Back in the Game (Losing the Baby Weight)

So, I can firmly say now that I am back at my pre-pregnancy weight.  10 months later. Ha.  And here are my thoughts on it:

9 months on, 9 months off.

Now, I know there are women out there who manage to lose all their baby weight in the first couple months, and to them I say, congratulations.  You are the envy of us all.  But here's the thing:  all the women I know that lost the weight very quickly were younger than me and/or were very, very disciplined with their diet and exercise.  I, however, was 31 years old trying to lose 60-some pounds (yes, S-I-X-T-Y.  A lot of it was water weight...but a lot of it was not!) and have never been incredibly good about being very strict with my diet.  And I'm sorry, but having a newborn, or a baby in general, does not lend itself to lots of time working out.

My weight loss went like this:

The day I delivered I weighed 205.  (I can't believe I am admitting that, but hello, did you see my belly.  Or my rear end, for that matter).

At my 6 week checkup I weighed 166 lbs.  This was towards the end of September.

At Christmas, I still weighed 166.

Womp womp....

So!  Obviously I needed to do something about this little problem, so I decided to join Weight Watchers.  I was committed to it for about two months, during that time I lost 10-12lbs (roughly).  This put me back in just a little bit over familiar territory to me.  I did NOT work out at all, I just counted my points.  Eventually that got old to me and I "fell off the wagon".  Thankfully I didn't gain anything, but I also didn't lose anything.  Spring rolled around and come April I was still teetering between 154-156 and I was getting sick of it, so I decided to count calories. I did this on-and-off for about a month and probably lost around 5lbs, which put me around 150.

And somewhere between May and June I dropped the last 5 pounds, I'm thinking cause I walk a lot with Hadley.  I have really not been making the best diet choices (like last night for dinner we had mac & cheese and sweet corn.  How awful is that??) and I do want that to change, but as far as the weight loss goes, I really feel that being somewhat active and hitting that "9 month post-partum" mark is what knocked off the last bit of weight.

Now my goal is to get back into running.  I would never ever call myself a runner but before getting pregnant it was my workout of choice, mainly because nothing gets results like running does, but also because I loved the way I felt afterwards.  Running was always a mental game for me and when I would get done with a good run I felt so proud of myself.  Every single time :)

We bought a Bob jogging stroller and we have well gotten our money out of it already!  I went for a run today and though it was tough and I had to walk some, I still felt that same great feeling when I was done.  I wouldn't mind losing another 5lbs but I don't feel like I need to.  In fact, I remember when I was very pregnant and looking at pictures of me pre-pregnancy and knowing that, even before getting pregnant I was always trying to lose weight - but I looked great back then!  Being pregnant gave me some perspective and has helped me to try to accept myself for where I am right now and be happy with it, extra 5 lbs or not.

Overall, my biggest piece of advice to new moms trying to lose the weight is that, if you're just generally mindful of how you eat, I believe the weight will come off.  It may take some a couple months, others like me it took a full 10 months.  Also, try to have grace with yourself because it is a huge feat to drop weight when suddenly your life is completely, totally different and not about you at all.

Now someone remind me of all this when I get pregnant with #2 :)