If you cannot go to the gym...

...make the gym come to you!

We bought this over the weekend. A treadmill! We had been contemplating buying one since I got gestational diabetes and didn't buy one just because we were unwilling to spend all that money. But now it was becoming apparent that I needed desparate help in shedding those pounds that I accumulated during my IVF treatments and then during the pregnancy. Even now I am at a weight that I have never been at even at the peak of my last pregnancy. A whopping 181 pounds!! There. I said it. I am kind of ashamed of my weight right now, though I don't know why. It wasn't as if I could avoid gaining it. I gained only 20 pounds during my pregnancy, and my OB/GYN and edocrinologist were very happy with that fact (and it took a lot of effort to limit the weight gain to 20, believe me) But I gained over 20 pounds in the year before I conceived and while I should have adopted an exercise regimen (rather, maintained the one I had), it was next to impossible with so many balls in the air to juggle. A full-time job, IVF treatments, a new home, in-laws (and the accompanying stress :D) and a family to take care of. The biggest one was my commitment to my daughter's school PTO - I was her school's rep for the Norwalk PTO committee and had to attend monthly meetings. As a rep I also had to attend vendor fairs and other events organized by the committe, report back to the school's PTO about what was discussed at the PTO committee, was part of her school's Technology committee, took an active part in voicing school-parents' concerns in front of the Board of ed and the superintendent, and also voiced our concerns at the town's budget hearings because they were thinking of making cuts to the school board's budget. Some of these meetings ran till 10 or 11 and I had one meeting every week on an average (sometimes more). All this went on practically till the end of school year (June) which means that I was doing all this almost till the end of my pregnancy.

Anyhoo. So here we are now - at 181 lbs. At least 50 pounds to lose. An added incentive is the endocrinologist's warning. If I don't lose the weight, my chances of getting diabetes are 50%. If I do manage to lose even some of the weight, my chances go down to 5%. Simple, isn't it?! Not quite. For now, between the constant feeding, nursing and pumping sessions, not to mention other house chores, I have to fit in an exercise program. And blogging :D And I am going back to work in 4 weeks. Sssssssscary!

One glimmer of hope - the arrival of my parents on August 16th. I am eagerly waiting for them. Hopefully their arrival will give me and J the much needed respite from our grueling schedules. Not that we are planning to dump all work on them. But we will have them to take care of Baby M if, say, we have to mow the lawn or trim the bushes (yup! we have to do that too!), or do one of the 1000 other jobs around the house that lie ignored right now. I am also looking forward to leaving the kids with them one night and going out for a quiet movie and a dinner with J. Been a long time since we did that. Almost a year - the last time we did that was when J's parents were visiting us last year. One thing that I am looking forward to the most is spending some time with my parents. The last time they visited us, I had school 4 nights of the week in addition to my full-time job. This time too I considered signing up for a class since they will be here to help but decided against it. The class will have to wait even though it does have the potential of giving my career a much-needed boost. This time, I'll get about 15 days with them at home before I go to work and this time around I am much more disciplined and efficient so I am hoping we will get more time together on week-nights and weekends.

So, now the treadmill awaits me! I am looking forward to making its acquaintence tonight. Which means I have to get off my big fat butt RIGHT NOW and prepare dinner while Baby M is sleeping. Ciao!