Weight-loss from pregnancy #2

It's been a long road!  And for now, I declare it over.

In short, after having the twins I was just over 35 pounds heavier than my "normal" weight.  I've done a whole bunch of things to get it off over the last 2 years, and it's generally been 'two steps forward one step back.'  I've finally dropped 25 lbs (forget about that last 10!) and over half of that has been since January.  I'm still chubby, and my BMI classifies me as overweight (but not obese!) but I feel "normal" again and my clothes fit better.  So I'm happy to move on to weight maintenance.

What I tried:
-Whole 30 (three rounds, the first round I was 100% strict, the second round I cheated once, and the third round ended up being a bit of a flop.  Funny how self-control can decrease like that!)
-Eliminate sugars/desserts except one day a week
-Nutrisystem-  I think I did this for about 4.5 months and was happy with the results, but also saw greater success the first two months and only lost a few pounds each month that followed.  Losing 2 lbs didn't feel worth it for the sacrifices I was making, so my motivation started to slip there, too.
-Exercise!  I've been exercising pretty regularly since last September (4-6 days a week for an hour.)  Unfortunately, I've realized weight loss has way more to do with eating than exercising, but my muscles are looking slightly more toned.

I'm primarily documenting this to motivate myself in the future.  When there's a bit goal ahead it's easy to feel like it's never going to happen.  But it can!  Even though two years is a looong time.

Time for some picture documentation.  I took a before picture in late 2015, but I can't find it.  So these will have to do.  (I also don't have a great "after" picture, but these will have to do.)

This picture is weeks after giving birth.

 This is the cute reason for all that weight gain:

 This was after a few months.  While we were still in Germany I didn't really make much effort to lose weight.  Two newborns and a toddler and moving.... I was just in survival mode.  And I pat myself on the back that I survived.  :)

This was fall of 2015, so the girls were just past 6 or 7 months old.  I just started working out some what regularly, and did a round of Whole30 followed by eating sweets only once a week.  I feel like a lot of the pregnancy big-ness had gone away, and I was just chubby (but my 'normal' shape.) 

And this is just after we'd moved to Colorado, hopefully a few pounds lighter.

I didn't feel too overweight when we went to Colombia in June 2016. 

February 2017-- I had just lost about 8 lbs doing Nutrisystem (although this picture doesn't look like it!)

May 2017, still losing weight on Nutrisystem.  Finally fitting into some pencil skirts that were a bit obscene to wear 6 months earlier (and impossible to wear before that.)

So this was August 2017, when I'd gotten down to 161 or 162.  It was the first time in a few years that I saw a picture of myself and didn't think I looked 'round'.  Primarily through my shoulders.  I just looked "normal."  (For me, anyway.)   

This is from October.  My weight hadn't changed much since August, maybe 1-2 lbs.  

So in summary:

Wahoo!!!!!!!   Glad that's done, for now. 

(Just for fun, here's my weight-loss after Tiago was born.  It took about 8 months.)