Bye Bye Baby Weight!!

Have you ever said to yourself "I'm just sick of food"? By the end of my pregnancy, that's where I was. I was so uncomfortable and exhausted that we ate out (a lot) and I was turning to comfort food all too often to help me through the last month or two. My eating and exercise habits were better during this pregnancy than throughout the other two, but they were by no means superb. I still over-ate, indulged in sweet, carbs, and other comfort food too often and didn't exercise nearly enough - my 60lb+ weight gain is evidence of this. At the end of the pregnancy I was getting candy bars here and there saying "well, I'll only be pregnant another couple weeks - I might as well do this now before I have to diet..." I made those kinds of excuses a lot. I also broke one of my cardinal rules of weight loss....I stopped looking at the scale. When I saw my weight jump up 5, 10, or 13 lbs between each appointment (that's not normal, by the way) I got scared and started avoiding the situation all together. Avoiding the situation just got me in trouble further - I started eating more since I knew I would just deal with the consequences later. Sound familiar?  In one of my previous posts I promised to look at the scale before having the baby so I could at least assess the damage and plan from there. During my last OB appointment I saw 212 lbs staring back on me from the scale's display....sigh...it's been worse. If I would have gained the recommended amount of weight for my height, age, and stature in pregnancy (25-30 lbs) I wouldn't even be writing this post; I lost 30 lbs during the first week postpartum. I'm thankful for the jump-start, but I still have 30 to go to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight of 150(ish).

One of the things I'm thankful for is all of the yo-yo diets I've tried in the past. I'm thankful that I know how to safely lose weight now and can't wait to return to healthy eating! I have started tracking calories today and plan to lose weight via the following ways:

1.) Eliminate most all sugar from my diet (including white rice, potatoes, flour, etc).

2.) Exercise regularly (once I'm able that is ...my muscles and joints are still recovering from pregnancy, labor, and delivery). I'm going to start slowly - with walking and stretching until I am fully recovered.

3.) Eat smaller meals more frequently instead of binging on large meals once I've reached the point of starvation.

4.) Avoid processed and pre-packaged foods.

5.) Indulge in fruits and veggies

6.) Keep track of my calories and weight (not obsessively, but often enough to be aware of what's going on).

I'm looking forward to taking the weight off just as I did before becoming pregnant and I can't wait to blog on my trials and successes along the way. :) I would love to hear your weight loss tips and successes in the comments section of this blog. :)

Enjoy the weekend!
Tess