My Girl Got Big 'ol Bootie!

There's a song that we dance to in Zumba... and one of the chorus's to a good butt lifting routine says something along the lines of, "My girl got big 'ol bootie!"

This line has been running through my head ALL. DAY. LONG. At first it was kind of sweet. I first sang it at 7 a.m. when I picked my little baby girl out of her crib and noticed she was poopy. We danced and giggled at one another as I sang it to her. She even got a little jiggly jig in the mirror as I shook shook my bootie too. It was cute.

And then I sang it again as I watched my three year old adorable daughter running to the front door of the YMCA gym that I attend. She has such a cute little run, swinging her hips side to side shaking her bum before eating cement. Hard. Like every day.

My girl got big 'ol bootie!

And then as I was working out I thought about it. My daughter's have my bootie. My BIG 'OL BOOTIE! And I had to laugh a little. Having a big butt isn't a bad thing, but as a girl I was always mocked and picked on for my bootie.

I developed at an EARLY age. Like 34C in 7th grade developed. It sucked. I hated it and me because of it. The worst part of developing early is the unwanted attention it drew to my young body. My big 'ol bootie was a target for naughty little boy hands and that is what started my unhealthy relationship with food. But alas, I digress...

There was a time when a close friend told me I was super pretty. She told me her mom said I was the prettiest girl that ever entered their home. She said I could be a model.

WOW.

What nice words! I ate them up. I thought I was super fly and uber cool.

But then she said that the only thing that was holding me back was ...  you guessed it! MY BIG 'OL BOOTIE.

Yup. She said I was perfect except for my butt. It was just too big.

Wuh wuh... Totally deflation. I was crushed and once again hated my body and therefore myself.

So as I giggle at my daughters' beautiful dancing tushes, I worry a little. I adore and love all three of my children and my past makes me quite the mother bear. And I hope that I can teach them to love themselves regardless of what other's say. That they will learn to appreciate what Heavenly Father has blessed them with. 

But the one thing I will make sure they know ... is that having a big 'ol bootie ain't all that bad. That THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL no matter if they have bootie or not.

Because someday- someday they will look at their husbands and think to themselves, "Oh yeah, HIS girl got big 'ol bootie!"

Cause I know my husband does.

 And that my friends, aint such a bad thing. ;)

Photo's of me are from September 2005.

Love Nikki!

Holla Back Y'all!

Welcome back to my page of physical pain and doom. Er ... I mean ... Hello? Haha! A lot has happened in my monthly hiatus but I am back, again.

Isn't it funny how I seem to disappear for long periods of time? Well let me clue you in on a little secret. If I have disapeared, then generally I have fallen off the wagon or am injured. Again.

And I have fallen off... because of another injury!

Injury, injury, where art thou injury???

But instead of this being a blog about my injury I will just tell you that I fell two months ago and DESTROYED my husband's rubikscube. AS IN OBLITERATED! And in the process pee'd my pants screaming in miserary. I literally PEE'D myself as I bellowed in pure agony at the impact my knee made with the floor.

While I was whimpering and possibly cursing, my husband lifted my big ol' butt off the ground (or rather helped me roll over) and then I almost puked. My knee was the size of a cantelope! I thought I had flipped my patella! My cap was wrong... just WRONG...

ACK!!!!! YUCK!!! OUWIEEEEEE!!!!

OKAY. So that is that and I am quite the drama queen. My knee cap never dislocated and I apparently have the lowest pain thrush hold eva! EVA!!! (Scream that out loud just for fun. It should sound something like "ever." SHOULD being the operative word...)

So here I sit with a HUGE smile on my face because today I am physically FATIGUED! For the first time in two months I was able to reach that super high that only illegal activity or exercise can create. Woo. I am on FIRE. And I am exhausted.

After two classes of Zumba and an hour of abs and weight lifting I can honestly say I don't care about what I weigh... because no fattie can rock that.

And I ROCKED it!

So here are some words from me to the young girl who snickered at me during class tonight:

Yeah. I'm big. But I am the most awesome 28 year old mom you will ever meet. You keep laughing honey cause I smoked you in class today. I noticed you stopped snickering when my booty shook harder than yours and I also noticed you sat down when I still worked the floor like a fake professional dancer. Oh yeah. Someday you will get it after you have three kids yourself. Someday. In the meantime? Your rude snickers only make me feel sad for you... because instead of making fun of the fat girl in class, you could have been having a "real" experience yourself. But that's okay... because you know what? I ROCKED IT!!! :) Even as you were making fun of me.

I ROCKED IT!

Staring That 20 Down!

As most of you know from either reading my blog, or from fighting the battle yourself- weight loss is a BEAR. It is not enjoyable. It is not an experience you want to live through more than once ... and yet for most of us we have to.

Being fat stinks.

But you know what DOESN'T stink?

When you kick fat's trash and can walk off triumphant.

Now don't get me wrong. I have a LONG way to go... but you have to celebrate the victories along the way. And today was definitly a victory.

I stepped up on that scale and slowly slid the weight across the manual do-hicky thingy and my heart leaped.

I didn't only SMASH my 20 pound mark in the dirt, I STOMPED and burried it with a whopping 21 pounds lost in 7 weeks.

Goodbye 260's. I will NEVER see you again!

And for a quick picture comparison of how I've changed in 20 pounds:

I have dropped 7.7% of my over all body weight and am now even running. On Saturday I ran a 5K with a group of friends. (Okay, I may have walked some too... haha!) But the fact is... I ran! I HATE running! And it didn't HURT. :)

As I was posting this picture comparison, my husband, Josh kind of laughed a little. He said it looks like I am smuggling something in my sweatshirt. HA! Thanks babe. ;) It's true though, it kind of looks like I tried to smuggle in another butt through my front side. But you know what. I was happy. And you know why? Because I had my third little baby with me, and my other two toddlers were at an Easter egg hunt. I was happy with my family and my life... but when I saw this picture for the first time I was mortified. My life was perfect, but I was not.

I took control of myself and my life. I am not perfect and will struggle for the rest of my life with my weight and my own self-image... but I can tell you right now...

I am PROUD of that after picture. Makeup-less and all. :)

EAT DIRT FAT... Because you are no longer eating away at me!

(I am also VERY proud to say that my husband has lost 16 pounds right along with me. When he laughed at my picture, I snorted right back at his! hahaha! *wink wink!)

Weigh-In Madness...

I am MAD.
I am INSANE.

and I am ADDICTED.

Surprisingly enough, it isn't food that I am talking about either. Woot! There's always a first time for everything, right?

Riiiiight.

I am addicted to my Monday weigh-ins. I look FORWARD to seeing what my last week has done to me. It tells me if I did well or if I need to amp up the workouts or change the routine up a bit.

So here it is. In six weeks I have lost 18 pounds. I am averaging 3 pounds a week. Not too shabby my friends. Normal, healthy weight loss is about 2 pounds a week. But when you get as heavy as I did it is common to drop a little more for awhile. My milk is doing well and my baby is quite the little fatty. (And why is that okay when they are little!? She is so stinking cute and rolly polly- and she don't care! Ah, to be a baby again!)

So although I have many addictions this is a new one for me. I used to DREAD the weigh-in. But I think I am doing really well and will be posting pictures next week because... because... because...

Next week will be a GREAT milestone for me! I will hit my 20 pound mark.

We'll see how the before's and after *but still befores* look. I'm anxious to see myself. ;)

Remember to check back in and let me know what you think.

Love Nikki

Sneaky Evil Calories

On Monday I weighed in... and KICKED butt! In five weeks I have lost 15 pounds. Lots of ZUMBA moves, calorie counting, and iron pumping got me there. But there is something that I have noticed that is starting to change the direction of the scale.

Sneaky EVIL calories!

Or restaraunts that pretend they have healthy options... but in turn end up KILLING you!

And guess what... I am SO going to call this place out!

Red Robbin sucks, y'all. I went out with a friend last night and ordered a wrap. I HATE wraps. I WANTED a nice, juicey and greasey avocado bacon burger. I almost wonder if that would have been better? Instead I ordered the whiskey bbq chicken wrap.

And to my amazement this morning when I logged my calories... it was over 1,000 calories ALONE!

Ew!!!!!!!!

I can just FEEL the grease dripping out of my poors. The fat attatching right back onto my sorry excuse of a stomach. And all the work I have done this week completely shot.

But I will NOT let this discourage me. It wasn't my free meal, for I already had my treat the night before... but I will learn from this moment. No one cares about MY health BUT me. No one is going to stop me from consuming large quantities of calories but myself. Only I have the power to control what goes into my own mouth.

Today I make a vow to myself.

I will take charge of myself, starting with what I consume now. I will no longer trust the food industry and I will teach my children to be weary of all the false health foods too.

This is no longer just a fight against me and the ever so yummy junk food.

Oh no.

THIS IS WAR!!!

Picture found here.

A Little... Naughty

Two weeks ago became the start of an addiction for me. A pretty CRAZY one that gets my heart racing and my cheeks flushed. It makes my mind race and my lungs weeze.

Sometimes I even cough and it makes me slow down a lot when I am whinding down off of it.

Oh dear friends. I HIGHLY recommend this addiction.

Can you SMELL the peer pressure?

It is the ever naughty dance workout ZUMBA.

The first time I did it I literally blushed the ENTIRE time. Not only did the instructor have a ROCKING body that would make a teenage girl envious, she was easily in her late 50's!

Granny got it going on!!! ;)

So there I was trying to keep up with someone who is about 30 years my senior, and I was panting and dying. There were arms flying to the left, and then arms flying right towards my face. When I would finally chance looking around again I would be completely caught off by all the booty shaking and hip thrusting.

Women REALLY like doing this in public??? HA!

Talk about a culture shock!

The part that made me giggle A LOT was that I went to this class with a large group of my mommy friends. Here we are, a group of five or six of us mommies getting our dirty dancing on!

WHAT WILL OUR CHILDREN THINK OF US?!!

I will never look at those innocent little mommies again. The way they got their grooves on, I now KNOW they all got some dirty secrets lying under those pure exteriors. No goody goody can move the way these ladies were moving. It just isn't natural.

I now go at least twice a week with my mommy friends. (haha!)

And during this time I have lost another 5 pounds on top of my 8 two weeks ago. This total's 13 pounds in 2.5 weeks.

And wait! There is more...

I can now shake my money-maker too!

And! *gasps in shock* I enjoy it!

What workouts do YOU enjoy doing?
ps. The instructor wasn't really that old ... I tend to be a tad bit dramatic. She really did look amazing though!
A note for postpartum mommies: This is a GREAT article to keep in mind.

Weigh-In

Yesterday my husband and I weighed in! It was a GREAT first week. I'm pretty proud of both of us. I haven't measured anything yet because, honestly? It becomes overwhelming. I'm okay with just the number on the scale and the percent sign it creates afterward. ;)

So.. my starting weight was...

WAIT FOR IT...

WAIT FOR IT...

279.

 GAG. COUGH. blush.

And yesterday I was 271. That's 8 pounds. 2.9% of my body weight GONE! :) My husband lost 5 pounds as well. Yay! Here's to another bomb-diggidy week y'all!

Love Nikki
ps. Some of the weight-loss may have been water weight. This next week will not be as amazing but I will work just as hard and have added carbs back in last Friday. My diet has been healthy and filling. :) And so far so good on nursing.