I’m very excited about an 8 week challenge Mama Notes is hosting called Body After Baby. Week 1 started Sunday, so I’m starting a bit behind! (Note: It’s too late to sign up officially to receive any of the prizes for this round, but you can still update and submit links if you want to participate! There’s a #bodyafterbaby hashtag on twitter also.)
Before I got pregnant with Elias, I weighed around 188 pounds, down from 260 pounds the previous year.
While pregnant with Elias, I got up to 226 pounds. Within a month of having him, I was back down to 190 and so happy that my weight loss prior to being pregnant wasn’t lost. Then I got my Moby and could eat any old crap I wanted to eat again. I filled up on junk food and before long, I was right back up to about 230 pounds.
I was around this weight when I found out I was pregnant with Noah. I did my very best to make better nutrition choices in my 2nd pregnancy and to my surprise, I only gained maybe 4-5 pounds total. (I most definitely was not trying to keep myself from gaining weight, just tried to eat better.) A few days after Noah was born, I was 210. I weighed myself just a couple weeks ago and it read 217. To take part in this challenge, I stepped on the scale again and to my dismay, I am now back up to 226 pounds.
I’m very excited for this challenge. I know I can do this because I’ve done it before.
Week One focuses on water. This is an excellent place to start because your body just doesn’t function right if it isn’t properly hydrated. When I lost weight before Elias, the biggest change I made to my lifestyle was to cut out soft drinks and drink a lot of water. Probably around 60-90 ounces a day.
My goal for this week is to drink at least 60 ounces of water and make a concerted effort to cut out junk food and soft drinks. I’m not looking forward to giving up junk food… really.
And now for the embarrassing part: before photos. (At least I hope they’re going to get better than this or it will be doubly embarrassing!)
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I’m trying to exercise and eat better myself. I don’t know how much I gained when I was pregnant (old demons were best kept at bay by not allowing my midwives to weigh me) but I was 193 two weeks pp, up from my pre-pregnancy weight of 180. At my fittest, I was 170.
Right now I’m still trying to come to terms with my belly. I do not like my belly.
So, eating more veggies and less junk food and getting more exercise is my goal, although I don’t think I care to weigh myself again. Old demons are hard to vanquish.
I love weighing myself only because I’m an analyst and like data. You don’t need to step on a scale to know your clothes are fitting better, so that will be your proof.
I need to eat some more veggies too.
Go Lynda go!
I admit I’ve been eating like crap the last week and a half and need to get back on track.
Is one of the weeks exercise? maybe we can race together some day. I am still not entirely convinced that I am not certifiably insane – but whatever – we’ll see how I feel after Sunday (doing 10.28 miles). Race is in 17 days.
You can set your own goals, but I’m not sure what the week’s mini-challenges will entail. I’m not good at exercise! I’m totally IN AWE of you doing this marathon. It sounds like you’re in seriously good shape to be able to do 10 miles!
You could totally do it!!!
The person doing the starting placements for the race is going to laugh so hard when they get to mine. You had to submit a “best time” to be used for placement. I looked at the last 3 years results and the longest finishing time was 2:47:00. um, i said my time was 5:00:00. lmao
I’m walking at a comfortable pace that I can carry on a conversation easily. I’ve just started jogging the occasional (very) short distance.
I am just praying that I finish before they take down the race course. How embarassing would that be? My only goal is to finish the distance. 13 miles really isn’t that far. I can easily do 4.5 miles a few times per week, so there was no point in doing a 5k (2.5 miles) and I’d done 6 miles (roughly a 10K), so this seemed like a good, if challenging, goal that would be feasible.
We’ll see how broken I am Sunday night and after race day. . .
I’m just crazy excited about having a number and a timing chip and all the stuff that goes along with a “real road race”. And it’s nice to get a few hours to myself
I agree that water is a very important part. I don’t drink any soda really, maybe 3 or 4 a year or so and drink a lot of water, not as much as I should though.
Good Luck on this!!! I am going to be watching for updates to see your progress!
I would love to get down to 3 or 4 sodas a year!
My biggest vice right now is coffee with creamer. I’m not giving that up this week though… maybe next week.
Good luck! I hate giving up my sweets and stuff. So for now I’m focusing on the exercise part and just trying to eat MORE healthy foods rather than LESS junk. That way I fill up on good stuff and don’t crave the junk as much, but mentally I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself as much.
You can do it, for sure!!! I’m doing the body after baby too. Should be an exciting eight weeks