Once I was a runner

I know my kids are cute as hell but let's get back to the original reason for this (and every) blog: ME.

I joined the cult.

I can't take a single picture without at least one toy in the background. 

I've said it before, but it's my new life mission to dispel the myth that being pregnant in the summer is a bad thing. (JK, I'm totes busy keeping my kids alive.) Summer is widely agreed to be the time of year when people are most self conscious about their bodies, proven by all the "bikini/beach body" products. I loved my big pregnant belly, and I loved having it in warm weather. I could feel cute in all sorts of form fitting clothing. You know what's not cute? A postpartum belly and giant, leaky boobs. Sorry, but it's true. Obviously I'm happy to have those things, because it means I was lucky enough to bring these beautiful babies into the world.

But in terms of self esteem - I feel fat and gross. Not like two years ago, when I was rocking the cute maternity sundresses. Also, you know what is much, much hotter than a pregnant belly? Wearing a baby. #wearingRoyce #hatesthestroller #needbothhandssomytoddlerdoesntrunintotraffic

TL:DR I'm fatter than I'd like to be, I know its normal, but I would like to be skinnier, especially since I will very soon need to branch out from my summer wardrobe of nursing tanks, workout shorts, and crazy postpartum hair that I'm about to shave off if it doesn't get its act together.

Since my 6 week checkup, I had been doing pretty well exercising. I did a free week at a local gym and went to all the classes, hit the treadmill, and our city has an awesome wellness program with free workouts all the time. I did an outdoor barre class that destroyed me.

Then we had ALL the visitors, and it was two weeks of pure fun. My parents visited, then two of my college besties with their kids - 10 people, 5 kids, 5 adults, in our 1200 square foot house. Ridiculous but so much fun. Then my friend Emily and her son took the train down from Manhattan. I'm no longer in the phase of my life where I'll wake up at the crack of dawn to get in a run before visitors wake up, so I just took almost 2 weeks off from fitness. After that, I was struggling to get motivated again.

I never really had an opinion one way or the other about this whole FitBit craze since it began, probably because I was pregnant basically the whole time. In my mission to drop some baby weight but still eat ice cream every night, it seemed worth checking out. I got one this past weekend, courtesy of a generous birthday gift from my mom!

I set it up Saturday, with some help from my BFF Casi. She warned me I would become completely obsessed (and we've been friends since we were 11 and roommates for 4 years, so she knows me very well) and she was so right. Tuesday night, I found myself pacing around my bedroom trying to get my last 1,000 steps to reach 10,000. It's definitely the best thing to ever happen to Eric, because whenever we need to get something/someone from another room, I'm like I'LL DO IT I NEED STEPS. 

It's hard to exercise with two kids. I have to get creative and bring them with me. 

Double running stroller!

Side eye for days. 

Just kidding, it's not hard right now, I'm on maternity and have all the time in the world. I do tend to wait until Eric's home from work to exercise so I can completely zone out and have 20 or 30 minutes of time just to myself. It's fantastic. 

Today, my kindle wasn't charged so I was forced to run on the treadmill without Netflix (current show: Call the Midwife). I KNOW. True suffering. I went back to old school running and just listened to music, specifically, my marathon playlist from when I finally PR'd in the marathon 3 years ago (3 hours, 51 minutes!). It was so crazy, it seemed like I was a different person in a different lifetime, back when I wasn't knee deep in diapers and could just run distances like ten miles on a random weekday for run. I can't even imagine running 10 miles now, much less 26. I'm not sad about that, because I love my life knee deep in diapers, but it was cool to channel that old version of myself for a little bit. 

That was a random trip down memory lane. If you have a FitBit, friend me!

Who else has a FitBit? Are you obsessed?