Las Vegas & his 1st birthday party!

    Aug 2011- 250 lbs.          May 2013- 180 lbs. 

First of all, let me post this picture for you to see....This is 10.5 months of hard work and dedication to a plan! I began my weight loss journey just 6 weeks after giving birth to my beautiful baby boy, Joel.

For the 2nd time since I started Weight Watchers, I experienced a gain in weight. It was 1.4 lbs. Ugh. But overall it could have been much worse. Why is that? you ask. Well, I spent the better part of a week in Las Vegas, NV for the bachelorette party of my beautiful cousin.

This trip away was several "firsts" for me. It was the first time I was away from both my babies, EVER. I've not been gone from them for more than one night and have only done that twice with my hubby.  I had all kinds of mommy guilt. Guilt about leaving, guilt about missing work, but mostly guilt because I was SO excited to get away. Is that bad?

Well even if it was kind of bad, I had an incredible time! I sat by the pool for 2 days, I went shopping, and I danced the night away with a bunch of single ladies! It was wonderful. I consumed alcohol without fear of a hangover, because even if I got one, I could sleep it off. I ate delicious brunch food (Mon Ami Gabi- just beautiful) and scarfed up authentic Mexican cuisine (Diablos at Monte Carlo) . I felt somewhat guilty, but I enjoyed each meal.

When I came back to reality on Sunday night, my husband got Papa Murphy's because it was so easy. AND it was easy for me to continue my poor eating streak. The hardest thing was trying to get back to reality on Monday. Not tracking, not measuring and not analyzing my food had been easy, but I also realized after 2 days of using Pepcid AC, that it wasn't good for my body. When weigh in came on Friday, I'd gained 1.4 lbs. Again, it could have been MUCH worse.

On Saturday my baby boy turned 1. Oh boy, did we celebrate. I took the day off on Friday to prep the food. The dessert table was my favorite part. I made homemade marshmallows on a stick (2 recipes- BEST Marshmallows ever and Put those BEST marshmallows on a stick and dunk them in chocolate! combined) They turned out AMAZING! There was a cake for baby boy to destroy and cupcakes too.

Hubby cooked 72 pieces of BBQ chicken and that was accompanied by Dable Bean dish, Macaroni Salad, Spinach salad and too many appetizers to name. Overall a success! I was fine for most of the evening until after everyone went home. We had friends over to play a card game and late night eating ensued. That was a bit of a step back! SO....

Needless to say, I am back on plan now. I weigh in on Friday or Saturday, work permitting. I'll let you know where I am at. Whatever the result may be, I know I am NEVER going back to the woman in the picture above. It's not me. I don't even recognize myself when I look at it. The picture below is me, every fiber of my being loves these boys (and yes my hubby is my "boy" too). This journey is for them, but more importantly for me. I stumble and yes, sometimes I fall, but I pick myself back up and start again. (I'm sure someone famous has said this, but I don't know who to credit- sorry.)

Until next time!