Week 22 Weigh in and Monthly Pictures

May 31, 2013 Nina Chapman12 Comments

Today is one of those days. The kind where I just feel yucky.

I. Am. So. Exhausted.

For the past two weeks Penelope hasn’t slept through the night. She wakes up about four times stands at the edge of her crib and cries. As soon as I open the door she plops down to go back to sleep as if to say, “Oh good, you’re still here. I was just checking.” I’ll crawl back into bed and when I feel that delicious deep sleep coming on she does it again… “Just checking, goodnight now.”

This got to be so normal that I couldn’t understand why I was so tired. “What could it be? Oh yeah, I don’t sleep.” I was so tired I couldn’t even think straight. I haven’t been this tired since I was pregnant. (No, I’m not pregnant.)

Today is my monthly picture day and I woke up with a wicked case of bed head since I fell asleep shortly after taking a shower. I tried to brush it out and the waves poofed into frizz. Bridget has her first official babysitting job today and I had to drop her off at 7:30. But since she is my photographer I had to have her snap the pictures first.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate taking these pictures? Here they are… be warned my face is really creepy in this first shot.

These mug shots do nothing for my self-esteem but at the same time I’m always glad I did it so that I can see the progress. Let’s compare shall we?

Okay, I feel better now. Sometimes you just have to take the time to see how far you’ve come instead of looking at how far you have to go.

Once I got these shots taken and Bridget dropped off I chugged a bottle of water and then realized that I hadn’t weighed myself yet. Ugh!!! I usually weigh in butt naked shortly after my first morning pee before I even take a sip of water. (I can use all of the help I can get.)

When I weighed myself I weighed in at 190.6.

I have gotten to the point where I can photograph well enough to trick people into thinking I’m thinner than I am. This is nice because when I first started out it didn’t matter how I maneuvered my arm or craned my neck… I looked fat.

Here is an example from a photo that was taken of me yesterday in my bathing suit…

Flattering (ish)

Not so flattering…

I still have about 30-40 pounds to lose and sometimes I look at myself and wonder where that weight is going to come from. Then I see something like this and I know exactly where it is coming from. (Note to self: Get a new bathing suit.)

Strangely enough posting these horrible pictures out there for all to see has made me feel so much better. Now I feel like I have nothing to hide. My advice for anyone starting out is to take time to acknowledge where you are. Be honest with yourself and take a good long look. Take a photo and hide it in your sock drawer. Then as you work your way to a healthier you look back at it. You will be surprised at how far you have come. You’re memory won’t register just how bad things were but the photo won’t lie.

I cried after I took those first pictures. But now I feel so good when I look at them. I’m hoping the same will come of this bathing suit photo. I could have cropped it and forgotten how bad I looked at the beginning of the summer. But then I wouldn’t have an honest representation of how far I’ve come when the summer is over and I take one last shot of me by the pool.

I’m sorry you have to be a witness to this. Let’s hope some of those images haven’t been burned in your brain. Instead we’ll look at cute babies in bathing suits to make it go away…

How did your week go?

Week 6 Weigh-in

February 8, 2013February 10, 2013 Nina Chapman12 Comments

Once again weigh-in day is upon us. When I went to bed last night I tried to predict what the number would be and I guessed that I would stay at 207. I’ve worked out hard but I did have a free meal on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and a treat on Tuesday. If your diet is 80% of your success then I figured I was screwed.

I woke up per usual and searched the nightstand in the dark for my glasses. I was trying to be discreet so that I wouldn’t wake up Brent or the kids. I was hoping to write my blog in peace. But I couldn’t find the dang things!

When I finally did find them I opened them up and tried to put them on my face but they felt really weird… was I having some warped Alice in Wonderland dream?

Then I looked in the mirror and found this…

I giggled and woke up the baby and Brent but it had no effect on Bridget’s comatose preteen slumber.

Usually on weigh-in day I’ll wake up and assess how chubby my fingers feel. This is to determine whether or not the scale will be nice to me. Water weight is my nemesis. I couldn’t slide my wedding ring off of my finger so I thought this would be a fun number.

When I stepped on I was surprised to see the scale say 206.2. That’s exactly a pound from last week… I’ll take it!

I’m happy with this number because I’ve been afflicted with that particularly pleasant time in a young ladies life that tends to happen once a month. (Unless you have PCOS then there’s no telling.)

This left me wondering about the ladies on The Biggest Loser. It’s not like you can stand on the scale in front of a million people and say… “Whoa, whoa, whoa! This isn’t fair! Joe doesn’t menstrate!” It just doesn’t seem right.

Then I started thinking about Twilight… how did Edward and Bella deal with this situation back in the days when he wanted to have her for lunch? Aunt Flo’s monthly visit can get down right dangerous!

… and that ladies and gentlemen are the deep thoughts that run through my mind first thing in the morning.

How did your week go? I invite you to do your weigh-in’s with me every Friday. Once you’ve reached a goal, whether it’s long-term or short-term, let me know and I’ll do a feature on your success! It doesn’t necessarily have to be about weight loss, it could be a fitness goal too. The best way to get a hold of me is by messaging me on the blog’s facebook page.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Back Fat… Crap, It’s Back

January 2, 2013March 19, 2013 Nina Chapman5 Comments

It’s funny, but my life has come full circle. Ten years ago, give or take a few months, I was in the exact same situation I am in today. I had just given birth to my first daughter Bridget and I didn’t think it was possible for me to ever be normal again. I would stand in front of the mirror and pinch my back fat wondering if anyone had ever successfully bounced back from such a fall from grace. I would Google weight loss success stories to see if it was actually possible. The difference between now and then is that I’ve already done it, so I know for a fact that it is.

This is a picture of me in 2002 it was taken in June about a month and a half before I gave birth to my first daughter.

I had insisted on having a pool party for my baby shower. I swam in my shorts and tank top because I couldn’t fit in my maternity swim suit anymore. I’m a summer girl and when it’s summer I’ve gotta swim!

This picture was taken the day before I gave birth to ~~an elephant~~ my first daughter, Bridget. Bridget was a pretty big baby weighing in at 8 lbs 13 oz. I weighed in at 266.

My doctor told me that if I were to give birth to my baby in the African bush I would be a survivor. However, we weren’t in the African bush, so I needed to lay off of the enchiladas. But he was wrong, my indulgence of choice was Samurai. For those of you who don’t know, Samurai is the best hibachi restaurant you will ever step foot into. Hello, water retention!

Since this was my first child I had no idea what my body would do once I gave birth. I just assumed I would just go back to being me. Christmas rolled around and I was still stuck at 212 lbs.

Yeah, that’s right Nina. You just go on and shrug that shoulder because there’s no way to tell you’re fat when you do that.

At the time one of my best friends got engaged and she asked me to be a bridesmaid. We decided to drive to Dallas to go shopping for dresses and this was the first time that I had been away from Bridget for a whole day. I was breastfeeding and didn’t have a pump. Needless to say by the time we got there both of my boobs were bigger than my head and it made absolutely no sense for me to try on dresses.

When the sales lady asked me what size I wanted to order, I ordered one 4 sizes too small. I had eight months to lose the weight and I figured that was enough time. She looked at me like I was an idiot and tried really hard to convince me to buy a bigger size. I wouldn’t budge. I took her lack of faith as a challenge.

Game On!

From that point on I worked out nearly every day and started counting calories. Within four months summer had arrived and I was taking Bridget for her first swim.

I weighed in at 160 pounds.

Then, Bridget had her first birthday. (Go on… you can scroll back up to the top to compare.) It’s amazing what can happen in a year!

My boyfriend at the time was a resident firefighter in Breckenridge, CO. Bridget and I couldn’t stand being away from him so we had to visit a lot.

FYI Those aren’t really my feet, they belong to Forest Gump

Finally winter arrived and it was time to go back to Dallas to try on the dresses we ordered. You should have seen the look on that lady’s face when my dress was too big.

Ah… victory is sweet.

It wasn’t long before I was engaged and I moved to Colorado to marry the love of my life.

The End.

Okay, OKAY! I just had to revel in the memory of when I was the hottie in the relationship. To be fair, he has lost a lot of weight since then only he hasn’t put it back on. Then again he didn’t have a baby. Damn those men and their lack of ovaries! He found crossfit, olympic lifting and mixed martial arts. Like I said he’s now a personal trainer.