we wanted to paint the main floor before move in, which is set up great room style. We have an open kitchen/dining room that has a half wall into the living room. We are going with a rustic/Tuscany theme in the kitchen so we bought a orange/terracotta-ish color for the kitchen. It's so hard to explain, so I'll post pics next week. Then I got some inspiration from blog reading. I loved how Wendy over at The Shabby Nest did her living room. So classy yet modern. I am using her living room as inspiration. We got a mix between charcoal and slate color paint for the longest wall in our living room. We plan on mounting our t.v. to that wall and then hanging white large framed pictures on either side (over time). The other three walls will be an almond color. We have a cut out in the living room next to the steps. We plan on getting a small desk and making it our office space. I haven't decided yet, but I may paint the cut out the same charcoal color. We'll see next week!

In other news, I met with a personal trainer the beginning of December. My gym was offering a free session so I took them up on the offer. I've been a runner since my freshman year in college and run several days a week. However, it wasn't keeping the weight off post wedding so I knew I needed to spice up my work out routine. I started adding in a half hour of weight lifting three days per week using the techniques the trainer and I went over. I've definatley noticed a difference and feel much stronger in just a month! Now I know I need to change up my eating habits. We eat way too many carbs (granted, they are whole wheat) and not enough protein. This coming week, I plan on starting a low carb, high protein diet. We'll see if that gets off the last fifteen pounds.

We'll I'm off to the gym, grocery store and home depot for more packing supplies while hubs is off to drill for the day (one weekend per month military obligation). I hope to surprise him with a few packed boxes and a nice dinner this evening.I WILL be back with a holiday post as soon as I unpack my memory card reader next week! Enjoy your weekend ya'll!


Cheers!
Caitlin