Losing It

I realized about 5 minutes after having my baby that I had totally taken for granted how freeing that giant belly can actually be. When was the last time I'd been completely confident about wearing a shirt that was tight across my torso, or loved it when someone said 'You're Huge!'? I know, it was the last time I was pregnant.

It's a little disheartening when you look down and still feel about 5 months pregnant, even though you gave birth a week ago. I saw a shirt recently that said "Not Pregnant. Just had a baby."

When I first had H, my sister and I were walking into Target and she started to push the stroller. I yelled out "No!" and took over the helm. She looked at me oddly, and I explained that it was not some crazy protective maternal instinct, it was just that if I was pushing the stroller, people would know why I was so chubby. She looked a little relieved as I'd reacted as though she would snatch my baby, and then burst out laughing because, well, because it was just out of control.

Now that I've hit the six-week mark with baby C, I'm very glad that my friend turned me onto a new (and completely free) website called SparkPeople. It's a lot like WeightWatchers, in that it has you log your food, but there are a TON of resources on the site and it's, did I say this yet, completely free! I stepped on the scale at the doctor's office this morning and breathed a sigh of relief...my bathroom scale had not just randomly been 20 pounds light, I really have lost just over 30 pounds since having C!

Thanks to the push from the ole stomach bug, I was able to take a break from my love-hate relationship with sugar and get back on track with my eating habits. It's amazing how quickly you can lose weight when you're breastfeeding and eating a sensible diet...what a concept! I've definitely got a long way to go, since I started out the pregnancy already overweight, but I'm now about 8 pounds from my starting weight, with about 60 to go until I'm at my goal.

Don't worry, this won't turn into a Chicken Soup for the Fatty's Soul blog, but the work it will take to reasonably lose this weight (and keep it off...no Atkin's diet for me) will be a big part of my life, so it may sneak into my posts now and then.

Speaking of Fattys, I am reading a great book right now; Slow Fat Tri-Athlete: Live Your Athletic Dreams in the Body You Have Now and it's HILARIOUS! She's at a size that is not petite, but she's fit and happy after several years of training for, and participating in triathlons upon realizing that her larger self was not making her happy or healthy. She has a great voice, and it's always encouraging to see people who are embracing the size they are now in order to get out there and make the difference they want to see in themselves.