I gained over 50 pounds with my 5th pregnancy.  At my final appointment, it was up to 50.5 pounds, so I’m sure that I was eventually up higher than that.  Considering the amount of Halloween candy I surely ingested the night before he was born, I may have even been up to 52 or so pounds gained during the pregnancy.  After walking around and trick-or-treating with the kids for over 2 hours, I think I deserved all the chocolate bars, okay?

Anyway, I didn’t really get started with my weight loss until Ethan was around 2 months old.  I meant to start January 1st (he was exactly 2 months then anyway), but I chose to wait until January 5th instead because there were some weight loss challenges starting then.

The Beginning

As you can see in my weight chart below, I had dropped down from 190-something (pregnancy weight) down into the 160s for a bit there.  Notice the huge spike?  That is what happens when your family leaves homemade fudge and divinity and fruit cake that your Meme made and you just eat…and eat…and eat.

When I realized that I was gaining weight instead of losing it, I knew it was time to take control of this situation.  Yuck!  (As you can see, I’ve made a lot of progress since then!  Stay tuned to find out more about all of that.)

The Evidence

Here are some pictures so you can really see what I was dealing with here.  171.6 pounds to start.  Are you KIDDING ME?  I had an 11 pound baby and I was down less than 20 pounds two months later?  SO not cool.  I’m only 5’3″, so this put me in the obese category with my BMI.

My before picture is oh-so-flattering.  I just have to share so you can all see what a tired new mother of 5 looks like, all bloated with holiday leftover treats. 😉

The Plan

I threw myself into 2 four week long Diet Bets and a 12 week weight loss challenge on a forum I’m on.  With money at stake, not to mention people looking at my progress, I knew I had a better shot at getting serious.

Even if I didn’t have weight to lose, my habits drastically needed to change.

The Progress

You’ll have to keep reading in the coming weeks to hear about how I did it and what’s worked best.  Stay tuned..