It keeps running, running and running, running.

To keep myself motivated, I thought I'd start blogging about my journey back to my pre-pregnancy weight. As of right now, my will power is fantastic. I know there will come a day when that's not the case, so I'll need a reference point. Well here it is. For those of you fortunate NOT to see me towards the end of my pregnancy, let me just say to you that I looked HORRIBLE. And don't worry, I understand that. 70lbs of extra weight wouldn't look good on anybody. I still can't believe I gained that much, but I'm going to categorize this experience as a "live and learn" and move on from there.

But let me start by posting, quite possibly one of the worst pictures ever taken of me.

Here I am in the hospital probably less than 12 hours after having K.T. Swollen (look at the face) and at the heaviest I have ever been.

I held that weight for a good 2.5 weeks after KT was born, and then I stepped on the scale, and I had shed 30lbs worth of water weight. THIRTY POUNDS!!! That's insanity, but with that came the realization that the rest of the weight was all me, baby. And that wasn't the best of realizations, let me tell you. So I gave myself 9 weeks after KT was born to get my act together. When I went back to work, I went back to Weight Watchers (online).

Since I started on April 5, I have shed 20.5lbs. I am ECSTATIC with that, but I still have another 20lbs to shed before I'm at my pre-prego weight. But, I'm on a serious mission. I refuse to get comfortable with this weight because I fear if I do, I'll never lose it. And I don't want to be an overweight Mom. I want to be active.

One of my goals this year was to run a 5k, which for some is an easy feat. For a person who just had a baby, is still 40lbs overweight, and to be quite frank, was never really much of a runner, this is a HUGE deal. I thought I'd sign up for a race in October (maybe), but definitely BEFORE December - hey, it's still within the year, blame the procrastinator in me. But, the opportunity has come a lot sooner than that. While talking to my SIL, Lauren, back in March she mentioned that she and my other SIL, Jenny would be running in the Houston Astros Race for the Pennant 5k. And it struck me that, even though I just had a baby, what's my excuse for not doing this too? One of my biggest griefs about pregnancy is that I wasn't able to do a lot (physically) towards the end. Now, I had my chance. So I asked if I could join them - and we all signed up for the race.

Now, I'm 2.5 weeks away from the 5k. I started training about 4 weeks ago by simply walking on the treadmill at home for 20-25 minutes at a time. But 2 weeks ago, I started running. And I ran for 10 minutes, walked for 10 minutes. Then I slowly increased it, and said I'm just going to run until I can't run anymore. I realized I could do about a 20 minute stretch before I became really tired. Then last night, I hit the 2 mile mark (a solid 25 minutes of running). Do you know how LONG it has been since I've ran 2 miles? Let's just say, that it's probably been since high school and I don't remember running that much even back then. But I'm actually, and this sounds crazy, ENJOYING it (well, mostly, let's not get carried away). Maybe it's because it's helping me shed the weight. Maybe it's because it helps me relieve stress (that part is an added bonus) or maybe, my interests have changed. But, for the next 2.5 weeks, I plan on increasing my running time by 2 minutes each workout - I run about 4 times a week. And I'm going to try to run as much as that 5k as possible. I realize you can't get anywhere unless you PUSH yourself, and I just keep telling myself, it's not going to kill me. Yeah, I'm breathing hard, yeah my legs burn, but this won't kill me - and just keep focused on Monday morning weigh in. And I make it through.

Here's a recent pic of me, after shedding 50lbs. Yeah my face is still carring weight. And, it's a given that my chest is (considering I'm still pumping, pumping, pumping), but hopefully I'll shed some weight in those areas too.