Rock-N-Roll, baby!

As any woman who has borne children knows, the hardest part of the whole deal (well, besides the sleep deprivation and nursing issues) is the jiggly bits you're left with after the baby is born. That whole line about breastfeeding being a great diet tool is just a load of bollocks designed to keep us at it, if you ask me. I've never lost much while breastfeeding, and I found I got down to my pre-pregnancy size (and a bit less) right about the time I got pregnant again! (6 months after weaning and 18 months after birth...) So I went into my pregnancy with Boo with fear and trembling on the weight front. I gained an incredible amount of weight with Piglet (25 pounds of water, plus all the other weight one gains while pregnant) and I was loathe to be that big again. Things started out well--I gained much more slowly, had much less water retention and generally felt like I was on track to gain a reasonable amount of weight. Until the third trimester, that is, when I started retaining water again, and carrying so low that I could hardly walk. So while I gained less this pregnancy than the last, I still gained more than I wanted to. So I'm left with a bunch of jiggly bits and a nice jelly belly. That I've been trying to work off with a weekly Pilates session. Unsuccessfully.

I decided a few weeks ago that I was going to ramp up my gym sessions, add in another weekly Pilates session (for an abs-killing total of two per week) and after much thought, rejoined Weight Watchers. I had terrible luck on WW my last go-round and wasn't too enthusiastic about it this time, but I thought, well, at least give it a shot. It worked for Jennifer Hudson, right? Plus they had a good 3-month rate going, so I thought it was a good time to start, at least. So I started walking 3 days a week on the treadmill, 3.6 miles per hour, on an incline, for an hour, plus the Pilates sessions, and watching those Points. I spent last week being cranky and tired because I was sore, exhausted and hungry all week. I'm not one of those people who is energized by exercise--it just makes me more tired. But I stayed within my allowed Points for the week and got in a lot of exercise to boot. So when I stepped on the scale on Monday for my weekly weigh-in, my heart sank and my crabby factor rose by 10. No change. I couldn't believe it. I spent a week killing myself and being hungry (because nursing makes you VERY hungry) for this? No change?? I was angry, to say the least. I thought about that dumb scale on and off all day yesterday, and decided to try again this morning, just for kicks and giggles. 2.5 pounds down! Now that is more like it! So while I'm still tired and hungry, at least I have a little more motivation to keep sweating at the gym and watching my Points. We'll see how it goes. Here's hoping the jiggly bits get the message and take a hike. :)

Rock-n-roll is a technique that I've always had trouble with--I either end up missing the edge of the stamp entirely, or I end up covering too much of the stamp so the two-tone effect is lost. I will say, with these cards, however, I think I've got it! Requires a little wrist action is all. The orange slices card is CASED from Heather Van Duken. The other one is all me. I took the layout from a card I saw somewhere else, but changed up the paper, the stamps, and the color scheme to make it mine. Love that Haiku paper! These two cards also represent part of my challenge to myself to use every stamp set I own during this catalog year. I've had that Charming set for a while and haven't really used it much, even though I fell in love with it when I borrowed it from a friend last December. I saw the mums on the Haiku paper and instantly thought of the medallion in that set and decided to ink it up! So, three sets down.