Ten years ago I was pregnant for the first time and I gained a whopping 70 pounds! I never lost all that weight and less than two years later I gave birth a second time surpassing my highest weight ever. Again, I never lost all the weight.
When my youngest was 18 months old I went on the South Beach Diet and I made it down to 10 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight but I felt AWFUL.... within 6 months I regained 30 pounds and gradually over the years it climbed with my stress levels.
At one point at a loss for what to try that would not make me feel awful like a diet or be too much of a time burden or expense I tried a hypnosis CD and book. You might laugh at this cause how can you think yourself thin but I honestly think this book has contributed to my long term success. I didn't like any part of me any more, the book helped me realize that and realize that I needed to like myself in order to have any motivation or hope of bettering myself. It took time and other significant life changes but I learned to like myself again. What was not so healthy was I like myself fat. My stretch marks were filled out so my skin didn't sag, I could eat whatever I wanted and not exercise.
At my peak around the time my father passed away, I was less than 10 pounds away from my peak pregnancy weight but I wasn't pregnant...
Last Thanksgiving I decided to start making changes, nothing extreme, no dieting, no gym membership, just manageable changes. I found a calorie tracking app for my iPhone and I targeted losing half a pound per week, which was a reasonable calorie budget of about 1800 calories per day. I started walking.
I was shocked at how quickly the weight started coming off just by being aware of what I was eating and walking. I'm pretty sure that before I was tracking I must have been eating 3000+ calories per day.
I also rediscovered my love of the outdoors. I LOVE walking outside!
By April I was down to 10 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight. I was amazed by how well things had gone but it was almost a disembodied feeling. I had no perception of what I looked like or what size I wore. I decided to stop tracking and see if I could keep the weight off without a conscious effort.
Six months later I'm up five pounds but my clothes still fit and I get more compliments now than when I was working at it, it's kinda like my body has reshaped itself now that my weight stabilized. I've kept my activity level up and even increased it now that I'm strong enough to do more, I actually was surprised to find some arm muscles, I think from gardening and painting!
I feel AWESOME! I like my body better than I ever have before! Stretch marks from carrying my babies, my boobs are different from breast feeding, I have back fat I have no idea how to get rid of... but I KNOW every inch of my body, I accept what is there is there because of how I treated myself and choices I made. I accept love and appreciation of my body from others, even though I know I'm not perfect. Pre-pregnancy if someone complimented me I would say, thanks but I can't lose that last 5 pounds; today when I get a compliment I smile, say thanks and usually I'm happy about it for days :)
I maybe years healthier than I was a year ago but it is time for me to step things up... I want to be able to swing across the monkey bars with my kids. I want to RUN. I'm going to start a run training program and pushups and other body weight exercises. I'll start tracking calories again but be a little more lenient in how closely I stick to it. If the scale goes down then great, less of me to haul across the monkey bars, but if the scale doesn't budge and I can haul myself across the monkey bars - I'll know how much stronger I've become.
