Thread: Just a Note from a Mommy in Idaho

I wanted to introduce myself. I am a stay at home mom with 3 little ones Aubree, who will be 4 on Feb 17, 2006, Shayla who turned 2 on December 7, 2005 and Andrew who will be 1 on March 5, 2006. I love being able to stay at home with my children and find great joys, as well as great challenges, in raising my kids. My husband and I started our own business a few years ago and it eats up a lot of time, but is very well worth the effort.
I started eating LC in September. I have a mother in law whom I am very close to, that is a nurse and had adopted the Atkins way of eating several years earlier and had wonderful success. After I had my little ones I decided that I wasn't going to let my kids by my excuse for being fat so I borrowed my MIL's copy of Dr Atkins book and read it cover to cover. Needless to say I learned A LOT from the book. I started Induction September 7, 2005 and followed it to the letter. I even stayed on it for 4 weeks since I figured that I had a lot of weight to lose. I have been very lucky that my success has been relatively quick. I have lost 45lbs in the last 5 months and gone from a size 20 pants all the way down to a size 12. I actually got into a size 10 the other day, but 12 is more comfortable still.
My Husband has been very supportive all along the way. He has tried very hard to show that he will love me no matter what size I am, but that he wants to see me happy with myself and healthy. Never once has he complained about my near constant talk about LCing or my excited phone calls everytime I find I have lost a few pounds. And anytime I start to get discouraged about not losing as fast as I want to he reminds me of how far I have come, how much healthier I am now and he is quick to remind me that I am losing weight fast, and the point is I am losing weight. He is also kind enough to remind me of what I need to be working on harder like exercising everyday.
I try to exercise everyday, but sometimes I let myself get too busy. Not only do I have my 3 kids, but I take care of my 1 year old niece (4 times a week) as well as my 3 year old nephew (once a week) during the day and have a hard time working my exercise into the chaos. I am very excited for warmer days when I can put the kids in the stroller and go for my 2 mile walk. I used to love to tuck the kids in the stroller and walk, but after my son was born there never seemed to be time between the nursing and the naps and the house work. Thankfully he is finally at an age where I can do that again and I can't wait for it.
I started Atkins at 210lbs on September 7, 2005 and as of Jan 25, 2006 I was down to 165. I haven' weighed since then. I try to weigh once a week, except for TOM and then I just skip weighing that week. I don't really have a definate weight loss goal. I want to have a healthy BMI and I want to be healthy. I would like to be a size 8 and weigh somewhere around 135-140. Where I am 5'4" I think that would work for me, but I won't get obsessed about it. My main concern is to be healthy. My mother and nearly every member of her family is overweight and diabetic and several have gone through kidney failure, as well as all of the health problems that run with being overweight. I really just want to be able to head off what I can by being as healthy as I can right now. I am trying to make it a way of life, for me and my family. I want to teach my kids to take care of their bodies and to live healthy lives.
I love to cook and have had a lot of fun finding LC recipes to try on my fmaily. I find that the more recipes that I can adapt to LC or find that are LC the better I am about maintaing LC as my lifestyle. I am still in OWL, I still have at least another 25 pounds to loose, but will probably move into pre-maintance when I have about 10-15pounds left.
I am going to try to post to my new journal every week to keep track of my progress, but am not sure how often I will have free time at the computer.

WOW! You've made quite a journey already. You should be very proud of yourself for such an accomplishment. It is good to see that you are receiving such great support from your husband. As you move closer to goal weight, you will find the people here very helpful with the little fine tuning that will be required.
So... Welcome and good luck on the remainder of your journey.
Tom.

Congratulations on the 45 pounds lost, that's fantastic. Nice to have such a great support system in you husband and mother-in-law. I think you'll find lots of info and make fast friends around here. Post when you can and best wishes.

Wow! You've had great success already! Welcome to LCE...this is a wonderful place to find support, inspiration, and encouragement. I look forward to getting to know you more

Just wanted to say welcome ! This is a great place.....

WOW! You are doing wonderfully! Welcome to the board... being a SAHM has it's on joys and pain... I did it with my daughter til I moved back to the states....and came to realize that being a SAHM definitely requires a much stronger/disciplined person than me! So you GO girl!

:great: Thank you all for the warm welcome. I too am pretty excited for the success that I have had, but I know I couldn't have done it without the support of my husband. I am looking forward to getting to know people here and finding support here as well. As you all know sometimes you just need another voice saying that you can do it. Thanks for all of your comments.

This last week I decided to keep track of my water intake to see how much I am really drinking and I was astounded that I was hardly drinking any water at all. I never drink pop so water is pretty much all I drink. I have paid extra attention to drinking all my water and I am amazed at how much better I feel. I even weighed myself this morning and I am down 2 more pounds. I am now offically the same weight I was when I got married 5 years ago (163lbs), so I have lost ALL of the weight I gained with my 3 babies. This got me really excited. I still have more weight to lose, but this was kind of a mental goal and it feels good to be here. I do have to admit though that I have been horrible about my exercise, we have all been horribly sick around here and I just couldn't make myself exercise when I was sick. I know that I would be losing better if I would just exercise more, but I think I need some new exercise videos to get me more excited about it. I would love an exercise routine that is more like a dance routine, I used to dance once upon a time, but I am unsure what dance videos are good. Does anyone have any suggestions on good dance videos?

I'd love this as well. I HATE to exercise, and I love to dance, so I've been looking for something more along these lines.

Hi Tristan...I just wanted to thank you again for visiting me in my journal.

Sarahbear, Thanks for coming by. I was a lot like you wanting to get the baby weight off and I just kept hearing that lc was the best way to do it and it is definately the way for me to do it. I have found that enjoy my kids a lot more when I don't have to worry about the mood swings that come from blood sugar highs and lows. I wish you all the luck in your journey, no matter how slow it can seem at times it is so worth it to be able to have the energy for your kids. Congrats on your little one.

Vickie, Thanks for stopping by. I have learned a lot from you and I am planning on trying you pumpkin muffin thingy.

Last night I was trying to figure out what to make my kids for dinner, I was having a wonderful salad, but I wanted to make something else for the kids. Well I asked my almost 4 yr old what she wanted for dinner and she said "SALAD!!!" while she jumped up and down and cheered. So all of my little ones had salad for dinner and were quite happy with it and filled up by it. I guess I need to realize that even my kids can have what I am having as long as I also offer them all of their food groups.
I have learned from trial and error that I snack a lot less when I get all of my water and when I have a good breakfast. There have been days when I have felt like I didn't have time to eat breakfast, but now I know that I can't afford to do that. I stay on plan so much better when I have eaten a good breakfast. So this morning I had sausage links and scrambled eggs in a lc tortilla and 16oz of water. I am working on my second glass of water right now.

Tristan, great going! Congratulations on losing all that weight, and taking care of all those little ones! What a juggler you must be. You probably get loads of exercise just running after the kids.

My "baby" turns 30 this year, and I think I'm still trying to lose that baby fat! You are doing the right thing getting the weight off while you are young; it's much harder as you get older. And having support from your husband is just terrific. Mine has been following lc with me, and even though he really doesn't have to lose any more weight, he still stays on the woe with me. He could add more carbs, but chooses to eat what I eat. Great guy.

Have a beautiful weekend, with your beautiful family.

Tristan I totally agree with you about the dancing... what a great idea... I have been trying to come up with a way to get in more exercise. I gave up on videos...they get to boring.

I remember when I was a kids I would just close the door to my bedroom, put on my favorite music... and dance..
That is what I should do now at least 20 minutes or longer...most songs are about 3 minutes so if you wanted to dance for 40 minutes that is 13 songs...

I can do 13 songs... and if you are not too embarrassed have your kiddo's dance too. My dd would love that ...We can do it!

Thanks for the inspiration,
Heidi

Heidi

Thanks for stopping by Heidi. I took your suggestion and just turned on some fast music and danced like crazy with my 2 daughters and my son even tried to join in. By the time I was done I was so winded. I think this will get me some good cardio and I will just have to do my toning seperate. My kids just loved it and if nothing else it gets my heart rate up and gives me some quality time with my kids. Thanks for the suggestion!