I can do anything

Everyone says when you are trying to lose weight you have to change your lifestyle or it won't stick.  Before I got pregnant, I had lost nearly 80 lbs and thought I had succeeded in the "lifestyle change."  For well over a year I counted calories and went to the gym 5 days I week.  It was hard at first but after I succeeded for a few weeks, I started telling myself I could do it.  I found myself repeating two things to myself when ever it got hard, "Just do it" and "I can do anything for a minute."  When I would think about not going to the gym I'd make myself just do it.  When I got tired at the gym and wanted to quit, I'd tell myself, "One more minute, I can do anything for a minute."  One minute, turned into another and another and before I knew it I would be done.  Pretty soon I found myself able to do things I thought were impossible.  

We hiked to Table Rock

and then.... 

We went on a backpacking trip that included among other things a hike up and down this huge mountain.

And then I got pregnant.  For the first 3 months or so that I was pregnant I was quite nauseous and oddly enough the only thing that made me feel better was eating.  If my stomach got empty, I got sick.  Plus since I was sick all the time, I didn't feel like going to the gym.  Needless to say I gained quite a bit of weight in my first trimester.  I was just starting to feel better, eat a little better and go back to the gym when I got put on bedrest.  Exercising on bedrest, of course, doesn't happen.  With my husband and family doing EVERYTHING for me, convenience foods (unhealthy) became 90% of our diet.  Clay had more time to do all the other stuff he needed to if we just had fast food or hot pockets for lunch.  Plus the only restrictions I didn't have were food, so it became the one normal thing I was able to do.  I really looked forward our takeout nights.

When I delivered Kyler I was very close to my heaviest weight.  Since I've been home I haven't been eating a whole lot, but since I had the c-section I was still under activity restriction until last week.  I haven't been able to lose much since then.  I've been wondering if maybe I hadn't changed things and I had fallen back into my old lifestyle.  Then yesterday, it was a beautiful day outside and I decided I wanted to go for a walk.  Clay and I went around the block, and then I decided I could go farther... after all I can do anything for a minute.  We went farther and farther... it ended up being about a 2 mile walk.  I was super tired and my legs were burning when we got back, but I'd done it and didn't regret it.  Then about an hour after we got back, I looked in the back yard and saw all the yard work that needed done, it was still a beautiful day so why not just do it.  Even though I was sore and tired from the walk we went out and trimmed trees and cleaned out the garden.  I was super tempted to just supervise my husband, but I didn't.  I took it a minute at a time and tried to do as much as I could, rather then having him do it all.  We were able to get everything done that needed done and then some.  I felt so accomplished.  Then we went over to my brothers for New Years Eve.  While we were there we decided to play Wii.  By this time I was even more sore and tired, but I decided to just do it and play some games.  I played until my arms and legs felt like jelly.  I realized I had done probably 20 times as much yesterday then I've done in a year, and I just did it one minute at a time.  I haven't fallen back into my old life, I did permanently change my lifestyle in the last two years.

Later tonight I plan on packing up my gym bag for work, and re-downloading my calorie counting app.  My first day back at work is Tuesday and I WILL go to the gym after I get off.  I need to just do it, after all I can do anything!  Kyler is proud of me.