baby blues

supermom1114

So I gave birth about a month ago and have already lost half of the weight I gained but I think Ive hit a plateau and it sucks. My goal is to actually get smaller than I was prepregnancy and Im breastfeeding which is supposed to help the weight come off faster but I'm just really lacking the oomph to stick to healthy eating and exercise... One because Im still in the process of getting used to baby's schedule ie why Im up at 3am, late night feedings are a blast ya know... Two because my husband and I moved in with my parents to save money and so Im not living alone when he leaves for Iraq early 2009 and they are junk foodies big time... so no real healthy snack to choose from but lots of unhealthy ones... and at least once a day I end up reaching for popcorn or a few cookies instead of just downing my glass of ice water... ugh .... and Three because healthier food can be more expensive than easy to cook processed unhealthy food and we dont have a lot of money.... Im trying to keep my eye on the prize- losing weight and getting a whole new wardrobe since my hips and chest have expanded and wont be fitting into my old clothes and my foot grew a size as well so all new shoes woohoo! But Ive got to lose the weight first and discover my new body before all that can happen, I'm just finding it hard to stay on track....

Sorry this post is kind of pointless but I guess I just needed to vent, I hope everyone else is tucked in bed comfy and sleeping, I've got a baby to feed, ta-ta

supermom1114

So I gave birth about a month ago and have already lost half of the weight I gained but I think Ive hit a plateau and it sucks. My goal is to actually get smaller than I was prepregnancy and Im breastfeeding which is supposed to help the weight come off faster but I'm just really lacking the oomph to stick to healthy eating and exercise... One because Im still in the process of getting used to baby's schedule ie why Im up at 3am, late night feedings are a blast ya know... Two because my husband and I moved in with my parents to save money and so Im not living alone when he leaves for Iraq early 2009 and they are junk foodies big time... so no real healthy snack to choose from but lots of unhealthy ones... and at least once a day I end up reaching for popcorn or a few cookies instead of just downing my glass of ice water... ugh .... and Three because healthier food can be more expensive than easy to cook processed unhealthy food and we dont have a lot of money.... Im trying to keep my eye on the prize- losing weight and getting a whole new wardrobe since my hips and chest have expanded and wont be fitting into my old clothes and my foot grew a size as well so all new shoes woohoo! But Ive got to lose the weight first and discover my new body before all that can happen, I'm just finding it hard to stay on track....

Sorry this post is kind of pointless but I guess I just needed to vent, I hope everyone else is tucked in bed comfy and sleeping, I've got a baby to feed, ta-ta

iftcheiaf

Not pointless at all. First of all, you only gave birth a month ago. So you have to give yourself a break. Your body has been through quite a battle. It may be stubborn in letting go some of that weight because it's in shock. Not only that, the hormones take awhile to settle down. Along with having to move back in with your parents, stress of money, not sleeping because of that beautiful baby you have, and the impending departure of your husband adds a lot on your plate. Be kind to yourself. You're not really supposed to exercise for six weeks until after the baby is born and the reason for that is to help your body not have damage in future years (torn muscles, excessive bleeding, etc).

After my daughter was born, I didn't lose any weight at all hardly. But she was "colicky" (I hate that word). Since I knew something had to be wrong with her, I started changing my diet and realized that when I ate wheat products, it made her miserable. So I stopped. Boy did that shed the pounds for me. I ended up weighing 11 lb less than when I got pregnant to begin with. But I had a wonderful incentive - sleep.

You're doing great. 27 lb is a lot. Concentrate on your wonderful joy, walk when you can. Eventually you can start exercising using your baby (leg lifts, arm curls, etc). Most importantly, don't get too frustrated or down on yourself. First of all, stress can slow down milk production. You're doing wonderfully. Keep going. You'll see results when you least expect it

jenrobi

First off, congrats! I just had a baby...8 months ago! I'm working to get rid of the weight too.

This is one thing almost every mom has said to me: It took 9 months to get this way, don't expect it to get back to normal that fast. The celebs who do it have nannies, cooks and personal trainers. Plus, I know they use body slimming things to make them look flatter than they really are!

But regardless, it has only been a month and you will notice in the next 4-6 weeks your body will start shrinking. You won't necessarily be losing weight, but your skin will be springing back (for lack of better explanation).

I am breastfeeding as well, and I will tell you this: You will not lose weight breastfeeding if you eat junk. I know this from experience! Breastfeeding actually only requires 300-500 more calories than your normal intake. So whatever MFP gave you for calories, increase it by at least 300. The most important thign right now is to establish a good milk supply and losing weight fast will actually hinder that. Have a goal of 1 pound a week.

I topped out at 200 a week before delivery. I am now 175 and I lost most of that in the first two months after giving birth.

It is a tough road and you will find you are insatiably hungry while establishing a milk supply. Healthy snacks and food can be affordable though!

A great and filling breakfast that would last you at least two weeks is oatmeal. If you don't like oatmeal, try this recipe, I never liked it until I ate it this way:

1/2 c of quick oats
1/2 c of 2% milk
.5 oz of raisins (usually a minibox, but it is cheaper to buy raisins in the big packages)
.5 c of unsweetened apple sauce
cinnamon, to taste

Cook the oats and milk in the microwave for 3 mins. Stir in apple sauce, raisins and cinnamon. It's very filling and oatmeal is great for milk production. If you buy all these store brand, it shouldn't cost you that much! If you buy the big canister of oats, that should run you about 2.50. Milk is about 3.50 a gallon (where I live, but everyone has milk usually!) A big box of raisins should run about 1.75 and a jar of unsweetened apple sauce might be about 2.50. So for about $10 you'd have breakfast for about two weeks.

Lunch, I usually have a salad. A couple heads of lettuce could last you a week of good sized salads. That would only be about $4 for two heads a week. Add in some things like sliced up turkey (a 16oz package of smoked turkey goes for about $3.50 store brand here), 1/4 c of 2% shredded cheese, light ranch dressing, a few crunched up tortilla chips (just three, just to give the salad a nice crunch), a couple table spoons of salsa and you have southwestern turkey salad.

Dinner can be tricky and the most expensive. A cheap way is to buy a package of frozen chicken breasts and use those in variety of ways. I have resorted to using a lot frozen veggies because they are cheaper. If you have some chicken breast, frozen veggies you like and maybe a sweet potato or something, it can really be done cheaply if done right.

Another great meal I love making are tacos. I use the 93% fat free ground meat from target, which is about 3.89 a pound. Mix that with a taco seasoning packet (which is about 89 cents) and you have taco meat! The rest of the ingredients are rather affordable as well. You can also use leftover meat for a salad the next day. Just opt for the lower fat tortillas instead.

Snacks are tricky though. Apples and bananas are great snacks and usually very affordable. At Target, a pound of apples (which would be about 4 medium size ones) are about 1.49. If you buy two pounds, you'd have enough apples for one week and that is abotu the cost of a bag of chips!

Bananas are usually about 1.50 for 6 or 7, so that is affordable too.

It is tricky trying to learn how to eat healthy and affordably, but it can be done. At first, you might find it a little difficult to figure out what to eat and it may get pretty boring sometimes, until you start inventing new things.

It's hard to focus on your health and weight when you're trying to get used to a baby, I know this from experience. I am also really good at knowing what to do to lose weight, just not very good at actually doing it!! hehe

Good luck, mama, it gets more fun and challenging every day!

Anna_Banana

Okay, You are saving money by living with the folks so spend some of that on healthy food. Stock the cupboards with good for you food. A nursing mom needs to eat healthy.

Now if you are depressed for any reason you need to talk to your doctor. And don't be ashamed a lot of women are depressed after they have a baby, our hormones get all screwed up. Also you have a lot going on that can add to that. Your doctor may be able to give you something that will help. Once you get to feeling better it will be easier to consentrate on losing weight. I know I've been there, you can pm me if you want. Also Make time for yourself. It will make you a better parent if you take a little time each day for yourself. Even if it's leaving baby with mom for 15 minutes to take a walk around the block, take the time to destress and collect your thoughts.

SoupNazi

Okay, You are saving money by living with the folks so spend some of that on healthy food. Stock the cupboards with good for you food. A nursing mom needs to eat healthy.

Now if you are depressed for any reason you need to talk to your doctor. And don't be ashamed a lot of women are depressed after they have a baby, our hormones get all screwed up. Also you have a lot going on that can add to that. Your doctor may be able to give you something that will help. Once you get to feeling better it will be easier to consentrate on losing weight. I know I've been there, you can pm me if you want. Also Make time for yourself. It will make you a better parent if you take a little time each day for yourself. Even if it's leaving baby with mom for 15 minutes to take a walk around the block, take the time to destress and collect your thoughts.

I couldn't agree more with Anna Banana. Post partum depression is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy and going through that was probably the hardest thing I've been through.

Focusing on your health and well being (even if you need a break from the baby for a little bit during the day) will make you a much better mommy.

I wish you so much luck.:flowerforyou:

MissGorgeous

i understand
i want to private message you!
but im on my PDA and it dosent give me that option
so message me and i can reply with what i wanted to say!

supermom1114

I just wanted to say Thanks to everyone who replied, so much good advice and helpful information. I'm making my grocery list for next week tonight and shopping tomorrow so Im planning on getting plenty of healthy snacks n meals... Its still going to be hard because my parents junk food will still be around but I just gotta stick to it

LandBsdotingchauffeur

I also wanted to echo what the other ladies have said. PPD is nothing to mess around with and it's nothing to be ashamed of. So, if you feel like you should see a dr., do so...you'll be thankful you did Also, with one of my kids I lost the weight pretty much right away and with the other one, it wasn't until I stopped nursing that I lost any ounce of weight. So, if you're having a hard time losing it now, it will probably come off when you choose to stop nursing. But right now it's important to establish your supply--drink lots of water, eat oatmeal, fungreek helps too (but you'll smell like maple syrup :laugh: ), mother's milk tea--anyways, I digress!!

Be patient and make good, healthy choices and be nice to your body and it will reward you in its own time!! :flowerforyou:

Oh yes, and the most important thing I forgot...CONGRATULATIONS on your new baby!!!

GTOgirl1969

Congrats on the new baby! I hope you get to feeling better soon.
Like the other ladies have said, give yourself a while to recover before you jump in with both feet.:flowerforyou:

supermom1114

I'm definitely not worried about PPD, I'm not depressed or anything, just trying to adjust lol My DH gave me a wonderful day at the salon yesterday, got a new doo and some time spent just on me and then we went shopping with baby afterwards and got a bunch of stuff we needed so that took some stress off, now if I could only get everything in my life organized again, ugh its just bugging me having it all messy and jumbled lol I feel the need to spring clean and purge a bunch of junk for some reason, I'm finding time in small intervals to get stuff done while Ayden naps so thats good

Hannah_Banana

Supermom, if there's one thing that throws me off of a diet, its a lack of control over my enviroment. This is the first time in my life where I could set my own routine (at the whim of my 15 month old) and it has helped immensly.

Making yourself a schedule really helps, as well as planning out meals etc. You seem like a person who values organization - a woman after my own heart - and those are both things I had to do in order to stick to my plan.

I wish you the best of luck, thats a gorgeous wee baby. :bigsmile:

supermom1114

I hear ya, I keep trying to set a schedule but with bfing it gets thrown off at times, especially in the evenings, he cluster feeds so basically he wants to eat every hour for 15 min then will either cat nap on n off or just sit and look around and then start fussing again to eat but I'm finding now that hes a month he is on more of a schedule so I'm hoping to get a good schedule going, not only to help with the diet but so I can just get my life organized and back together lol

btw I love your little ones pic, SO cute!! but I have to wonder, what is that blue goo lol

Hannah_Banana

Ah yes, it WILL get easier in regards to the wee one. Eventually they find a routine (or at least mine has!) and you can pretty much set your watch by their naptime.

The blue goo is icing... it was on his cake for his 1st birthday. :laugh:

bridgetkang

I just gave birth on November 13!! It's my first day on the MFP boards. I lost 33 pounds in my first 3 weeks PP, but haven't really lost anything since. (Maybe a pound, maybe not.)

I've been back at the gym as much as possible - about every other day when I can get out of the house. My goal is to run a half-marathon in October, so I've been trying to run - which is REALLY HARD after having a baby. I had no idea!

If you wanted to work together, I would love a weight-loss buddy. And it can't hurt to know someone who has a baby doing the same stuff as mine.

supermom1114

That would be great! AND I gave birth on Nov 14!! I started having contractions on the 13th but my early labor was long so it was over 24 hours before he was born, little stinker didnt want to come out! :laugh:

Ive never been a runner, I've always preferred the elliptical to the treadmill, my hips kill me but Im goin to start the couch to 5k plan once I get cleared by my Dr, until then all I can do is walk and strength train for exercise. I love to exercise so I dont think that will be a big prob for me, its stinking to a healthy diet because my parents and husband are such junk food addicts lol like this morning my mom baked a big batch of cinnamn rolls for breakfast, ugh, so I'm going to have the smallest one with some OJ, grapes an apple and of course a big glass of water and then today I plan on walking two miles around my neighborhood and grocery shopping for the week so lots of walking there lol