Welcome!

This is the first of many post that I hope you find helpful. I have had five kids in the last eight years and have had to loose a total of 200 pounds. After each one of my kids, I was able to return back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I used several different methods to do so. Some of which got me there faster than others. I kept a journal and I'm now sharing it with you.

A lot of you know me and know that I have always had an active lifestyle. I was a super star High School athlete. I went on to play college volleyball for two years, and then moved home to marry my best friend and #1 supporter. We started our family a short time after that and my active lifestyle took a back seat. My first pregnancy was great and I only needed to loose 25 pounds. I did this by running on the treadmill while my new baby was asleep in the swing next to me. This weight came off super fast. I was 22 years old and didn't pay much attention to what I ate either. It WAS awesome! I thought baby #2 would be just as easy. Well, not so much. I was super sick and laid around all day. I stopped running and ate WHATEVER the "baby" wanted. It was great! Once baby #2 got here and the dust settled, I hopped on the scale to see what kind of damage control I would need to do. I was SHOCKED, I needed to loose 50 pounds! My first thought was "What the ...how did that happen?" Then it all came back to me. I was 24 years old and thought that maybe this time I should try a "diet" so I picked Weight Watchers. My mom and sister in law had great success with this diet. So I came up with a game plan and started working it out. I counted my points and ran on the treadmill everyday. The weight came off pretty quickly but with more effort than the last time. It took me 6 months to do it. We then received a surprise. We found out we were pregnant with baby #3. WOW! ok, so in my mind I thought, "I just lost all that weight!" Well, I gained it all back plus 10 more. This time around we decided to get a gym membership. I lost all 60 while counting points and doing cardio only exercises. It was really difficult, and took me about 8 months. There were a lot of tears and days I messed up, but I did it. I added weight training to my work outs and achieved things I thought I never would after having kids. It made a big difference. The weight started to melt off. We decided to have baby#4 while staying active with a cardio / weight training program. I only needed to loose 40 pounds when all was said and done. That was a big improvement! I guess I was doing something right. I got more involved with weight training and changed up my cardio a little. I studied nutrition and developed a new insight on food. I was able to loose all 40 pounds plus 10 more in half the time. My body look better than it did when I first got married. I had great muscle tone. I felt TERRIFIC, and loved the way I looked. When baby #5 came to mind, I will admit there were some selfish feelings. I didn't want to give up what I had worked so hard for, my body. I quickly overcame those feelings and developed yet another game plan for that pregnancy. I watched what I ate and continued my work outs. When our family was finally complete, I only had 25 pounds to loose and I quickly lost them! I then made some more changes to my diet and weight training exercises and have been able to crush my previous personal stats.
With all this said, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know what it takes and I have been able to do it 5 times! I hope with the information I share here someone will find motivation or use one of my technique's and find success. Thanks so much, and I look forward to sharing!