In high school and in my early college days, when i had roommates a few of us joked about getting old and having relief society arms. (We use to also comment that when a girl erases the chalk on the board her whole body would shake. Next time your in class watch for this. Her butt will jiggle. I know I just left an awesome image in your head. Thank me later. Jiggle jiggy. I am not making fun, it happens to all girls, unless you do it properly. (only move you arm not your whole body) do not swing back and forth... or you'll get jiggle or five jiggles.
Now back to my point, a few months ago... I realized the unthinkable, I had Relief Society arms... Thats right my arms are now jiggling... Gross I know. I sat pondering about when i was in shape and would ran almost daily... that was six years ago. Since that time I have exercised on and off, not as faithfully as I once did.
Before I got pregnant with Ava, I had lost about 25 lbs and was doing great. Well all that plus some came back. Once Ava was here, between nursing and and almost daily workouts I was back down to my pre-pregnancy weight with two months. Well as fate would have it, I hit my major postpartum period around the time Ava turned three months old. I can honestly say, I have never in my life had feeling of being so inadequate and feeling a great deal of anxiety in my life. I stopped socializing, because every time I did, I felt like stupid and that everyone was judging me. I had to stop nursing for my sanity, I was only sleeping an hour or two a night and trying to be a mom was extremely hard. I was so embarrassed, that I didn't ask for help and I didn't tell hardly anyone. I gained all the weight back I had lost. None of my pants fit properly and well, it down right sucked..
Through the loving kindness of my Heavenly Father, my husband, and doctors; I have gotten back on track and am doing better. Well when I discovered my dreadful relief society arms, I knew that I needed to change a few things to help me got back on track. First things firsts, I needed to maintain sanity, I started going back to park play days, I guess now it's burger king play days for the kids. To married couple game nights and started planning lots of social get together's. Lets face it, I love people! Next on the list is getting back into shape, I've lost about 10lbs and have about 65 more to go. I hope to reach this weight by next December. But I also know slow and steady will win the race. Now I really have no idea why I shared all that, so much for staying on topic about jiggling arms and butts.
You can take comfort in knowing you are not alone in the race to lose weight! I got super skinny after I had Brooklynn and then again right after Parker, but gained everything back while pregnant with Ben, and haven't lost anything (pretty sure I've gotten a bit bigger) since his birth. I spent so much time complaining to my hubby and crying about the way I looked until I decided to not only work on getting to a more healthy weight, but to be okay with the way I look now. I look in the mirror, and instead of focusing on what I don't like, I pick out one or two things I do like. I also remind myself that I earned each and every one of my midsection stretch marks, my slightly wider hips, and the chest that now nearly sags to my midsection. I also try to remember that my kids could care less how I look. To them, I am a goddess! haha. I'm glad you're making time for fun because that's really so important for your self esteem and to eliminate the sense of isolation.
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