My tech husband doesn’t think I should share this. He is way more private than I am, but I feel like I need to share.
When I had my daughter, I gained an unhealthy 60 pounds. I was really uncomfortable with the weight and I was very nervous about getting back to my pre-baby weight. I was hyper focused on being able to lose the weight in time to be back in my clothes I had worn before having her. Money was tight and I could not go out and buy a whole new wardrobe.
I started at it the minute I was okayed to work out. I would do cardio workouts sometimes twice a day and a little bit of strength stuff. I only really dabbled in lifting weights. I’m always convinced I’m going to come out looking like the hulk. I was determined, and in my head I was convinced I had to do it. I’m sure it’s the same as any Bride who is working so hard to feel great in their dress. Luckily I did reach my goal.
I fit into my clothes but nothing was really the same, and I didn’t try too hard to improve anything much further because I knew eventually I would have another kiddo.
When we got pregnant with our second child I was convinced I would work harder to not gain as much weight. I really did try in the beginning, but I became frustrated when it didn’t work out exactly as I had hoped and stopped trying altogether after about 4 months because I was still gaining weight at about the same rate as the first pregnancy.
From that point on I tried my best to ignore the scale so I’m not exactly sure the amount I gained with my son but I really believe it’s about the same. When I had him I wasn’t too concerned about losing the weight. I knew I had done it really fast with my first pregnancy and that it would come off. When I went back to work I bought myself a couple of pair of pants that I thought were kind of ugly but knew I would shrink out of soon (why I didn’t buy myself clothes I actually would like I think says a lot).
I did eventually lose more weight, but the weight didn’t come off like it did the first time. I currently still have the unfortunate baby belly fat. It makes me uncomfortable in my clothes, my skin and in pictures. I find myself wanted to hide more when it comes time for pictures. It’s one of the reasons I started the Love Yourself Challenge at the beginning of the year because I needed the reminder myself!
I’ve been asked by people if I’m pregnant which made angry, made laugh, made me cry and eventually helped motivated me to do better.
I’m not a very big person in general (I’m only 5’3) so many people like to tell me I’m skinny, small, or tiny. It becomes almost not ok for me to talk about the fact that I have fat on my body.
Currently I try not to talk about it too much but instead I’m taking action. I go to the gym 5 days a week and I do cardio each of those days and strength training most of those days. I usually plan to work out most weekends but it doesn’t happen right now. I’m pretty much ok with that. My next steps are to really take a look at my nutrition. For me I’m always more motivated to eat healthy when I’m working out. Now that I’ve made fitness a part of my routine it will be so much easier to make better food choices.
I’ve been a lot more patient with myself the second time around because I realize it’s a journey and for me it’s changes in my lifestyle. It can’t just be a quick fix.
I’d love to hear about any of your challenges. Are you trying to lose weight for a wedding? Have you struggled with losing the baby weight? OR has weight always been something you’ve worked on? Feel free to comment below.
xxoo
Nikole