I haven’t posted since February. That’s shameful. I have realized how busy life can be with three littles and a big move. We are now into our new house at the farm and I’m loving it. We painted and my husband and I aren’t thrilled with the color, but it will have to do. Who knew painting was so time-consuming/exhausting? Not that I helped at all . . . but still. My newborn baby girl loves to be held – CONSTANTLY. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can really get in the way of packing/moving/unpacking/settling. It’s been a chaotic and interesting last couple of weeks, but here we are. We made it. There are still shelves to put up, baseboards, edges, and doors to paint, as well as baseboards to put up . . . but our beds are made and we live here. There are huge drifts of snow everywhere, but it’s melting and spring just might come after all!

As if moving and nursing 24/7 (that’s not true, by baby is a gem and sleeps 7-9 hours every night then eats and sleeps another 3-5) wasn’t enough, I started exercising again. I started doing Jillian’s 30 day Shred when I was 5 weeks postpartum. I was not prepared for how exhausted I would be! It felt great, and I had lots of energy, but I got really tired from all that feeding/rocking/bouncing a baby and then adding on extra work outs! I did that 3-5 times a week for a few weeks. Then we moved and I didn’t do anything for a couple of weeks. I have started a pretty intense program that started last Monday. I will post more all about it once I’ve completed it so I can give an honest review. I almost died the first day. But it felt GREAT. I exercised 6 days last week and going strong. I feel better and stronger today than I did on day one, and that makes me more motivated to keep going. I love love LOVE being able to tell that my body is getting stronger with each work out. I can now actually do the modified pushups and keep up (yes, I said MODIFIED) and that is saying something!

I have about 20 lbs. to lose. That seems like a lot to me, but I have hope that since I DID just have a baby, that a lot of that will work itself off, since I didn’t gain an excessive amount while pregnant. One can hope, right? My husband took my measurements and some before pictures (no, you can’t see them . . . yet) and it wasn’t pretty, but that’s alright because I’m willing to put in the work to change it. I hate complaining about being out of shape instead of doing something about it. So here I am, sore but satisfied, and motivated to keep it up. I’m still wearing my maternity jeans (yikes, the same pair EVERY day) but I refuse to buy bigger jeans for this in-between stage. I will just have to work hard and get back into my regular pants. I love me some great maternity jeans, but not so much when I’m no longer pregnant!

As the above quote implies, this is important to me. It’s important to me to get into shape and feel good about myself. It makes me a better mom, a much better wife (who doesn’t want to look good for their husband?), more efficient with my time around the house (cooking/cleaning) and more spiritually in tune. My mind is clearer and I am able to do things that I wouldn’t otherwise do when I’m getting exercise. I don’t like listening to excuses, so I try not to give them. I KNOW it’s hard. It isn’t easy for anyone starting out, but if you stick with it, I PROMISE you, it will come. Only a few days of consistent exercise will show you that it’s worth it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s STARTING that’s hard. Those first few days are key. If you can get through them and keep going back for more, you will be on your way. It was really hard to start this time, but not as hard as I anticipated given the fact I just pushed out a baby 5 weeks prior. I could tell that all the work I put in before I got pregnant and during the first half of my pregnancy REALLY paid off. I could feel that I had some strength in my core even though it had just been stretched to the max. That made me just want to get all of that strength back!

I’m weak, but getting stronger. Who wants to join me?!?!?