Alternate title: Or Not
Tri-Moms (that would be Kathi, Kristin, and me) decided we would talk about how we’ve lost our “baby weight” after each baby. And to that I say, “or not”.
The History – Baby by Baby
For me, it’s been an up and down battle. As have all my weight issues since college. It’s like I’ll muster up my courage, get all self-disciplined, lose a bunch of weight, and then just get lazy. Over and over. After my first child I had the most weight to lose, but it seemed to come off pretty easily with my never eating and general stress out over having a new baby. The second pregnancy followed a short 10 months later I just kind of plateaued. Then my Girlie came along and after she was born I worked harder than I had before to lose the weight. I was living with my parents near a college where I could walk the track easily with 3 small children all contained and my parents had a treadmill. Add to that Matt was also dieting so it was much easier for us both to make the changes at once. Then I got pregnant with my fourth (BigMan), moved away from the college town (or anywhere to walk at all for that matter) and gave up. I lost the weight quickly after he was born (as I usually do with nursing), but then as time went on I depended more on all that breastfeeding calorie-burning and just ate anything I wanted (hello, chocolate chips!) Then I got pregnant with sweet Baby number 5 (Baby) and I had a sicker pregnancy than I’ve ever had. Oh my word, I was so very sick. The whole time. So, though I was gaining pregnancy weight it wasn’t the usual inordinate-get-fussed-at-by-the-doc amount. And therefore, the weight came off quickly with the nursing again. And again, it snuck back up to a much-squishier-than-I-wanna-be weight. Which is where I am now.
The Current Solution
So, here I am. With more squish than I want. With the kids pushing in on my belly and taking guesses as to whether I already have a baby growing in there (I don’t, for the record, I’m just fat) I figure it’s time to do something. Again. Matt announced he would be going on a diet a couple of months ago. I refused. Quietly. I just thought to my stubborn self “I’ll support him in any way I can, but I ain’t goin’ there yet.” And I didn’t for a few weeks. But now, I’m slowly coming on board the diet changing train. Reluctantly. Here’s my whinyness: I had a meal plan. I had a frugal meal plan. I knew what I was doing. I had written whole posts on it. I don’t like learning new things. I don’t like change. But I knew I needed to. So I started small.
The Steps I Took
Matt’s an all or nothin’ kinda guy. When he makes changes he does it up right. All at once. Which is admirable. But for me, that gets overwhelming. I have to make little changes, feel like I’m accomplishing something and then move on to the next thing. The way this looks right now in our house is that Matt keeps track of his own caloric intake (which is about 1500 calories I think). He’s eating nearly all raw foods (not completely, but close). He eats meat (not processed meats like sausage or hot dogs, but stuff like steaks and chicken), veggies, fruit, nuts, and seeds. He drinks water and some coffee and takes a multivitamin. That’s it. He’s droppin’ weight like crazy. I, however, am taking a much looser approach to the diet. And I haven’t figured out how to cut our budget and feed the kids easily (that is key, when I’m trying to teach during the day) and get us on the same eating schedule. I just haven’t made it that far yet. Baby steps for me. I quit making bacon and sausage gravy and biscuits. Completely. I switched our regular ground beef to ground turkey (cheaper than beef and I actually like it better) and then I switched our bacon to turkey bacon. The kids like it better, I tolerate it. Same with the turkey ground breakfast sausage. Step one: accomplished. Matt is doing all of our diet meat cooking. He makes his own marinades out of raw veggies and spices, he grills a bunch of meat at once. Then we cut it, measure it by ounces, freezer wrap it, label it, and stick all the little labeled packs in the freezer. He has instant lunches and snacks ready. I’m still feeding the kids the same old junk for breakfasts and lunches (hot dogs, pb&js, popcorn chicken, bologna, etc.) until I can make the entire transition. I don’t eat what they eat. The meat we don’t freeze we keep in ziplocks in the fridge so that we can grab some through the day. I’ve finally cut all candy and sodas and junk food. No chocolate chips, no salsa with chips right now. I don’t plan to stay at this level. I will eventually eat chocolate again, but I would like to lose all the weight I want and then I will ease a little and maintain it.
The main things I’ve discovered in my weight loss so far are: stop the junk, that’s hard, I miss chocolate and I miss Root Beer, but after a meal when I want something sweet I eat a piece of fruit. And at around 2pm when I haven’t had a nap and I’m starting to wither I have a second cup of coffee for the day. I haven’t given up my sugar and creamer yet. I probably won’t ever. I’ll find the trade off somewhere else. The next step? Be hungry. I’m having issues with this one, being hungry makes me super cranky. And I’m already a generally cranky person so this doesn’t help. But I’m trying. I’m changing how much I eat. I don’t need 3 bowls of cereal at once. No matter how much I want that much. I can eat one and it won’t kill me. So, I’m changing the portions. And last I’m changing my food choices. I’m eating less bread, less pasta, more real meat, fruits, and veggies. It’s working. In less than 2 weeks I’ve already had to move my belt in one notch. And that keeps me going.
To recap for those of you I lost in all those words up there my weight loss is coming down to these things:
I cut out all junk food and sweets (except that one helping of my mom’s banana pudding on Easter) (oh, and some koolaid and my sweetened coffee, but you know what I mean).
I cut my portions considerably.
I’m eating mostly raw and real foods. Little to no Spaghetti Os, chili dogs, or chicken nuggets.
I’m hungry. And I almost licked the hot fudge off my baby’s face the other night when we took my girl out for her birthday. But I didn’t.
I wanna tell you, you can do this. You can be the weight you wanna be. You just have to decide it, plan it, and do it. And when you fall smooth off the wagon (like I did the day the mega storms hit here) you just pick yourselves back up and start again in the morning.
So tell us now, over at Kathi’s A Heart Like Water link up how you’ve lost your baby weight. Or just link up and tell us how difficult it’s been for you too to get started. We’re all in this together. I promise.
