Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. - W.C.

Where has six weeks gone?  It's been a crazy cross section of life with ups and downs, ear infections and vomiting, struggles and victories, and at the heart of the challenge was my desire to try to find myself again after having two beautiful babies.  As a parent (especially as a stay at home mother), it's all too easy to give yourself over completely to the role and lose yourself in the ocean of your family's needs. This has been the beginning of my journey back to myself.

A friend e-mailed me the other day saying, "I can totally empathise with the daily struggles with food, weight, exercise etc and it was so comforting to me and I am sure many others to see that you (...) also deal with the same daily issues that so many of us face. What I am trying to say is that your blog made me feel much less alone in world!"

The truth of the matter is that I started this blog because I also felt 'alone in the world' as an overwhelmed and out of control mom with no one share my insanity.  These last six weeks have been a personal journey to reestablish my identity as a woman, empower myself as a mother, and regain confidence in myself as a human being who has a say in the direction of my life.  I am humbled and thankful for all of my friends and family who have followed me these past six weeks. In all honesty, it was the knowledge that people were actually reading this ridiculous blog 'thing' which forced me to keep accountable to myself and to forge ahead to the end.
Thank you :) 

For those who have asked.... Yes, I'm going to take a few days off and then start on a whole new challenge.  I may change it up, but at this time they will be:
1) Weight (of course!!!!!),
2) Diastasis rehab (I'll explain below),
3) Exercise (I'll be signing up for some races!),
4) Sticking to a budget (I still spend like I'm gainfully employed!!),
5) Pre-planning healthy meals for my family, and
6) Still figuring it out :)

So here's the final chart and the last assessment:

Week	Weight Loss	Diastasis	Exercise x/week	Ari Bedtime	Ave. Lilah Wakes/Night	Ave. Lilah Nursings/Day
1	+.5	+	2/7	9:30	2.16	5.16
2	-2.2	+	3.5/7	9:15	2.16 (less time awake, more consistency)	5
3	-3.2	26/35	1/7	9:10 – staying in bed	1.85	3.6
4	-2.2	39/70	3/7	9:05	1.57	3.28
5	-2	28/42	2/7	9pm	2	2.2
6	-4.2	?/42	5/7	BAD!	1	WEANED!

1) Lose 10 pounds - Not nearly my goal of 10, but still I'm proud to be under the 160 mark which hasn't happened in 2 years!  I weighed in yesterday morning at 158.8.  I still have about 18.8 pounds for my long term goal, but maybe I'll start focusing on 5 pounds at a time instead of 10!

2) Diastasis Rehab - I had my final meeting with Kelly Dean at the Tummy Team (www.thetummyteam.com) and I was REALLY happy with my results.  In the beginning of this process, my waist was 40.5 inches!!! and my separation was 6 deep above, at, and below the belly button.  Now after 6 weeks, my waist is 35.75 inches, and my separation is 3 medium above, 3 deep at, and 2 medium below my belly button!  Woo-hoo!  I've lost nearly FIVE full inches off my waist simply by doing these exercises for six weeks!  I'm proud, but I'm also a little frustrated because after six weeks of hard work, my diastasis is the size of most other people who are just STARTING the program.  I'm not really upset, but you can understand my annoyance - yes???  On the other hand, Kelly said if I really stick to it and work hard for just a little longer, she thinks I could probably close the diastasis in another 6 weeks.... so I'm going to try!  er... that is... after taking a week off first :) 

3) Exercise - I NEVER thought I'd say this, but I really missed running :)  As you can see from the chart I've run 5 out of the last 7 days and it's been awesome.  Luckily we're in Oregon summer where it's nice and sunny nearly every day :)  Also, there's been a big improvement since my awesome neighbor lent me her single jogger... now I have NO excuse!!  We'll see what happens when the rain comes back, but it's been pretty fun getting out there on the road again.  I have JUST over a month before I run the Warrior Dash and now that I can actually jog over 1.5 miles w/o stopping I'm getting pretty excited about it.  PLEASE check out the website and see what insanity I've agreed to sign up for :) If nothing else you'll have yourself a good chuckle imagining me wading across a mud pit or leaping over fire wearing a big furry hat with horns :) http://warriordash.com/

4) Ari bedtimeSupernanny would NOT have approved..... but now I'm in charge again, and I have no intention of relinquishing my power :) 

5) Lilah sleep through the night - For the most part we're now officially down to one waking in the night which is pretty friggin awesome.  However, on Monday night Lilah slept through the ENTIRE night.  I couldn't believe it.  She went to bed at 8:15 and slept straight through until 7am and I had NINE whole hours of sleep.  I woke entirely of my own accord at 6:24am, made sure she was alive (she was), went downstairs to put up a pot of coffee and stood in my kitchen not knowing what to do next.

6) Wean Lilah - This is the one challenge, which I can honestly say: CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!!  It was so tough to do, but I always seem to underestimate the power of cold turkey.  I need to do more things cold turkey because it SOO works!  It feels nice to have my body back :)  I think I'm going to keep it for at least a year or so before I get pregnant again :)

So that's it!  All in all I'm pretty proud of myself.  I think I've accomplished a lot and I'm pretty happy with the results.  I know in life there are always new challenges and things are always changing, but I'm pretty satisfied with the improvements I've made to my life in the last six weeks.  A very wise woman once told me, "If you don't like something, change it.  If you can't change it, change the way you think about it."  Well... I did.