Dear Bathroom Scale,

I’m sorry I will probably break you later this morning when we have our first weigh-in for the fitness challenge at Stroller Strides. In my defense, the morning after the Superbowl is probably the worst Monday of the year to expect me to have lost weight.

Exhibit A:

The Pioneer Woman's Jalapeno Poppers

Exhibit B:

Quesadillas by Amanda

Exhibit C:

The Pioneer Woman's Drip Beef (not pictured, buttered sandwich rolls and cheese)

Exhibit D:

Fruit Pizza by Amanda - don't be fooled by the "fruit" part, it's shortbread and frosting and chocolate

Not pictured: Taco dip, brownies, three kinds of chips, cheese and crackers, veggies with ranch dip, shrimp cocktail, and my favorite baked potato rounds covered in cheese and bacon.

And let’s not forget my best excuse of all:

BABY WEIGHT

So there, Scale. Those are my excuses. I’ll try to do better next week I promise. Of course I mean AFTER E’s birthday dinner and a special Valentine’s treat.

xoxo

Suzanne

UPDATE: RECIPE LINKS

Jalapeno Poppers – Pioneer Woman

Drip Beef Sandwiches – Pioneer Woman

Amanda’s Website – Funny Days with Mommy & Maddie

UPDATE: I weighed exactly the same as last week. So no harm, no foul, leftover drip beef for lunch!

Eight is how many push-ups I could do in one minute at yesterday’s Get Fit Challenge testing for my Stroller Strides class. They weren’t even good push-ups, although they were real on-my-toes push-ups. Still, anyone who’s ever been through boot camp would have been ashamed of my wimpy noodle arms. I did slightly better on holding a plank position (1 minute 7 seconds) and did a fairly respectable number of crunches (53 in one minute). There was also a shuttle sprint where I ran with a baby shampoo bottle baton from one line to another and back again, all while flailing my arms and legs around in the least coordinated way possible, a la Phoebe from that episode of Friends. Being laughed at by a bunch of toddlers isn’t very good for one’s ego.

In 12 weeks I retry all those tests to see how much I’ve improved my fitness. April, my instructor, also took “before” pictures in which I slouched and scowled as much as possible so my “afters” are guaranteed to be an improvement, even if it’s just because I’m wearing mascara and sucking in my gut. Then she made us run a bazillion flights of stairs, do an insane number of lunges, and kicked out butts motivated us to really focus on being strong mamas.

12 weeks from now is May (MAY! That’s a whole month after APRIL, when my baby will be ONE) and May means skirts and tank tops and no more strategically fashionable scarves to hide my extra chin so it’s a good time to finally be back in (almost) good shape. The fitness tests are a really tangible way to see how I’m doing and a much less depressing measure than my weight, which seems to be glued in place with the world’s strongest super glue.

At least I can pretty much guarantee I’ll be able to do more than eight push-ups.