Losing My Baby Fat

As a mother of six, I've definitely gained my share of baby fat.  It seemed that with each pregnancy, I gained about five pounds, so that by the time I was pregnant with my last, I was about thirty pounds heavier than I wanted to be. 

I was determined while I was pregnant the last time that I wouldn't gain any more weight than I had to.  Of course, it helped that I got a bad case of heartburn during that pregnancy and had to eat smaller, more frequent meals.  This kept me from overeating.  I started listening to Jonathan Roche's blogtalk radio show, which is free on iTunes and www.blogtalkradio.com/noexcusesweightloss .  From him, I learned some simple changes that could help me lose weight.  Most importantly, I learned that any movement can count as exercise.  This was a huge concept for me because I was always too exhausted to "exercise" during pregnancy.  Now that I could count mopping or shopping or taking out the trash as exercise, I was "exercising" more often. 

I gained thirty pounds during my pregnancy, but six weeks after I had my nine-pound baby, I weighed ten pounds less than I did before I got pregnant.  (No, I'm not recommending having another child as a weight-loss method.)  Around this time, my insurance sent my husband and me a letter about a free health coaching program.  Since it was free, I signed up immediately.  I figured I could use all the help I could get to lose the rest of my baby weight.  Having a health coach helped me stay motivated to complete my goals.

One of the things I discovered about weight loss is that it has a lot to do with attitude.  Back before I started losing weight, I would think things like, "After I lose all this weight, I'll buy myself some new jeans."  My new attitude became, "I want to look great now--no matter what I weigh."  I didn't spend a lot of money on clothes, but I did put more effort into how I looked every day and I did buy myself jeans that fit well.  I also decided I was never going to diet again.  Whatever changes I was making I was going to make for the rest of my life.  I also accepted that sometimes I was going to make mistakes.  If I ate too much one day that didn't mean I should give up and eat even more.

One of my favorite quotes is by Karen Lamb:  "A year from now you will wish you started today."  I often thought about how I would feel in a year if I quit eating dessert every night and just ate it once a week.  I made myself a list of all the reasons I wanted to lose weight, and as I lost weight, I found more and more reasons to add to my list.  For example, I love having enough energy to run with my kids, shopping for a smaller size, and not having to worry about heartburn anymore. I also got a great deal on my new life insurance policy.

I've lost about twenty-eight pounds and have a few pounds left before I reach my goal weight.  I weigh myself once a week, do cardio intervals three days a week, and strength train two days a week.  I actually spend less time exercising than I did back before I started losing weight but, because of the intervals, I'm in better shape.  I have slowly taught myself better health habits over the past 2 years like drinking water and eating vegetables.  I am still a work in progress.  My goal right now is to not eat anything after 8 pm at night.