My daughter was born almost a month ago, January 23rd we welcomed Hailey into our family. She was 7lbs on the dot and 20.5″ long. She was born at home with the assistance of an amazing midwife. During my pregnancy I gained a whopping 34 pounds. Dang. I was actually on track until the last two weeks or so when I gained a ton. I delivered Hailey at 41 weeks 2 days gestation. Since she has been born I have done my best to watch what I eat but it isnt easy-I care for three kids ages 4,3, and newborn all day and am just exhausted when it comes to dinner time. Thankfully the baby is sleeping better so I can really pay attention to what Im cooking and eating. I also just started working out again, Im trying to ease into it so my post partum bleeding doesnt start again. That is a good indicater that your body is or isnt ready for exercise just yet. The week after my daughter was born I weighed 177lbs. My ultimate goal is to be 139lbs. But for now Im setting my sites on a few smaller goals to help break up the amount I need to lose. Its easier to look at 10lbs to lose rather than 40. So my first goal is to hit 165lbs. That is the weight I was when I graduated highschool. My next goal after that is 154lbs which is what I weighed when I got pregnant. The goal after that is to hit 143lbs which is the lowest weight Ive seen as an adult. Im aiming for one pound a week loss. Which means Ive got 12 weeks to hit my first goal. Im currently nursing my baby so Im hoping that will help drop the weight since Im not working out much yet. Im 174lbs at the moment at four weeks post partum, 8 weeks from now hopefully I will be at my first goal!
My husband picked these out, they looked like Perogies, which Im very familair with. We had a long day so I threw them in the microwave. They are Ling Ling Brand Chicken & Vegetable Potstickers. They take just two to three minutes and 4 peices have 170 calories and just 3 grams of fat which is only 16% calories from fat. I was surprised they were really good. I could have eaten a ton of them as an entire meal. This was just a part of a throw together fast meal but next time Ill probably steam some veggies and make some rice and it could be a reall yummy meal! These pot stickers also came with a dipping sauce. At first I figured it would be just some soy sauce but I opened it and tasted it and it was awesome! It had just a hint of spice and sweetness all in a soy sauce base. My husband spent three years in Japan and said this sauce was one of the best ones he had tasted since being back on US soil. We definatly will buy this again! Yummy!
Ive been seeing a new brand of low fat ‘healthy’ foods in my local grocerie store. The brand is simply ‘Eating Right’ and the labels generally give the fat and calories in a large noticable way. Today I grabbed a little cup of soup. It was Miso Noodle Soup. 130 calories and 1 gram of fat, it was on sale for 88 cents so I figured why not give it a shot eh? I made it for lunch today and was really dissapointed. It smelled SO good. It smelled salty and rich with lots of noodles and big chunks of seaweed. Unfortunatly it was really bland! Even the seaweed. It says there is tofu in it as well but I think I saw one tiny piece. For 88 cents it wasnt a huge dissapointment, a little more flavouring could have gone a long way though. I love a good broth, without anything else in it so the fact that this broth was pretty bland means I wont be buying this again. It also takes a while to make. Only a minute and a half on high in the microwave but then it has to sit for 8 minutes covered in the microwave.
It seems like a few days ago I found out I was pregnant but here I am almost 17 weeks pregnant and showing- a LOT. I have been trying to stick with healthy low fat eating and getting moderate exercise. It hasn’t been ideal with morning sickness and a lot of fatigue but I seem to be past that now and feeling okay. At my last midwifes appointment I have gained a total of between six and seven pounds which is in the healthy range. From 1-13 weeks women are supposed to gain 3-5lbs if they were at a healthy weight prior to pregnancy, after that the recommendation is to gain about a pound a week for the remaining 27 weeks for a total of 25-35lbs total. I am really trying to aim for the lower end since I was still a smidgen on the heavy side when I got pregnant. Once this baby is born it will make it that much easier to drop the few extra pounds I still will be carrying. The prospects of losing 5 or 10 pounds of ‘baby weight’ isn’t too depressing compared to the 20+ I was carrying after each of my previous deliveries!
I plan on getting back into a weight loss routine very soon after this baby is born. I know Ill still need to eat good foods but I plan on eating fairly low fat. I dont plan on being strict- 25% give or take calories from fat should be sufficient. Ill discuss it with my midwife at my next appointment. With my last child I did not lose any weight while breastfeeding. He was completely breastfed- no formula at all so one would expect to shed the baby fat very quickly but there was a problem- I couldnt control my eating. I would start each day by trying to eat light, Id maybe eat a banana or a packet of oatmeal and by 10:30am I would be literally starving. So almost every single day I would eat several large pancakes with butter and boysenberry syrup, then at noon Id eat lunch, have snack around 3, dinner around 6, snack around 8, snack around 10 and finally to bed. God only knows how many calories I was consuming but it was a ridiculous amount Im sure! I was really low on fruits and veggies and high on fat and carbs. I slowly packed on the pounds even though I was nursing. This time I am armed with knowledge. Knowledge that I need to eat a big hearty low fat breakfast and have a nutritious low fat snack waiting when that hunger hits. If I can get to lunch time eating well then the rest of the day generally goes very well. Lactating burns about 500 calories a day! But that doesn’t mean you can eat anything you want in whatever amount you want. Still watch that fat and those calories. Make sure you are eating healthy food but in a smart amount, don’t let yourself get so hungry you over eat. I got into that habit everyday and it really took a tole on my health and it took a lot of miles of running and months (years!) of watching what I ate to lose that fat I put on during the pregnancy and postpartum period.