POST-PARTUM PACK - October 11

Hi! My name is Ruby. I had a son on January 13, 2011. He's going to be 9 months old tomorrow. I'm currently breastfeeding so dropping pounds is actually very hard to do. My doctor told me to make sure I keep my calories up and drink tons of water. I've noticed that working out makes me so much hungrier and I've also noticed that dieting and working out means a drop in milk supply so I'm trying to balance them out. I want to breastfeed my son until he's a year old but in the meantime I want to be able to lose some of the baby weight I put on. I've never been 200 lbs until I had the baby. My first goal is just to be able to fit into my pre-pregnancy pants. If I achieve that goal then I'll only have 20 lbs to lose until I'm in my normal bmi range. So far I've lost a total of 8 lbs in the last 10 days. I'm really hoping I can stay motivated to achieve my goals. This is the first time I've ever thought about diet and exercising.

Thank you for starting this group. I am not as "post-partum" as most members. My twins turned one today, but I still have post-partum weight to lose thanks to a multiple pregnancy and two other pregnancies, so I think this is an ideal group for me.

My biggest challenges are:
1) I've learned this year that I am a "celebration" binge eater. When I have company visiting, or I am out with friends, I am an eat, drink, and be merry kind of gal. As such, I make all sorts of progress in the weekdays, and then destroy it in a weekend binge.
2)) I'm a perfectionist so I want to have "perfect" days with big burns, and clean eating, and when I do less than that, I feel like I am failing.

My husband is military, and I'm 3000km away from family and most friends. He's gone a lot. I hate the weather here to boot. 4 kids make life challenging, but none of these things are barriers to my progress. I think they, in fact, help me because there is less time to celebrate, and exercise feels like fun me-time in comparison to my daily routines with the kids. If I didn't have 4 kids, and I was back at work teaching, and living near my family, I would probably be heavier than ever. Can anyone relate to this, or am I crazy?

How do I join this group?
I had my second son Sept 23. I gained a TON of weight this pregnancy. I started the pregnancy with the greatest intentions but after having two bleeding episodes due to my exercise, I was instructed not to work out and that really was a horrible thing. I gained 60lbs...ahhhhhhh. I lost 30lbs of that by 2weeks post partum and then it stopped. I am 7 or 8 weeks post partum (so little sleep I cant even remember) and I have lost 7lbs from diet/exercise. The killer part is before getting pregnant I gained 15lbs coming off of birth control to get pregnant. so I have 43 more lbs to lose to get to my goal weight. And I want to do it before my husband comes back from deployment in May or June. My biggest daily hurdle is exhaustion; it's hard working out and raising two kids by yourself.

I am very excited to be a part of this group. I just read through everyone's posts, and I kept nodding my head and saying, "yep, yep, that is me". It sounds like we all have many things in common. My sweet baby boy is 18 months, and I am still working on the "baby weight". I gained 45 pounds during pregnancy and still have 20 more to lose to get back to PPW. Then I would love to lose 10 more, so I guess that makes my goal 30 pounds. Yikes! That sounds daunting to me. I spent my whole pre-baby life always trying to lose 5 or 10 pounds, and I was never successful. So I am a little overwhelmed with trying to lose 30 pounds.

My barriers....same as everyone else. Work, time, child, husband, chores, errands, friends, TV, naps! But truly I can make it work both with the food and the exercise if I will just suck it up and do it! So that is where you guys come in...I need someone to tell me to stop whining and complaining and JUST DO IT!!!!

Wow, so many of us are facing the same issues. It helps knowing I'm not the only one trying to reduce "baby" weight. I had my second child in Dec last yr at 29 weeks. Him being a preemie and all the stress associated with having a baby in the NICU and then worrying about his calorie intake etc made my weight loss a lesser priority task. Right now, he is a thrivng 10 month old, hitting his milestones somewhere between actual and adjusted ages and keeping his weight steady in the lower percentiles for adjusted age. Finally, I can focus on myself.
I had a very easy time losing pregnancy weight from my first child. I gained 50 lbs and lost 65lbs by the time she was 15 months old by eating whatever I chose. The pounds justed melted off, by breastfeeding. This time around, my body is hanging onto the fat and I've not lost a single gram from 6 weeks PP until last week. I guess I have to work on it this time around.
My biggest challenge is the Carbs/Sugar cravings I have thanks to breastfeeding. No matter how hard I try, I need a chocolate/ice cream or some other snack by the late evenings. I'm trying hard to curb my craving but am running short of ideas. If any of you have any tips, please do let me know.
My second biggest challenge is that I'm a vegetarian and I hate eggs. So my diet seems to be lacking in proteins(which I found out from MFP). I'm trying to add lentils/sprouts/cottage cheese/yogurt etc into my diet to get some proteins in but I still never make it to my goal intake.
Btw, I do an additional 300 cals since I'm nursing my 10 month old. He still nurses quite a bit but since he is on solids, I figured 300 cals should suffice. I add it to my food diary daily

I'm going to measure myself now and update the site. Thanks for the reminder!

i am probably too late to join, my baby is almost 17 months old. i wanted to tell you all something to keep you from falling in the same track. i was doing great at weight loss while breastfeeding. i could eat tons and never gained any weight. i actually lost it, getting to my pre-pregnancy weight when my daughter was about 7 months old. but then she wanted less milk as she ate more foods. i kept my eating the same and couldnt' stop it or slow down the weight gain. i wasn't really trying very hard, but i wish i had. i always had an excuse not to exercise. i kept saying i was worried i woudl haven't any milk if i lost weight. this wasn't true, of course. so then around 1 year old she stopped bf'ing and i kept my eating and not exercising the same. b/c of that i gained 10 lb from may to august 2011. i got on here with a goal of losing 20lb. i am halfway there. i stopped exercising when i was pregnant back in Dec 09 and didn't start again until august of 11. which i think was why i have a lot of body fat now. i am not overweight but not happy with how i look due to high body fat. so that is what i'm working on. the last 10lb and toning. just wanted to say please be aware of what will happen when you stop breastfeeding if you are. those pounds go on quick. i think if you stay on here you are on the right track.

it is so tough (at least it was for me) to keep the unwanted weight from happening when you stop bf. i could have done a much better job of watching it. but i didn't. but at least i found this site. one thing is good though, when you are done bf i think your body recognizes that you shouldn't have such a high fat amount and even though it's hard to start the weight loss, it's not too bad once you get rolling with it. you get kind of back to where you are supposed to be.. at least i did with a little effort. now i am back at pre-pregnancy weight again but want to be less than that. i was a little bit bigger than i wanted to be when i got pregnant so now i have to work on that.