20in20 Results

Starting date: December 1, 2009
Ending date: April 20, 2010
Starting weight: 222 lbs
Goal weight: 202 lbs
Current weight: 208.6 lbs
Weight loss over the final two weeks: 3.6 lbs
Total weight loss: 13.4 lbs
Pounds left until goal: 6.6 lbs
Weeks left in challenge: none

So, as you can see I didn't make the challenge. However, I am TOTALLY PSYCHED to be back at my pre-baby weight with only 6+ lbs to go to meet my challenge.

Below is an email I sent to my Father-in-Law, and 20in20 challenger, last night before doing my final weigh in this morning to find out exactly how much I had lost. The subject was: Off The Hook.

Hey there...so as you are aware, our 20in20 challenge officially ends tomorrow morning. I already know that I have not met my personal challenge of 20 lbs in 20 weeks, however, I HAVE lost 10 lbs, which I am reminding myself is A) no small feat and therefore B) nothing to be ashamed of and really, I should C) be very proud of what I have accomplished. Anyway, I have no idea what your final weight loss is, but wanted to encourage you to remember that what ever it is, whether it be 1 pound or 50, it is something to be proud of.

As you know, my personal challenge involved my giving up my iPhone until I lost the total 20 pounds. With a small baby in tow at pretty much all times, it seems impractical, if not irresponsible, to be cavorting around without a cell phone, so I was planning on calling AT&T and turning off my data plan. However, I have decided to participate in a Couch-to-5K (C25K) challenge and I have a training application on my iPhone that I am very excited to start using tomorrow.

So, for my own sake, I do want to stay accountable to holding up my end of my personal challenge, so I am promising to not use my iPhone for any purposes other than the following:

• phone
• texting
• music
• calendar
• C25K application

until I HAVE lost the remaining 10 lbs (and just in case you are wondering exactly what that goal poundage is, it is 202). This means that I will not be using my phone for any of the following features:

• email (although I will continue to take a picture of Garrison daily and send it to Davis at work using the email function...no reason why he should suffer)
• Twitter
• Facebook
• weather
• games
• ordering pizza
• surfing the web
• looking up recipes

So there you have it. Figured I would send this to you so I can at least attempt to be kept accountable to this. I TOTALLY am NOT sending you this to guilt you into giving up your Penguins Playoff tickets (or to find an alternative), because seriously, that would be mean and stupid...both my guilting you and your giving up your tickets.

Thank you for giving me a goal to work towards and for being a part of the challenge.

Coasting anon

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The C25K challenge starts this morning as soon as Little G is up from his morning nap.

I'll be keeping you posted!

9 Months - 40 weeks

Our beautiful little boy is 9 months old today. I know I keep saying it, but I just can't get over how fast the time flies and how quickly he changes! I can definitely break up his babyhood into two distinct segments thus far. From birth to 5 months, he was a very needy, very blob-esque baby who really couldn't do anything. 6 months to the present he all of the sudden started sitting up and became a true human being in my eyes.

This month is supposedly significant because he has now been out of the womb as long as he was in it. But to be completely honest, I am rather unaffected by that sentiment...crazy considering I am a self-professed sentamentalist.


Little G's latest accomplishments include 'rooting' his hands to his side when he is sitting up and pushing himself around so that he can pivot himself to face any direction he wants. Eventually this rooting will lead him into a crawling position, but I really don't want to rush that since I am quite enjoying being able to put him down and have him still be in the same place when I go to pick him up a few minutes later.

He definitely chews his food now instead of just trying to swallow whatever he has gnawed off the bone all at once.

And he has discovered and is trying to master the art of throwing. He'll throw anything from a small plastic ball, to a burp cloth, to the wood rings from his stacking toy.

In swim class he has really progressed. He will jump/fall off the side of the pool into the water, he splashes his hands while he kicks, he actually kicks when on his back and sometimes we can get him to blow a raspberry in the water! So cute.

We're looking forward to finding out how much he weighs these days...our best guess is somewhere around 23-24 lbs.

Happy 9 month birthday, little man!! We love you more than words can say.

Mom and dad

Monday Morning (uh...make that Wednesday Morning) 20in20 Tracking

Starting date: December 1, 2009
Ending date: April 20, 2010
Starting weight: 222 lbs
Goal weight: 202 lbs
Current weight: 212.2 lbs
Weight loss this week: 1.6 lbs
Total weight loss: 9.8 lbs
Pounds left until goal: 10.2 lbs
Weeks left in challenge: 2 !!!!!

Mom Connection

Recently I was asked to write an article for a church publication about my participation in their new mom's group. Quite honestly, no matter how delusional I am about being a writer, I think this is the first time someone has ASKED me to write something (aside from the many times I was 'asked'/told to write something by various teachers/professors throughout my scholastic history). The article was published in their monthly newsletter that goes out to the congregation, so it actually was distributed to a much wider audience than my little bloggity-blog gets :) Anyway, here's what I had to say:

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My 8 month old son, Garrison, and I attend no less than four mother and baby groups a week; a schedule established early on in our lives together as I quickly learned how important it was for both of us to get out of the house daily.

Each group we attend has its own identity. While one is specifically geared around the development of the child; others focus on nurturing the mother. But the Mom Connection at Newton Presbyterian is by far the most enriching for both Garrison and me. With the optional childcare, he is able to hang out and play independently from me and I am able to have some much needed, mommy-focused, Christ centered time.

The very first day we arrived at the Mom Connection the group was focusing on a service project for Daybreak Ministries; a non-profit counseling and pregnancy resource center in downtown Boston. I had heard of Daybreak before but I will admit my own personal and political beliefs had kept me from seeking out more information on the program. As I sat among the circle of women listening to the representatives of the group talk about their needs and the needs of their clients, and as we each filled tubs and baskets to their brims with baby supplies and clothing, I felt my heart and my mind transforming. I was a mother now; my whole world had changed.

Never again would I be able to sit idly by and not have compassion stir up in my heart when presented with statistical information about mothers and children in need; because the statistics now had a level of humanity to them that I couldn’t have understood before having my own child. On my own darkest days after the birth of my son, I was able to function because of the groups I had surrounded myself with and the support they were able to provide. The thought of mothering a child without access to such support weighed on my heart and I understood for the first time how very important it was to provide such resources to those who might not be able to access them as easily as me.

Garrison and I were immediately welcomed into the fold of strong, loving mothers who make up the Mom Connection at NPC; which is committed to two service projects a year in addition to being its own resource for mothers to gather in a Christ centered community of support. I believe such women, such mothers, will change the world for all of us. Won’t you come join us?

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So, dear readers...especially you mom's out there...what is something that changed for you once you had a child?

I quit you too, Formspring

I have decided to close my Formspring account for the following reasons:

As you may have heard in the news, a teenage girl in a town in Massachusetts committed suicide in January. This girl was so harassed by her schoolmates, both to her face and over social media, that she felt she could not continue her life and she hung herself in her closet.

In the wake of this horrific turn of events, there have been several stories in the news regarding cyber bullying and its role in our current society. On one of these stories I learned of the practice of trolling. I had previously thought I had witnessed the true definition of trolling over at Formspring so you can imagine how shocked I was to find out that there are even worse things that people do. For instance, trolls have been known to ‘troll’ about the internet looking for memorial sites for the recently passed and post horrific, mean, disrespectful trash to those sites even if they never knew the person. I can’t even remotely begin to express how sick I find this. I also learned that social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have a history of working with the authorities to try and stop these heinous crimes. And they are crimes. President Bush, for all of his faults, signed a bill into law that states that harassing someone anonymously with the intent to annoy is a felony. A FELONY!! Now, I get it that this is an imperfect law that is practically impossible to mandate, but at least it is a step in the right direction.

So here’s why I feel I need to leave Formspring. Formspring is a platform that not only allows, but encourages people to ask questions anonymously. But beyond basing their social media outlet on the anonymous question, they do NOT support members, parents or even law enforcement in taking action against people who abuse their system.

The girl who committed suicide in Massachusetts may or may not have had a Formspring account and regardless, she certainly was harassed on Facebook. Her bullies went so far as to deface a memorial page made in her honor. How indescribably horrific this entire situation is for her family. In the past few days a group of teenagers have been charged with her death because they were unable, even if they had tried, to hide behind the anonymity of the internet. As a mother who would be absolutely devastated if her child were attacked in any way, no less anonymously with no way to find the bully, I cannot support this site any longer.

I hope you understand my reasons for leaving and I encourage you to continue to ask me questions through this blog.

Respectfully,

Coasting anon