Holiday Slim Down Wrap Up

I haven't blogged about the Holiday Slim Down for a while because my progress has been pretty stagnant.  But now that the challenge is over I thought I'd write one wrap up post to detail my progress and what I've learned.

Over 15 weeks I lost 12 pounds.  Almost a pound a week so I'd say that it was pretty successful. 

Over the course of the 15 weeks I cut out eating fried foods and drinking carbonated beverages.  Charlotte had already made is necessary to cut out caffeine so I wasn't really drinking Coke's, etc very often but Sprite would sometimes get me.  Football season and almost constant traveling made it a little difficult to keep to these rules but I learned that as long as I don't overdo it (multiple drinks a week for instance) I could have one Sprite at a game and not be negatively impacted.  I feel much healthier now than when I started and can definitely tell when I eat something fried or drink a soft drink now.

My excersize goals were large.  Walking/doing something three times a week.  This worked for the first few weeks when football season hadn't started so we weren't working on a four day week at home.  But then trips to Tuscaloosa kicked in and my weeks were limited to Sunday through Thursday nights and I needed to use that time to do things like laundry and pack for the next weekend.  So walking after Jason got home from work became a thing of the past.  I did do the 30 Day Shred for a few weeks and man did I feel better when I did it!  But then it aggrivated an old injury in my elbow and since it was hurting to lift Charlotte I figured I better limit some of that activity.  I'm hoping to pick up with work outs again after bowl season is over and we aren't traveling.  We have a great workout facility where we live so Jason and I are talking about trading out babysitting duties so that we can take advantage of it.

Overall, I'm very happy with my progress in losing the post-baby weight.  I am past where I was at my first ultrasound (when I first noted my weight) and am still losing.  There is quite a bit of weight that I would still like to lose -- I wanted to lose it before I got pregnant -- and hopefully I can keep getting rid of the pounds a little at a time.  I am convinced that nursing has helped the most in my weight loss goals and since the plan is to continue that until Charlotte's first birthday I still have 6 months to work within its effects! 

Are there any ideas or helpful hints that you could give me for keeping the loss going over the holidays?  I'd love to hear them!  Also, Kelly at Kelly's Korner has started a weekly "tweet-in" for those that want to get a jump on shedding some pounds.  Check out her twitter feed at www.twitter.com/KellysKorner to get in on that fun!