ATHLETE

The Post Where I Disclose My Weight

I was overweight when I got pregnant. In fact, I was OBESE. I had even dropped 8 pounds in the two months prior to conception, but it wasn't enough to lower me to the overweight bracket. I have to say that I was dealing with multiple scales at all the different doctor's offices, hospital and home (of course the most forgiving scale that weighed me a significant amount less) but I'm just going to use my OB's scale because it's probably closest to the awful truth and happens to weigh close to the same as our new scale.

According to that scale my pre-pregnancy weight was 211 pounds. Yowza!

I can't believe I'm putting that out there for everyone to see, but with the holidays just around the corner, I'm hoping this will keep me accountable.

I gained close to 40 pounds during my pregnancy, tipping the scale at 25o pounds the day before Hunter was born. Ugghhh. But I wasn't there for long. I don't recall what I was post delivery but I know I lost 23 pounds the first month and 4 more pounds by 8 weeks. That's when I could finally find time to exercise. They say you can resume exercise by 6 weeks, but I seriously don't know how anyone can do it that soon. Just exercising 3 days a week and juggling a 2 month old was exhausting. But I did it. And by 4 months postpartum I was back to 211.

It felt so good to be at my pre-pregnancy weight yet still pretty discouraging to think that I had close to 50 pounds left to lose to be at my ideal weight. I had been running a few days each week and decided to really step it up and start running more days and longer distances. I also joined Stroller Strides so that Hunter could be a little social while I exercised.

Now I am 6 months postpartum and weigh in at 188 pounds, a 62 pound weight loss. I am nearly half way to my goal with only 24 pounds left to lose. And no longer obese And more important than my weight is that I've developed a real LOVE for running. I have run 5 marathons in the past and a few other shorter races so it's pretty clear that running has always been a hobby of mine. The reason I ran before and had marathon goals is that it kept me exercising. Which is a wonderful reason in itself. But now I run because I love it. I love moving my body and pushing it to it's extreme and then going out the next day and realizing that I can push myself even further. And seeing what my body can do makes me want to take much better care of it.

I also have this dream of running the Boston Marathon and now there may actually be a chance in hell that I can qualify for it in 2012. When I started running again, or should I say jogging, 4 months ago I was jog/walking at a 15:30 minute/mile pace. Now I'm running a mile in under 9:30! I can run 3 miles under 30 minutes! At 188 pounds! Sorry, I had to brag for a minute because I never thought my body could run under a 12 minute mile. But, boy, can it! So maybe qualifying for Boston with an average 8:23 pace isn't too far off.

My goals, in the mean time, are first: to run a 10k this weekend in under 60 minutes, second: to finish the LA Marathon in under 4:20 (DUDE) and lastly to lose my remaining 25 extra pounds in the next 6 months. It's so funny that my weight is now the least important priority because I've always thought it defined me as a person. And it did, it defined me as OBESE. But now there's a new word that defines me: Athlete.

xoxo,

Lauren