My Story...Babies and Twizzlers...The Death of My Hotness.

I’ve battled my weight my whole life.  I was never skinny.  There was only a BRIEF time in my life that I could actually go to the store and try on jeans without wanting to hack off my saddle bags.  That time was when I was getting married…I was HOT.  That’s how I hooked the hubby. Weighing in at my smallest I can remember…166 lbs.  This was a happy, healthy weight for me.  I liked how I looked and felt and could go jean shopping without having to mentally prepare for weeks.

July 5, 2008 aka happiest day of my LIFE. 166 pounds.



Fast forward 6 months…I found out I was pregnant with our first VERY unexpected babe.  Apparently I missed the part in health class, no i don’t know what causes pregnancy, and no it was not a shotgun wedding…do your math your math………………………..

31 weeks pregnant with baby number 1 weighing in at a solid 200 pounds. (July 2009)

I remember my last appointment with my midwife and stepping on the scale and seeing 222.  That’s TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO POUNDS.  A few days later I went into labor and birthed a sweet 8 pound 2 ounce baby boy.  I could have sworn he was going to be at LEAST 26 pounds……………………….apparently I shouldn’t have ate ice cream and chocolate milk by the gallon.  I had heartburn………and no will power. 

When Zack was 8 months old (yes I felt like watching TLC and HGTV all day was more important than my appearance for 8 MONTHS) I decided to start working out.  And by working out I mean going for walks.  I was breast feeding but I’m not one of the lucky ones that can consume mass amounts of calories and not gain a pound. But at the time I didnt know that…I had just heard that when you’re breast feeding you can eat whatever you want (yes because that went SO WELL while i was pregnant).  However I knew we wanted another babe soon so I wasn’t going to invest to much effort into losing the extra lbs.  And when Zack was 14 months old we found out we were expecting our second PLANNED babe!

37 weeks preggalicious with baby number 2 (July 2011)



I didn’t gain as much weight this time around….BUT I hadn’t lost all the weight from the first time…and by all the weight I mean 30 pounds.  The food of choice this time was purple skittles.  I would have my hubby stop at the gas station on the way home from work and get me a bag….and not the regular sized bag…not the kind sized bag…the bag that says there are 5 servings in it and I would eat each and every one of those colorful morsels.  This was a nightly routine. NIGHTLY. 40 weeks and another 45 pounds later I gave birth to a sweet little 8 pound baby boy. WHAT?!?! He wasn’t 26 pounds either!?!??! Eff.

So let’s do some math i weighed 166 when I found out I was pregnant with number 1, and weighed 222 a few days before delivery..That’s a gain of 56 pounds with baby number 1.

With baby number 2 I started at 196 pounds and weighted in at 225 TWO WEEKS before I actually had him…………Though he was born at the end of July and at LEAST 20 pounds of that was WATER right!?!? Realistically I guestimate I gained 40 pounds this time around.

Ok. So we’ve had two ADORABLE little boys in the last 21/2 years….We knew we wanted more kids but were going to wait for a good long while. Like 3 years at least. 



So when Max was 6 weeks old it was time for me to get moving! Get in shape! Be a HOT MOMMY…When Zack was a babe I had started a playgroup that met every Monday morning.  We were a group of friends that were all in a very similar stage of life.  We all had kids 3 years old or under and we were all just trying to get through the days without cashing  a bottle of wine before our husbands got home. So one day…we all weighed in for all to see.  I was the ONLY one tipping the scales over 200 lbs. 205 to be exact. 

Apparently those purple skittles weren’t just going to “fall off while I was nursing”.  Eff.

Lucky for me our little no stop light town had just opened a fitness center.  So I joined and was consistently going 2-3 times a week.  THANK THE GOOD LORD it was mostly old people in there with me because I was a HOT MESS!! The sweating, the  the burping while jiggle jogging (Jiggle Jog: Verb: To jog at a pace fast enough that something is jiggling)…HOT MESS.

After a month or so of jiggle jogging 5 pounds off.. and being able to keep a 11.20 mile I felt like I could move out of the comfort of the geriatric wellness center….I started Jiggle Jogging with my skinny friends who were seasoned runners.  My goal was always just to not lose site of them.  I could be 2 blocks behind but if I could still see those hookers that weighted 80 pounds less than me I was doing good.  Even if being able to see them meant they were stopped at a stop sign waiting for me to get closer before taking off like gazelles again.  Sometimes I kept up…sometimes I didn’t.  But I never stopped.  I would walk some. I would want to puke.  But at the end of a run I would feel so ready to take on the day with my crazy, busy little men.

This is when I knew I was hooked.  I kept seeing the scale go down.  I started to not hate what I saw in the mirror.  I was able to keep up with the skinny hookers more often…well not keep up with them but almost always be able to see them…I decided I was ready for my first 5k.  My two goals were to no walk and finish under 40 minutes.  I am proud to say I didn’t walk, but I did keep pace with a 80 year old woman…seriously…and finished at 39 minutes 24 seconds.  My wonderful hubby jiggle jogged with me and I swear he slapped my ass AT LEAST 15 times.  He’s such a lover. I was pretty proud of my 200 pound self for finishing and meeting my goals.  But it was time to get serious about getting fit.

October 2011 200lbs

A few months later we booked our first vacation EVER… VEGAS BABY!! I got serious about running.  I would run a mile every day.  Not far but far enough and the scale was still going down! I was eating pretty well….but I was still nursing.  Which in Sarah world means SLOW weight loss. But I kept at it. 

March 2011- 195 lbs First time wearing jeans in public since Max was born…on a balls hot day trip to the zoo…fellow fatties I know you feel my pain…

In VEGAS weighing in at 190 lbs the day before we left (April 24, 2011)  I had stopped nursing 3 months before we left…………………….wait I thought I was suppose to deflate as soon as I stopped………It couldn’t have been the twizzlers I was eating every night…no way.



When we got back from that trip I was thinking I had 2 months to whip it into shape for the summer………….a mere 3 weeks later…

Yes I’m in the car. No I did not pee on the side of the road. I was taking the evidence to my friend so she could see for herself that i’m Fertile Mertile. And yes….this makes 3 kids in 3 1/2 years. 

This picture I’m pretty proud of. I’m 8 weeks pregnant and weigh in at 188 lbs.  The first few months of pregnancy are rough for me so I usually lose a few pounds. Does’t really help me not gain later because as soon as I can keep food down I hoover it. (June 2012)

But then……..

January 2013-9 months pregnant. I was tipping the scales at a solid 240…oh yeah… I delivered 2 days later. At home. But that’s another post. 

This sweet little boy was a honkin 9 pounds 6 ounces..Birthing his large, posterior (hence the bruised face) self at our home with my midwife, hubby, and bff with me was the best experience of my life.  Again…a whole other story that I will post soon.

We now KNOW THERE WILL BE NO MORE BABIES FOR A LONG LONG TIME IF EVER.

This is not where my weight loss journey begins….but where my battle with my weight ends. 

I chose to start putting all of this out there for everyone to see for a few reasons. 

1. If I’m going to bust ass to get fit I want to see how far I’ve come and all of my accomplishments, failures, battles, and victories.I want to be able to look back and feel every moment over again.  This battle I’ve been fighting my whole life will only change if I FEEL it.

2. For the first time in my life I FEEL like i’m doing this.  I’m really making the life changes and REALLY making progress.

3. Let’s be real..I’m really going to think twice about eating those twizzlers if I am throwing up my digits for all to see.