STRONG is the new skinny

The past two weekends, we've been out on the lake.  Which means lots of fun and sun, and lots of crap food.  As you know, I've been bouncing from 171-174 for months.  But with these two lake trips, I managed to hit 180 this morning.  YIKES.  However, I am not getting too worked up about it, because I'm still super proud of all of the things my body can do that I used to not be able to do.  And I know it's because I stuffed my face with sweets, sweets, and more sweets with sugar on top, so I pretty much deserve it.  You could even say I earned it. :)

Two weekends ago, we went sans-kid, and had a grand time at Hubs' corporate retreat. And since I have no fear about trying new things, I attempted to wakeboard.  The first time out was a disaster, because neither I nor the Hubs knew what we were doing.  We went back to shore and watched someone else do it, so the second time out went MUCH better.  I wasn't ever able to stand up, but I did get the board under me a few times.  And I'm proud of that.

This past weekend, we took the kiddo, and the water was choppy, choppy, choppy!!  We played in the morning, then went inside for awhile.  The water was low enough that we could walk up the boat ramp, but that meant swimming under the dock, which my daughter did NOT want to do.  Proudly, I swam over to the ladder (with her on my back), and then climbed the ladder with her in my lap.  As much as I hate, hate, hate my "dunlop" belly, I sure was glad for it this weekend, because it gave M a place to sit while I climbed!!  I felt so strong as I hauled myself and 33 extra (dripping wet) pounds up about 10' of ladder.

Later, the boys went to get the jet skis out of the water, but there was some mis-communication, and no one ever went down with the trailer.  So, my mom, the kiddo, and I went down to see what they were doing, and the kiddo decided she wanted to get back in the water.  At that point, it was like 3' waves, but I figured why not?  YOLO!  Once again, I climbed down the ladder with M in my lap.  And did a one-armed backstroke to get her out to the jet ski.  And then was able to toss her up onto the back of the ski, hold her with one hand while hauling myself onto the ski with the other hand, and get us both up on the jet ski, without breaking a sweat.  Not to mention that I did it in 3' waves, while she was paralyzed and crying, while Hubs was trying to keep the ski from tipping or crashing into the dock.  I was SOOOO happy.  I almost cried, thinking, "here I am, worried about what my gut looks like in a two piece, and yet, I can save my daughter and myself, no sweat."  And that's what this journey has always really been about- what my body can do for me, so that I can keep up with my kid.

But back to the size issue...  since the scale is not my friend, I decided to take some measurements, to get a better account of how I'm doing.  I have been meeting with a trainer, and just wasn't amused to see the scale going up after busing a$$ with her!  The latest measurements I could find were from Body Back, about 11 months ago.  As of today, I'm down 13 pounds from then (it was closer to 23, but.. oh well).  But that equates to 4.5" lost in my chest, 4" gone from my waist, 3.5" from the upper thigh/hip and 3" from my thigh circumference.  Which shocked me a little, and made me super proud.  I'm not ready to throw out my scale yet, but that sure does feel awesome!