Cutting Out & Working Out: Getting Rid of Pregnancy Weight
Today marks 8 weeks postpartum with Jennavieve. I gave myself a full seven weeks to recover from having a baby and get into a good groove with breastfeeding before starting to tackle the removal of excess pregnancy weight. After four babies and one miscarriage in the last five years, my body has undergone weight gain and weight loss a lot, but never with a focus on toning my muscles and truly working hard at getting back in shape. After my miscarriage in 2011, I did run for a few months which was wonderful. I ended that stint of exercise by running/walking a 10-miler while 9 weeks pregnant with Mason.
September, 2011, was the last time I exercised.
Now, two years later, I’m tackling this once again. There’s no better accountability, I suppose, than writing and publishing my journey for others to read. I thought about waiting until I’d actually lost the weight, that would’ve been a bit easier to share publicly. By sharing my progress, I hope that it will encourage others and help to keep me disciplined.
Confession: I gained 58 pounds during this last pregnancy. This is not something I’m proud of, by any means! I had a hard time being disciplined to eat well, and I never once exercised while pregnant. Mine is not the example to follow.
Seven weeks postpartum: I lost 30 pounds without really doing anything. It helped that Jennavieve was a 10-pound baby, but I’m only halfway to where I would like to be.
Cutting Out:
We’ve removed excess sweets and snacks from our home. This was difficult to do, but necessary for me if I want to avoid temptation. I also know myself well enough to realize that cutting out sugar entirely would only cause me to binge when it was available. So, I keep frozen yogurt in the freezer and in the evenings, if I want a little sugar, I eat a few spoonfuls.
I’ve also been cutting back a bit on my portions. I am breastfeeding, so dieting is out of the question. By eating less at meal times and choosing healthy snacks I should be able to maintain an adequate milk supply and still shed the extra pounds.
Working Out:
Bradley is developing workouts for me that we do together several days a week. We’ve converted half of our garage into a workout station {come back tomorrow for a DIY project that we did in this space} so that we can workout and still hear the kids should they need us.
Our workouts consist of repetitious sets targeting legs, abs, arms, and everything else, I think–at least that what my muscles are telling me!
I’ve also started to walk/run. My goal is to be able to run several miles a few days a week. Easing into this, though, is how I’ve heard that it needs to be done in order to keep up my milk supply. I try to stagger jogging and walking, keeping a fast walking pace, for about 2 miles right now. Once I’m able to jog that without stopping, I plan to slowly increase my pace and distance.
You will not see any pictures here of my ‘before’, but maybe down the road I’ll feel comfortable enough to publish that :). It’s better with an ‘after’ comparison, anyway.
The cutting out and working out is not just about losing weight for me. It’s also an exercise in discipline and self-control. I long to be self-controlled in all areas of my life; eating/exercise has always been the biggest area of struggle for me. I want my children to have a healthy Mama who takes care of her body.
How have you gotten rid of pregnancy weight, or just weight in general? Do you have any tips for me?
7 Comments
Anonymous
Pray a lot and be in competition/accountability with someone! I’m just sayin’…..:)
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I’m still not where I”d like to be after having #3. Busyness, stress, and very limited sleep for 15 months seemed to keep me from achieving my goals. I’m hoping to lose the last 10 lbs and maybe an extra 10 over the next few months. I found a nice website where you can track your eating and exercise
at myfitnesspal.com Anyway, I can relate to where you are at right now. Was even contemplating getting family pictures done with just the kids, so I won’t have to be in them!! ugh! I know I can do it, just have to work at it and be disciplined…which is not something I’ve had to do in this area too much before! best wishes!
Christina
Lauren this was super encouraging for me, and what I needed to hear right now! 5 months after having Daniela this is where I finally am, so I appreciate the strategies and to hear someone talk about being in the same place 🙂
Jilayne
I am fighting this battle right along with you. Multiple pregnancies do indeed do a number on the body! Will be praying for you as you develop this discipline in your life.
julie gentino
Great job on the exercising! I know that’s so hard and confess I never did it regularly with infants. I’ve had to change my diet so much for health reasons this year as you know. The goal wasn’t weight loss but David has found by following it with me he’s lost a good bit of weight and loves the way he feels. In addition to being gluten and dairy free, I try to avoid grains of any kind (flour, oats, rice, etc) until late afternoon or dinner time. This helps with blood sugar issues but mostly pushes me to eat more veggies and fruits during the day.
So here’s the daily menu for David and me: Breakfast: protein smoothie (made with almond milk, leafy greens, frozen fruit, scoop almond butter, scoop protein powder, banana), Snack: apple slices with almond butter or handful nuts or carrots and hummus, Lunch: big salad with goat cheese, hard-boiled egg, and avocado for protein, snack : same as morning. Then we can eat a normal dinner and even dessert if we want (although I have a few squares of dark chocolate because I can’t have dairy, but David will sometimes have a scoop ice cream. Anyway. I don’t drink soda but do two spoons of sugar in my hot tea.
This plan has been working great for us! We both feel lighter and more energetic. I’m proud of you for pursuing this! I had a huge change in motivation when my perspective shifted from “looking good” to “feeling more energetic and peaceful” and have felt so much victory in this area of my life this year. You can ask David: before all my health problems I was the WORST eater!
Jeet Chowhan
Load Up on ‘Super Foods’, Find Time to Exercise to Help Shed Excess Pounds.If you started out at a normal weight and gained the 25-35 pounds your doctor probably recommended, it shouldn’t take you more than a couple of months to get back to your pre-pregnancy weight if you watch what you eat and exercise.
Laurie
Lindsay Brin’s Moms into Fitness DVD workouts are great. I did Pretty Fierce: Weight Loss after baby number 2 and lost 15 lbs. I still have a ways to go, but she’s very motivating and not annoying at all. 🙂 Plus, you don’t need much equipment.