My Post Pregnancy Weightloss Story
Well my baby turns 10 months tomarrow and I am happy to say I am in better shape then I was before I had him. Some things like my hips and belly are not completely back to normal. I am not sure if they ever will go back to normal but I FEEL 10x better now then when I was HUGE and pregnant.
I just wanted to tell you my Post BABY weightloss story….Here it goes….
Everytime I went to my doctors appointments I wrote down what my weight was in this cool "Keep Track of Your Pregnancy", book. I didn’t gain but 3 pounds by the time I was 5 months pregnant. I did get morning sickness (from 6-16 weeks of pregnancy) which allowed me to drop 6 pounds of scale weight (which was probably muscle and water in the end). I started at 136 pounds, but had very little muscle on my body. In the time of my pregnancy I moved from Utah back to Cali where all my family is from. I didn’t put much weight on until I moved lost my gym membership, sold my car so we had the money to move, packed the whole house…etc. Yeah a women who is 6 month’s pregnant packed an entire house and then unpacked EVERYTHING from storage into our apartment 2 weeks before my son was born! EEEEK! Well, you get the picture STRESS! I believe that I was so stressed I ate everything in sight. I was getting in way more carbs then protein at the time of my pregnancy. I wasn’t working out anymore…no cardio or weights…from 6 months to 9 months on. I actually stopped wanting to workout at the gym or walk outside because I felt so fat and embarrassed…which was dumb because I put on even more weight being less active.
So on my delivery day Aug 17th 2008 I weighed in at 181 lbs. Luckily 20 pounds came off with my son, blood, after birth, and the water weight…that pretty much left me at 160 pounds. Many people told me "Oh you’ll lose it, just nurse." However, that was not the case for me. I started on the south beach diet and that took a good 10 pounds off in 2 months, then I started carb cycling and that took off another 20-25 pounds…which took me 5 months. Currently I have been doing the anabolic diet which has helped me shed another 5-8 pounds of fat. I can’t say my diet has been clean the entire time of my post pregnancy weight loss. I did one cheat meal a week of no more than 500 calories which could consist of anything! I’ll tell you what! That kept me sane. I was able to lose 1 pounds per week which my diet and training. I first started lifting at 5 weeks post partum and did higher rep light weights, till I changed my program up to the 5×5. I did 1 hour of lifting 3x a week as follows Legs/ Shoulers, Chest/Tri’s, Back/Bi’s, with ab’s 1-2x a week and cardio 60 min 4-6 times a week. I realize that 60-90 min of cardio 4-6 times a week sounds like a lot but if you have a lot of tub to lose it just melts off the fat. I always made sure to get in enough protein which in the end helped me build and lose some fat at the same time.
Currently I am 10 month post partum tomorrow. My pre pregnancy weight was 136 and I am 121. Where doesn’t that leave me standing now? I am looking into a personal trainer to help me get in tip top shape! This certainly wont be my last baby, so I have a definite goal to "stay" in great shape going into any pregnancy, eating right while pregnant/staying active "lifting" the entire 9 months. I love that feeling of great confidence that comes from eating clean and feeling less jiggles. Although for many it may not seem like a great accomplishment because it’s baby weight, but fat is fat and the only way to get it off is to work for it! Many of my friends and family "Oh you must have had gestational diabetes for it to have come off so quick like that!" …Ummm nope! I worked my butt off for that! If you wanna look like an athlete YOU gotta Train like an Athlete!!! True that!
To all the women who have children or ever will, you CAN get your body in great shape. No matter if you have flabs, jiggles, stretched out skin, stretch marks etc….you CAN!
