See this little dude?
Well, I love him very much.
Something I don’t love?
All of the “baby-weight” that came with him.
Don’t get me wrong, he was well worth all of the unpleasantries–baby-weight, swollen feet, sleepless nights, carpel tunnel just to name a few! However, I am now at a point, seven months out, where I really want to be back to my pre-pregnancy self. I know that it takes time (for some of us it takes a little more time than for others) but I honestly believe that I could have lost all of my baby-weight a lot sooner, and moved on to some other health/weight goals that I had pre-pregnancy, if I had tried a little harder.
Hmm…this seems to be a common theme in my life: I just need to try a little harder. Do you ever feel that way?
How could I have tried a little harder? Exercise. Ugh. I don’t even want to talk about it. It’s not that I don’t like exercise, it’s that I generally choose activities that I DO NOT like: running and strenuous workout DVDs, for example. Needless to say, my commitment to these activities wanes very quickly. Can you relate to this?
But you’ve been walking a lot, right?
Well, yes, but I don’t walk every day and I usually don’t walk like it’s work.
So I need to do two things:
- Walk like it’s a little bit of work (because I still like walking even when I’m intentionally putting some “work” into it).
- Do some strength training: a) I like strength training and b) strength training is good for several reasons that you can read about here.
I have to be brutally honest about something. It’s not just a lack of exercise that has kept me from losing all my baby weight thus far. For whatever reason, whether it’s genetics, the food I ate and the amount–pregnant and postpartum–or a combo of all these things (which I think is likely) I gained far more weight than is “recommended” by doctors. I actually don’t put much stock into modern obstetrics (for another post, someday soon) therefore I was not overly concerned when I gained 65 pounds! Ok…there…I said it!
But really…my doctor was 200% more concerned about my weight than I was.
But now I’m 200% more concerned about my weight than I was.
Here’s me, early in my pregnancy:
Cute, huh?!
Here’s me again at 35 weeks. Yes, that’s right, 35 weeks.
If you know me, you’ll also know that I went another 6 weeks after this picture before Charlie was born. I was far too uncomfortable to take pictures after this so no one will ever get to see me in all of my 65 extra pounds of glory in the future which I am ok with.
Despite everything I’ve already said–how I gained a lot of baby weight, how I’m not exercising like I should, and I’m still not back to pre-pregnancy weight–I’m actually doing two very significant things right that have, as of this morning, helped me lose 61 pounds without really trying!
–Number One: I’m breastfeeding. I’ve become a passionista about breastfeeding. I can’t stress enough how important it is for mother’s health and baby’s health and development. If you are able to breastfeed, do it! But don’t take my word for it. Here is my favorite website for breastfeeding, KellyMom, and another site that I don’t really use but maybe I should! La Leche League International.
–Number Two: Dave and I are committed to changing our diet into a “real-food” diet that does not include processed foods (almost anything that is pre-packaged or bottled), 99% of wheat products (including things that say 100% whole wheat!), pasteurized dairy products, white sugar and other high glycemic sweeteners (like high fructose corn syrup), GMOs, pesticides, and animal products that are raised on unnatural diets and in unnatural conditions.
–Number Three: Yes, I know I said two things but this is really important and I almost forgot about it. All of those things we took out of our diet need to be replaced by other things, nutrient dense foods and beverages that have been forgotten over the last century of processed and pre-packaged mania!
Numbers two and three seem like impossibilities, right? Well, it is impossible to make all of these changes at once but we’ve been making changes here and there over the last seven months and we’ve been reading and researching…
and reading…
and reading.
What is overwhelming is that I learn faster than I can implement. But if we keep making little changes here and there, eventually we’ll have our own farm! Ha! Most days I feel like that is the only way we’ll be able to completely eat the way we want to.
There is a lot o’ stuff in this post: all things I want to elaborate on in future posts. However, if you have questions for me about anything, please ask! I love questions!
P. S. Along with changing our diets, we are also replacing the products we use (cleaners, toiletries, detergents) with non-toxic versions–some are even homemade!
{Do you see the little friend I found? He was hiding around the corner too.}
Little by Little 