Sooooo one week down, and about 15 kilograms to lose.
Yes that is a very depressing sentence. Hopefully there are about another 5 kilograms of post baby weight to be shed (uterus still contracting, boobs still regulating milk supply (less porn star look PLEASE!)), but that still leaves a shocking 10 kilograms of just over eating and under exercising during pregnancy to lose.
Am I crazy blogging about this? Is it just too personal and one should just do it all in secret and surprise people with the svelte you in 6 months time?
Well my thinking is that I hope writing about it in this blog will hold me accountable to my (silent but existent) readers. For my last two pregnancies I resorted to Jenny Craig to lose the kilos. It works - it is a very effective program - but 1) it is expensive and 2) the food is seriously crap. What I mean by point 2 is that it is filled with artificial preservatives, colours and all the 'numbers', and is not what I like anyway (lots of chocolate and sweet stuff).
I plan this time to follow the same structure of eating as JC but instead have my healthy, yummy cooking.
The structure of JC is simple. Small breakfast (palm size of porridge), with milk, and fruit. Morning tea of fruit. Lunch - salad and small potato or bread. Afternoon tea, yoghurt and seeds. Dinner - vegetables and palm size meat serving. On top of this I add two slices of bread and butter mid morning for the breastfeeding extra requirements.
On top of this JC structure I am going back to my processed sugar free diet, a la David Gillespie's Sweet Poison book. I know that many have questioned his research methods and theories but what I absolutely agree with from my own experience ( I did this for about 4 months as I fell pregnant with S but fell off the wagon during the pregnancy!) is that not having processed fructose helped my natural appetite regulator stay functioning. I find, not having sugars, means I can say 'no' when I am 3/4 full and I don't have huge sugar highs and lows throughout the day. When people tell me they are hypoglycemic and they need their sugar hits - I really believe that if they could go 21 days off the sugar (and deal with all the withdrawal symptoms and yuckness during this time) they would find their body naturally doesn't have these highs and lows.
My understanding of the plan is that you avoid all sugars except those found in whole fruits. So no juice, no honey, no jam, no sugared cakes, no chocolate, etc. The hardest for me back when I started doing it was no jam (for my pancakes!) and no honey (for my porridge!). However in both instances (last time and now) I have found after about a week it gets easy and actually I start to have a dislike of anything sweet other than fruit. It is a matter of convincing yourself that it is indeed a poison for your body, so that there is no desire to eat it. It certainly has helped this last week my not going out at all (that is no tempting coffee shop cakes or cakes at people's houses).
In the short term, I allow myself anything else I want. So as much butter on my toast as I like, I had potato chips on the weekend etc. That is, I don't worry about fat intake - rather I let my appetite calibrator kick in - such that I can have a handful of chips and then stop (this is not my norm) as an example.
So, so far so good, 12 days in and I do feel my appetite controller is working more effectively. My portion sizes are probably bigger still than JC - this will need to reduce once I settle in a bit more.
I give myself until the NY to lose the pregnancy natural gain (that is about 4 weeks post birth? Maybe I need 6 weeks). Then I will start to track weight loss a bit more closely.
Why bother you might ask? Well the main reason is my body shape. Unfortunately I carry all my excess kilograms in my stomach - not nicely spread around my hips, bottom, stomach, etc. All in my stomach - so it basically means I cannot get clothes to fit. I have a size 8 - 10 hip, with (at the moment) about a size 22 waist. Yup that is not a good look. Add to that a size 22 plus bust and I look like a toffee apple on a stick.
Not to mention the huge health risks of this body shape. I want to live to see my children grow up, hell, I would like to even hold some grandchildren if I can! My tummy weight could be the end of me.
I am not going to focus too much on excessive exercise at this time as a) I know I lose the most weight via diet control rather than exercise and b) it is very difficult for me to prioritise exercise when I have four children and a husband that are simply more my priority. I can cut calories easier than I can exercise them off whilst juggling this grown household.
I love running. It is my exercise of choice - mentally and physically. However experience has taught me that running and breastfeeding exclusively do not mix for me. I get dreadful milk blocks that could (luckily have never as yet) lead to mastitis. Aaah, no thanks. So whilst walking with the pram is fine, running is off the cards until S is eating some solids around 6 months. And even then, I will need to carefully monitor the boobs and how they are holding up (pardon the pun). But as with going out at night, my turn will come to get back into the 'me' stuff.
I do have a stretch band for doing some strength work which I learnt through my pilates that is on the to do list, like this blog is always on my to do list. Tonight the blog won out! Maybe tomorrow at this time I will pull out the band and do a strength work out. Maybe that is a good plan - one blog post for every strength work out I do. I would love to go back to pilates but we are a bit strapped for cash for a while so not a goer at this time.
So I will use you, my silent (silent ... did I say, silent? Yes I did! Would I like to hear from you? You betcha - I feel sometimes this blog is a like a letter in a bottle tossed into the ocean - not sure if anyone will receive it or be interested) readers as my conscience, as my commitment to this course of action.
When I go to put that extra mouthful in my mouth, or eat the wrong thing - it is you I will be thinking about - how will I explain it to you! Let's see if this works shall we.
Labels: pregnancy, sugar, weight loss
