A Weighty Issue

When I was pregnant with Punky everyone loved telling me how if I breastfed then the baby weight would just fall right off. So here I was, a new Mum, thinking I could eat whatever I wanted and go for a walk every now and then and I'd be back to my pre-pregnancy weight no worries. Like breast feeding was some magic weightloss pill.

It was not! I didn't put on any weight, but I didn't lose any either.

After giving birth to Punky I lost 10kgs just about overnight. Sadly, after having Zee I only lost 5kgs. And considering she was a bigger baby and I lost quite a bit of blood too, well, to be frank, I've felt a little ripped off!

But this time I am determined to learn from my experience after Punky and I am trying to make the extra-calorie-burning of early breast feeding work for me this time. I have been controlling my portion sizes and eating as healthy as possible.

Portion size is one of the biggest issues for me as I have gotten very used to eating the same portions as Dave, a man who goes to the gym 5 days a week! So we've been making a concious effort to make my portions smaller than his and to eat more healthy food instead.

I have eaten more salad and salad wraps in the last two weeks then half my adult life I think. The thing that has made it easy is that I am doing it the cheats way and buying ready-made salad kits and just not using the dressing (my fave is the crunchy noodle salad kit coz I don't mind all the salad stuff in it, cabbage, carrot, celery, Spanish onion, and I just throw out the dressing that comes with it). I then add some pre-packaged spinach leaves and some balsamic vinegar and that is my salad made. I've also been grabbing a BBQ chook and adding some chicken to it as we'll to get my protein. Plus a BBQ chook is so much easier to grab then cooking my own meat! I've also discovered a taste for pumpkin so when I've made pumpkin "chips" for Punky I've been doing a few extra for myself as well.

Walking with Zee in the Ergo... that thing is actually really good back support for my walking!

Coles have also started doing ready-made roast beef the same way they do BBQ chooks and I've been grabbing those too. It's a total lazy way of doing things and works well as I don't have much time to stand around cooking when the toddler is whinging and the baby is crying. It's something that I can throw together super-fast once I've managed to get them both asleep and I'm starving. I've then been using the same stuff for my lunches, but putting it all together on a wrap.

I've also bought some more smoothie powder from Lose Baby Weight.com and I have been adding it to a glass of milk and having as a snack. It's fast, easy, nutritionally balanced and more filling than a muesli bar! And in case you're wondering, this is not a sponsored post for any of the brands I have mentioned thus far, I'm just telling you what I've been using.

The biggest challenge is exercising, some days it's just too hard to get out of the house with the two of them to go for a walk. And let's face it, unless Punky agrees to sit in the pram (unlikely) or be pushed on her trike, going for a walk with a toddler doesn't really get the heart rate going when you're stopping to look at every blade of grass and talk about everything you see!

Dave is trying to lose the weight he put on while on his month-long holidays after Zee was born... his "baby moon" weight I call it!

So I've been trying to increase my incidental walking, and when both girls are asleep I've been doing step-ups in the lounge room and other loungeroom-friendly exercise to get the heart rate going. All while watching TV! It all seems to be working because I've lost 1.5 kgs in the last 2 weeks. And I'm pretty proud of that!

Which brings my total post-birth weightloss up to 7.5kgs. I still need to lose 10 more kgs to be at the weight I was before I fell pregnant with Punky in 2011, and then another 14 kgs after that to get back in to a healthy weight range for my height, but I'm not gonna kill myself doing it. Slow and steady wins the race as they say, and it's not all about the weightloss, it's about improving my fitness too. And making sure that I reduce my risk for type-2 diabetes. Due to having had gestational diabetes my risk of developing type-2 within 10 years of pregnancy is greatly increased and I really don't want to have to contend with that. The gestational form sucked enough thank you very much!

I've set myself a goal of being able to run 2kms without stopping by the end of January, and improving on that so that I can attempt the 5km Mother's Day Classic in May next year. She doesn't know it yet, but I'm gonna hit my sister A up to go for walks and eventually runs with me on a Wednesday night after family dinner once daylight savings starts. She's gone from having never done any running a few years ago to having run half marathons and she just did the 9km run on the weekend! She's an inspiration!

My one big downfall though is snacking. So I am looking for some healthy snack ideas that I can make in bulk and keep in the freezer and cupboard for when I need a little something extra between meals but don't want to ruin my hardwork. Any suggestions would be much appreciated, feel free to post links to your own recipes or ones you've found in the comments.

Have you ever had to lose a large amount of weight? What kept you motivated? Any hints, tips and inspiration for losing the baby weight and getting fit are also much appreciated and requested!

Linking up as always on a Tuesday with Essentially Jess for IBOT!

 

Love your work! Thanks so much for reading.K

 

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