Personal Training - it's Christmas!

My original goal when I started personal training in August was to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight by Christmas.  About halfway through I realized I wasn't losing as much weight because I've been gaining muscle along the way, so I changed my goal to be able to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes.  I have met that goal!  I'm not to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I'm basically the same size.  However, I feel better than I did before I got pregnant, because I'm in better shape.  I'm eating better.  I have more energy.  And really, that's what it's about - being healthy.

I had a little bit of a setback emotionally when I went to a checkup this past week and saw that my BMI is considered "obese."  I mean, I know I'm overweight, but I didn't remember that I was in the obese range.  If I lose 2 more kilos, I will be in the "overweight" range.  But the thing with BMI is that it doesn't take into account the muscle mass I've gained in the past few months.  I would be interested to see what my body fat measurements are with calipers, but I didn't do that when I started, so it would still be hard to see how I've improved.  Anyway, when I talked about it with my trainer, she agreed with me that, while I'm not where I need to be, BMI is not the best measurement of a person doing strength training.  Ironically, my original goal weight when I started trying to lose weight before I got pregnant, is the highest weight in the "normal" BMI range.  I had actually picked that weight because it is what I weighed in college, and I felt it was an appropriate weight for my body and bone structure.  But now if I'm gaining muscle mass along the way, I think a better goal for me would be to look at my jeans size.  I'd like to go down one more jeans size, but not more than two sizes.  Also, my belly is still proportionally a little bigger than I'd like, but it's much better than it was.

I've decided that I'm going to continue with personal training for a while longer, until I get to a place where I want to just maintain.  I'm realizing that at this point, I wouldn't push myself enough physically at the gym to get the results I want.  I need someone else to help me know how much I can do. 

And of course, what started out as an experimental diet has become a lifestyle for me.  I originally only planned to do the "Sugar Detox" temporarily, but it has made me feel so much better to eat a lower-carb diet.  I have more energy and I no longer have "sugar crashes".  It will be harder in some ways as we spend six months in the US next year and travel a lot, but I want to eat well as much as it is within my control.  If we go to someone's house, I will eat what they serve me, but if we go to a restaurant, I will order a low-carb option.  I'm thinking about having one "cheat" day per week, where I can splurge a little, just for the emotional strength to keep going for the longer term.

So for a before and after picture, I found some pictures I took in June (at that point I was in the middle of the C25K but I hadn't yet done the Sugar Detox) and recreated them tonight.  The only thing I changed was that my navy leggings in the June pictures were maternity and I put them in storage, so I wore gray leggings.  Also, it's kind of funny that my smile is bigger in June, but I'm really tired and I didn't notice that I didn't have a good smile in my after pictures.  I promise I'm happy!  :)