Phony Housewife

I was always a little chubby...until after I graduated. I exercised, and ate right, and got into my coveted SIZE SIXES!!!

When I moved in with my boyfriend in 2005, I weighed about 135. I had been working part time and secured my first full-time, big girl job. Up until then, I had been in school (which I couldn't afford any longer). I sat on my butt all day, and typed. I didn't mind it, but my body was very angry. The pounds dribbled on. Not noticeably, however my pants slowly got tighter and tighter until I was at the point where some pants never even left the drawer (yeah, my favorites. GRRRR!).

When I found out I was pregnant, I think my first prenatal weigh in was around 160. I was sick. I hadn't stepped on a scale in a year, and 20 pounds?! The weight didn't come fast during my pregnancy, a pound here, a couple there. Then in my eighth month, my son had a growth spurt and went crazy. I tipped the scales at my last appt at around 205 (and yeah, with HIS growth spurt, my belly had one, too, leaving me with some nice "stretchy" reminders).

I prayed that my son would be a whopper and I'd drop 20 or 30 lbs after birth. Nope. 197. Horrified. Sick. Disgusted.

But it was all about my son at that point..."B" we call him. A few months later I got down to 175, and a year later when I tried to diet again, 170. Now ANOTHER year later I've come to realize it's Kendra time. My son is my number one priority, but there is no reason I can't concentrate on my own health, too. I started this round, this FINAL round at 184 and have managed to wiggle my way to under 174 already. I'm in. I've got a taste of the loss and I'm not stopping now. It's a drug, the weight loss.

Now I have to stand here and argue. I weigh myself every day. Sometimes more than once. People will say it's unhealthy, however, I disagree. On days I see a loss, my day brightens up. I am excited to keep going with my diet and exercise and love knowing there's progress going on. On days I see no change, or an increase, it makes me want to work that much harder. Where's the down side?

A friend once told me that, "Pain is weakness leaving the body." and while I know it's not HIS quote, it was the first time I'd heard it. My weakness is going away. And I love knowing that.

I guess there's more than one journey to stalk, now. My weight tracker, located on the right, will let you know how I'm doing. And of course, I'll make it a point to post my favorite recipes (because healthy doesn't have to be YUCKY).

Other than pure entertainment, my goal for this blog is to help unorganized, anti-cleaning people like me overcome those habits and slowly make new ones. And to help people get healthy, because it really is easy!!

What you're about to see is real and brought to you in the comfort of your own home (hopefully, running water included).

My name is Kendra. I'm 24. TWENTY FOUR! It sounds bad to me because those low 20's...21, 22, 23...all those years were foreign to me. You see, I spent them being Mommy rather than the newly legal party-er. I don't regret one thing, but sometimes it seems like I've spent way to much being "Mommy" and not enough time being "Kendra".

My son, "B" as we call him, was born in 2007. He is the light of my life, and I spend much more time playing with him than doing dishes...or laundry...or vacuuming.

Much of this most likely stems from the fact that I have all of these memories of my father growing up, taking me for a candy bar after school. He'd buy us each a lotto ticket, and at 7, scratching it was insanely exciting! But my mom...not so much. I remember her cleaning. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

And while I agree that a house can't get so out of control that you can't move, I don't need a spotless house to be happy, and neither does B. In fact, he's much happier if I skip the dishes for awhile and go outside to play in the yard.

My house isn't spotless, I don't run around cleaning waiting for hubby to get home. I sure as shit am not gonna make myself all pretty for him, take his coat and briefcase and serve him some coffee with his paper after he gets off work. I'm just not THAT housewife. In fact, I'm not really any housewife. >:-}

The laundry piles up in my house, dishes are stacked by the sink, there are stains in the carpet...but we are happy!!! Well...maybe not hubby, lol, but their opinion never matters, now does it?

So here you have it. My life where happiness trumps cleanliness, where tradition is taken in small doses. I try, I give it an honest effort. See my goal tracker? That's my big, REAL housewife goal for the week (there are others, I'm not lazy).

To top it all off, I am also working to get off the baby weight. Who has time to clean when Tony Horton and the P90X are in your living room? 45 minutes with him and you'd rather break dishes than stand another 10 minutes to do them! (:

Stay with me, guys, it's gonna get VERY interesting!