On my Recent Weight Loss...

I've had a lot of people compliment me on how I look lately, and I've had a lot of people ask me what my secret is.

My secret is: barf a few times a day for nine months.

I was extremely, extremely sick during my pregnancy with Micah. I barfed up a lot of what I ate, and I felt so gross that I didn't have much of an appetite. That whole "You only barf the first few months" is such a lie for many of us. And actually, I barfed equally and felt equally gross with my other two pregnancies, but I always still managed to gain about 30 pounds with each one of those. With Micah, I only gained 9 pounds. I can't tell a difference in the way I felt. I mean, my pregnancy with Micah sometimes seemed to be worse than with Dylan and Sadie, but I distinctly remember being very, very miserable in those pregnancies, too. So I'm not sure what the deal was this time around.

Micah was a normal weight when born - seven pounds - and very healthy. And I had a placenta, obviously, and my bag of waters seemed normal. So, if you do the math, that means that I lost a lot of my own body fat. I'm not going to lie - I love the results. I'm 20 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant with Micah. It came at a dear price, but I'm enjoying the payoff for now.

Like I said, I have thyroid disease, and I have to get my blood checked a couple of times a year to make sure my levels are good. They had to give me more micrograms when I was pregnant, just to level things out. I need to get my blood tested again, because I may very well be taking too high of a dosage, since I am no longer pregnant. The thing is - I think it's my heightened thyroid medication that's keeping me skinny. That's one of the things about thyroid medicine. When I first found out I had hypothyroidism and was given medicine, I immediately dropped 15 pounds. All of my friends in San Diego were like, "Dang. Maybe I should have my blood tested, too... I wish I had a thyroid problem..." :) Don't worry; I won't let it go for too much longer without getting tested. It's nice being skinny, but it's also nice to have a good hormonal balance.

I've also been jogging every day, and I know without a doubt that running makes my weight stay off better than any other exercise. Do I like it? Heck, no. But I like the way it makes me feel. Honestly, even if I end up gaining weight again, as long as I'm still jogging every day, I won't care. Because it raises my endorphins, it makes me feel really good about myself for doing something for me and only me, and it's good for my heart. Heart disease is the number one killer among women, right? So it's good to do something for my heart. Really, there are lots of benefits to jogging, besides losing weight.

I definitely, definitely like the smaller me better - who wouldn't? I really need to watch what I eat better, though, or I know I'll start to probably plump up again.