Tuesday, October 15, 2013

post baby bod

I'm going to lay it on the table up front: I have never had a problem with weight. I have no idea where these genes came from since both my parents have had their fair share of weight struggles, and my siblings have very different body shapes than I do.  Sure, I don't practice poor eating habits nor am I lazy when it comes to exercise. I DO work hard. But I don't have to be overly strict with myself and that's a good thing because I would DIE without CARBS. I LOVE bread and cheese and I don't think I would be a very nice person if I couldn't eat them.

I wore my high school size well into the first few years of marriage and when I went on birth control I leveled out my weight to a more "adult" weight. No matter what I could do, I could not lose weight. So, I figured that's just the size I was supposed to be and that was that.

Anyways, having had a relatively easy go of the whole weight thing my entire life, I was nervous about what my body would be like after I had a baby. In fact, that was pretty much the only concern I had health-wise about pregnancy. I absolutely watched what I ate while I was pregnant because I wanted both LW and I to be healthy- not because I didn't want to gain weight. When I was hungry, I ate, and when I was full, I stopped. Luckily for me, a lot of junk food didn't sound good and I was happy with string cheese and yogurt for snacks most of the time. By the time I delivered, I gained 27 pounds (I'm pretty sure anyways- the whole end was a blur). I didn't worry because I felt good and my doctor was very impressed with my steady weight gain (as opposed to putting on a ton all at once or the entire 9 months). Which coincidentally helped me avoid stretch marks on my belly, thank the Lord.

I actually got a lot of flack from passersby about my size while pregnant. "You're so small" and "Are you sure you're that far along" were common comments. I personally never felt small or huge, and my petite frame was very conducive to the 27 pounds I did gain. Here's my last picture of me pregnant at 40 weeks + 5 days:
After Olivia was born and I was still in the hospital, I made the deliberate choice to NOT look at my belly, sans clothing. It already felt weird being empty and obviously jiggly. I didn't want to freak myself out when I knew that my uterus was shrinking before my very eyes and much of my chub would dissipate on its own. I was more gracious on myself then I thought I would be!

I haven't done a ton of documenting about myself these past 7 months because I would much rather take pictures of my gorgeous baby, so I have only a few pics of myself.

This is me, 5 days postpartum:

Here I am at 1 month postpartum:

that's pretty much where the picture taking of my belly has stopped. I will say that much of my figure has returned to it's pre-baby shape on it's own, with some, but not a LOT of effort on my part. Just in the past few weeks I have been able to zip and button all pre-baby jeans, even if I have a sizable muffin top. That means my hips have shrunk back and my thighs slimmed down, but my belly is still giving me some trouble.

Weight wise, I am still 10 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight and I want to get back to that weight, no matter what I tell myself. If I'm honest with myself, I probably want to lose about 15 because I wasn't completely happy with my weight before getting pregnant. Despite having at least 10 pounds to go, I know it's not all in my belly. Since I stopped breastfeeding, I assumed my boobs would go back to my pre-pregnancy 34C size. NOT SO. I can't believe I'm saying this but I HATE having bigger boobs. I went up THREE (3) cup sizes to a DDD, and thanks to a proper bra fitting from Nordstrom went down to a 32 in band size. Did you hear me, a TRIPLE D; also known as an E. It's definitely not as glamorous as I thought it would be. I have to buy expensive bras because they don't make cheap ones in large sizes, and many of my shirts are difficult to wear, not because of cleavage, but because they barely stretch over my chest. The odd thing was, they were not this big while I was pregnant or even while I was attempting breast feeding- they got bigger after. I know if I lose the weight I want, a least part of this will come from up top. I wouldn't mind to keep a little somethin somethin', but beggars can't be choosers.

And so, because I have a hard time following through with anything these days and because I'm completely OVER looking the way I do, I'm doing something I'd never thought I'd do: posting pictures of myself on my blog and holding myself accountable.

My mom told me to give myself a year to get back to "myself" and that seems like a graceful timeline to me. I'll take it. Since I haven't done a lot with the first 7 1/2 months, I need to get going. In my efforts to get back into shape, I did some research online and found a fitness expert whose area of expertise is pregnancy and postnatal fitness. After doing a free 8 minute video which got me embarrassingly sweaty, I ordered Lindsay Brin's BootCamp 2:
She's gotten a ton of great reviews and has her own blog/website that documents her gaining and losing weight from her 3 kids. While my goal isn't to get as ripped as her, I know she'll help me get on track.

So, here goes! I don't necessarily plan on updating weekly on my bod, since that's boring to everyone else and I'm scared that if I don't see results each week I'll get discouraged. Here I am a 7.5 months post partum:
Weight: 129.5 
Hips: 35"
Waist: 31"
Below Waist: 34"
Arm: 11.5"
Thigh: 21"
Bust: 36"

I'd have to say at this point, my fitness goals are to tone my abs, arms, and thighs, to lose at least 5 pounds by the end of the year, and to feel better about my appearance. Reasonable right? We'll see!

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