The 30 Day Walking Challenge

I have to admit something embarrassing.

I’ve put on almost 20 pounds since little Hazel joined us.

This is especially embarrassing, given that I only gained 10 pounds over my whole pregnancy, and was about 15 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight when I came home from the hospital.

There are a lot of factors (excuses!) involved, which I’m going to share, only because some of them really just dawned on me even though I know how it all works.

The first issue, is that I have slipped off the low-carb wagon. For me that’s bad, m’kay. I passed my 6 week postpartum diabetes test with flying colors, and celebrated with a trip to Jack in the Box. I don’t go to town very often, so thankfully fast food isn’t really an issue for me right now. It does speak to a larger problem though, which is that with my personal and family medical history I should be watching my diet very carefully.

I’ve been joyfully eating carbs, taking comfort in my normal blood sugar, and wondering why I’ve been putting on weight. Then it dawned on me… My blood sugar is good, yet I’m still gaining weight, because my insulin is doing it’s job–moving extra sugar (which  I’ve been providing!) out of my blood to be stored as fat.

The next issue is that I haven’t been exercising like I did when I was pregnant. I have a million excuses for that, running the gamut from our crazy summer schedule, to my unpredictable baby, no sleep, and the fact that it’s been 172 degrees here all summer. Okay, not quite that hot, but genuinely too hot to feel like moving much.

You know what, though? I have to do it anyway, or I’ll end up diabetic for real, and I don’t want that.

I also don’t want to be fat after the “I just had a baby” phase. I don’t want to keep holding my baby in front of my sagging belly, pretending that you can’t see the body flaws past the cute baby. (I’d need a much larger baby to hide it all!)

Most of all though, I want my energy back.

So when I ran across the 30 day walking challenge today, I decided that now is as good a time as any to jump back up on the wagon, and invite you to join me!

The plan is designed to build you up to 10, 000 steps per day, but don’t let that put you off, whether that sounds too easy or too hard.  The main thing for me is to get back in the habit of deliberate exercise every day.  No more pretending that gardening or playing with the kids is a good enough long term plan.  Those things are great lifestyle choices, but someone like me needs to exercise for exercise’s sake most days.

I’m walking today, because I don’t want to let this turn into another “I’ll do it tomorrow”, but we’ll start day one of the challenge tomorrow, since it’ll be August 1.  So you have the rest of today to find and dust off your walkin’ shoes!

If you want to join in, we can stay in touch via Half Acre Heaven on facebook. I’ll also be tracking my progress on myfitnesspal, which is free for those of you who want to join.

Myfitnesspal also gives you the option to track food choices, so it’s a great tool for keeping you on track with whichever meal plan works for you.

Who’s with me?