Friday, 10 August 2012
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Skinny Mommies- I Need Your Help!
From a Momaroo reader:
If you are a mommy who has been pregnant in the past and has managed to slim down to pre-pregnancy weight after childbirth, then I desperately need your help!I have a 17-month-old son. When I first became pregnant I was 150 pounds. Well within healthy range of weight for a woman of my height (according to the official government BMI chart at any rate). During my pregnancy I gained fifty pounds, reaching the dreaded 2-0-0. Ugh! Luckily I began to lose the weight quickly after childbirth. This was due in part to breastfeeding but mostly it was my wonderful mother-in-law who helped me lose weight. She came to stay with us for three months and she babysat my son for four, five, six hours a day. That was BLISS! I got to catch up on sleep, read the paper and - best of all - visit the gym two hours a day to get the weight off and be back in time for the next feeding. The flab just melted off me. I lost about ten pounds a month and was well on my way to regaining my original figure. Of course all good things come to an end and my mother-in-law went home at the end of the summer. My husband was at work most of the time so I settled into the role of home-maker. Spending all day with a baby is exhausting, obviously. My son, like any normal kid his age, demands my attention all. the. time. If I wander out of his line of sight, he cries. If I settle down with the newspaper he immediately wants to play with me....or at least crumple up my paper into oblivion
Going out is a production since I always have to pack a diaper bag, wipes and a bottle of juice and milk, change the baby's diaper, make sure he's had a meal and then strap him into the car seat before leaving. Wherever we go we can't stay for long since he tends to fuss if he spends a long time in his stroller. All this is just the normal package deal when it comes to raising kids, of course. Still, I am really dismayed to see that this lifestyle is leading me to gain a lot of weight. I just stepped onto the scale today and saw 208 pounds. That is NOT OKAY! The heaviest I can weigh and still be within healthy limits, according to the BMI chart, is 161. I want to go back to 150. I looked and felt great back at that weight. Even my husband, who is usually tolerant of my weight gain, suggested this morning that I try exercising a bit every day.
I'm not fat because of some pregnancy-induced hormone imbalance or anything. I'm fat because I eat too much. My day is filled with CONSTANTLY looking after the baby! I never get any extended time for myself, let alone time to go to the gym. The baby does have an hour nap after lunch but that time is reserved for housework. Between the end of naptime and bedtime (8:30pm, long after the gym has closed) I am always looking for a way to feel less exhausted. Whenever I have a three minute gap or so when the baby is distracted by a toy I walk to the fridge and shove whatever is there into my mouth. It's a great way to perk me up within three minutes. Leftover Chinese food, bread and cheese, ice cream, you name it, I've eaten it. I don't have time to exercise or get a hobby or do all those other things that people do when they try to lose weight. All I really have time to do is look after the baby and maybe some minimal housework. I know that this is all for the baby's good. I don't believe in hiring a nanny while visiting the gym and getting manicures and whatnot. Can't afford it anyway. But I do know that whenever the baby and I go to playgroups I see a lot of skinny mommies out there. They have two, three, four kids and they still look great in size 6 jeans. I'm sure a few of them read Momaroo too
So, skinny mommies, do you have any advice about how I could safely lose weight while still being a stay-at-home mom?
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Comments (27)
I came across bodyrock.tv and it is incredible! Obviously, you have to eat right, but bodyrock is all at-home, free workouts and are done in a combination (like interval training) but they are 10 to 12 MINUTES. I doubted them at first but have been following it for MONTHS and the results people share are awesome! (I'm in no way connected with bodyrock or trying to promote it! LOL Just sharing an awesome tool that I found to be useful!) :)
@careegroup@xanga -
It really ISN'T "calories in vs calories out". People who follow low carb/high fat diets eat way more calories than those who eat low fat, standard American diets. It's been repeated over and over again in studies. Anyway, a calories is the energy released when a food in burned in a test tube. I don't know about you, but I'm not a test tube, and my body doesn't set food on fire.
It's about how the calories from carbs (wheat--even "whole grains", rice, starchy veggies, fruit, sugars, etc) raises blood sugar levels which cause a rise in insulin which tells cells to hold on to body fat. Check out "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes and "Wheat Belly" by Dr William Davis, as well as http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf . Anyone who has cut calories down to a bare minimum, but followed the "standard" diet advice of low fat/high carbs and hasn't been able to lose weight, or keep it off, will do fabulous on the low carb/high fat way of eating. If you carry your weight in your belly/mid section, you'll do awesome on LCHF. Not only will you lose weight finally, you'll also improve your blood pressure, your cholesterol profile, arthritis, fertility, GERD, emotional health....I will never go back to counting calories and fat grams.