TOM & Ch-ch-ch-changes!

I finished my first 12-week "challenge" yesterday. I hate to call them challenges because that kind of leaves you thinking ok, I'm done with that, now what?, and the fact is that if you plan to keep the positive changes you made in your body for the rest of your life, you simply have to keep at it, forever. To me, dividing chunks of time into 12 week blocks is just a way to set goals, long and short term, and then to reassess and observe and tweak as necessary based on the results you get and the results you want. This challenge I lost 15 pounds of nasty jiggle, became a rather hardcore fitness fanatic, and squashed my issues with the all-or-nothing mentality and binge eating. In other words, success! Scale-wise I'm still 5 or 10 pounds from where I'd like to be, but it's possible that the scale won't budge much from here on out if I focus on building lean muscle, and that's perfectly fine with me. I also found out that I love to lift weights. Cardio leaves you with that little rush afterwards and makes you feel wonderful for the rest of the day, but I truly love nothing more than knocking out 3 heavy sets of squats, or arnold presses, or skull crushers, or negative curls, etc etc etc. I love strength training.

A month ago I started taking Ortho-TriCyclen Lo again for the first time in 3 years. I hadn't had my period (boys, you probably want to stop reading right about NOW) in close to 2 whole glorious years because I was pregnant and then breastfed for 11 months after that. When I took my last "active" pill last week and started on the green ones I knew what was in store, but honestly I wasn't fully prepared for the rush of hormonal craziness to come. The 3 days before I started my period I felt as though I was ready to explode. I was bloated, cranky, irritable, and pretty much just a straight up bitch. I also felt the constant urge to put on some elastic-waisted pajama pants, make a nest of pillows in front of the television and consume an entire gallon of ice cream, maybe half a peach cobbler and a package of oreos, whole boxes of cereal and buckets of cookie dough. I refrained, mind you, but the urge was there and I felt fat and moody and miserable. I did have one semi-wild free day last Saturday but I needed it, oh how I needed it! Cheese sticks with ranch and hot wings and an oreo McFlurry from McDonald's were on the menu, and later cookies and cereal and dinner at my in-law's. Sunday I was right back to it, and amazing things started to happen. I go through these little "whooshes" where my body seems to stay the same for awhile, then all of a sudden I can almost see the fat melt off my hips and thighs, new muscle is uncovered, faith and commitment renewed. These results couldn't have come at a better time, so now I feel like I finished the first 12 weeks proud and strong and am diving right into another 12-week challenge starting today.

I have so many good things to say about the Pure Strength series, and I'm honestly kind of sad to see it go. I was tempted to do it for another week or two, but I know that changing things up is good and that I'll rotate back around to it again in a couple of months. I'm lifting heavier than ever before, and it has really pushed me to dig deep and see what I'm capable of. I no longer subscribe to such magazines as Shape and Fitness because I can't bare to flip through the pages and see a 95-pound model hoisting a 3-pound dumbbell over her head like she's breaking a sweat. It kills me. Well, maybe she is breaking a sweat with 3 pounders, as a brisk wind would likely knock her on her ass and maybe even cause her to break a hip. But, you know what I'm saying. Women, be not afraid of the heavy weights! They will do wonders for your body and your health and your all around well-being! It's true! We're ALWAYS stronger than we think we are. (Except for those meatheads in the gym who lift absurd amounts of weight with totally incorrect and slightly embarrassing form, of course. Men, you probably can't honestly bench 467 pounds with proper form.)

Ethan has 2 new teeth! We'll call them Ned and Fred. Ned and Fred have caused mommy and daddy some major teeth-grinding and nose pinching and several dollars into the potty mouth jar over the last few days, but now all is well. Is it normal for teeth to come in pairs? Ethan has always gotten his teeth in two at a time, so it's totally double the fun. I guess one tooth would be kind of lonely without his mate, and I understand that we all need friends, but really. One at a time would be much better. Two is not always better than one. Nope. Nu uh.