#Mamavation Monday: Progress Report

Remember how I was supposed to run a 5K last weekend?

That didn’t happen. I totally feel like I’m letting people down, but I’m adding the Zombie Run, Mamavation Virtual 5K, and Father’s Day 10K to compensate, and they’ve all been added to my Running Schedule. This way, I have enough training time OUTSIDE of the semester. I hadn’t planned this very well, to be honest, because I hadn’t considered that my course load would weigh so heavily on potential training time. So there’s that.

I’m also still accepting challenges, so if you want me to wear a tutu, paint my face, dress like I just walked out of a Richard Simmons video, put jingle bells on my shoes, tell me! I just have a simple requirement:

I’m happy to take on fun and silly challenges, but the exchange is that you either make a $5 (or more) donation to my run fund (because as you can see on my schedule, the entry fees add up), you challenge yourself to run a distance race you’ve never run before (so if you’ve never run a 5k, run a 5k, if you’ve run a 5k but never a 10k, run a 10k, etc.), or you do something similarly silly in one of your races.

So there’s that! I hope you’ll join the fun, because I want to have fun with this, too.

Anyway, I wanted to take this week to reflect on where I am now, because this is quite possibly the best I’ve felt about my body in a very long time. I hold a lot of stock in abs and abdominal definition, because it’s always been my trouble area. I’ve always had that teeny little pooch at the bottom, and while I still do, it’s gotten much better since I got serious about post-partum fitness.

So this is where I started (June of last year):

Measurements

Height: 5’3″
Weight: 127 lbs
Waist: 29″
Hips: 39″

And this is where I am:

Measurements

Height: 5’3″
Weight: 118 lbs
Waist: 25 1/2″
Hips: 36″

They haven’t changed much from late July of last year, but it looks different in a really good way. I mean, I’m actually genuinely excited for swimsuit season. Is that weird? It’s kinda weird, because I’ve NEVER EVER FELT THAT WAY IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.

Still, I have my perceived trouble spots, and they’re odd spots like the part of my back where love-handles would be except it’s my lower back and not obliques, the not-quite armpit spot where your arm folds by the chest that everyone calls armpit fat, and that still odd little pooch. What I’d love is to someday feel confident wearing a sleeveless dress. That’s a goal. And I think that goal is going to take some heavy-duty weight lifting to achieve. Well, maybe not heavy-duty, but serious, definitely. How to get rid of the lower back fat, though. Eesh. Any ideas?

Regardless, I feel like I’ve come a really long way from my pre-preg (20 lbs ago!) and early post-partum days, and that’s really given me the confidence to go after the running goals, among many many other things in my life. However, it hasn’t been about how I look. It’s how I feel. I feel good from the inside out, and it makes such a huge difference in my approach to every day living.

I feel so Pollyanna right now.

And it’s not to say I don’t have my down moments, because I totally do (like last week), but they pass, you know? Although I do find that self-updates (like this post) help remind me of where I’ve been, how far I’ve come, and puts everything else in perspective.

This post is sponsored by New Balance Shoes and hosted by Mamavation – a community dedicated to obesity prevention & weight loss for women and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway