Before and Afters, Before Afternoon

This week, I decided to take note of the small stuff. As a stay at home mommy (who is on the run a lot!) I often get overwhelmed with my day to day tasks. Sometimes at the end of the night after I've been "working" all day I look around and wonder what I actually accomplished.  I don't have to explain how quickly order turns to chaos when there are four little girls, a goofy dog, and busy mom and super dad in the house.

Yesterday, in an effort to feel better about my everyday tasks, I decided to take some quick before and after shots. None of these tasks took a lot of time (minutes) and what a difference they made!  These are the little (big) messes and chores that I do E-V-E-R-Y day. Seeing the before and afters makes me smile and reminds me of the good job that I do. Even when it doesn't seem like I have accomplished much, I know that if I do these small things every day there is a BIG difference in my home and that makes me happy! As much as I wish my spaces could look like my after pictures all of the time, all I will need to do is take a quick peek at my before and after pics this week to know that what I do here matters and hopefully it will give me motivation to do it all again. And again. And again. And again!

Our Unmade Bed

The Bed is Made (2 minutes or less)

Clean dishes need put away.
Dirty Dishes need loaded or hand washed.

Clean and Shiny Kitchen Sink!
(25 minutes--including hand washing pans and bottles!)

Our Dumping Ground--
mail, bags and purses, miscellaneous papers
 and dishes and food and toys!

All Clear! Even turned on the digital frame!
 (10 minutes to put everything in its home)

There's an empty spot in her tummy!



Lunch hit THAT spot! And what a pretty "after picture."
 My favorite task of the day: Putting a smile on that little face!



Head on over to I'm An Organizing Junkie to see more wonderful before and after pictures to motivate you today!

Weigh-In Wednesday (a day late!): Accountability Counts

Well...4 weeks post baby today. I'm beginning to look forward to that 6 week appointment; the one that clears me for all activity and signifies the start of my serious consideration of my weight loss journey.  Dare I say I'm kind of excited.  My goal is to create a buzz that produces comments like this one "She looks great! I can't believe she has 4 kids!?!" All vanity aside though, I do want be healthy and fit for my kids, and my husband and myself.

My first serious weight loss journey began after I had Ava.  At one point I remember weighing less than I had in a long time but my body had changed so much and everything was just sagging.  It was gross and depressing to me to look in the mirror. At that point, I buckled down and began my love-hate affair with the tread mill, started lifting weights and threw in a little Yoga because it made me feel good. I joined weight watchers on-line and with the support of my mom and sister I was able to drop about 20 pounds. I felt great.

So I'm excited to get back to that place.  I thought I could use my blog as a motivator for myself.  I'm a little leery about sharing it with the world but I've been thinking that it could help because accountability counts. Am I going to want to post that I had a gain one week? Probably not...so to avoid that maybe I will try a little harder.

Right now I'm not doing anything but getting Chloe on a routine of some sort, and pumping.  I am happy to say that the first few pounds have melted away fairly easily. I don't expect this phenomenal weight loss to continue much longer, but I am going to wait until the 6 week mark to really concentrate on diet and exercise.

So part of this whole accountability thing will be to mark my progress and talk about what I am doing that works and what isn't working and measure my success...but we've got to have a jumping off point...so today, my first edition of Weigh-in Wednesday will come complete with stats...and (eek!) before pictures!

So at the height of pregnancy I weighed 172 lbs.  My pre-pregnancy weight was 130 lbs. My feel good weight goal is 120 lbs.  My ultimate goal is between 115-117.  I'm only 5'1" so this is a healthy weight for me.  I currently weigh 141.4 pounds, which means that I am already down 30.6 lbs!  YAY!  I still have 21.4 to 26.4 lbs to go.

Here are the lovely pictures!

Front View: Not too bad for 4 weeks post delivery--note love handles.

Side View: I look like I'm about 4-5 months pregnant here--but that's to be expected, I suppose.

Back View: Looking a little frumpy dumpy from behind--I'll be trying to change that!

So, I've got my work cut out for me.  The only thing I have left to do is take all my measurements. I will probably do that on the official start of the big fitness endeavor in two weeks!

By the way, if anyone would care to join me, let me know. It would be fun to have a diet/exercise buddy...We could all use a little push from a friend sometimes, so let me know!