Oh baby, weight!!

Nope, I didn't misspell anything. I didn't mean wait. I really meant weight. As in "I can't seem to lose the last of this baby weight".

Before I was pregnant I always told myself that I would be in the best shape ever before getting pregnant. Did that happen? Nope.

I got pregnant and thought, ok, I will gain only the weight you're supposed to gain during a normal pregnancy, no more, no less, (well, yeah, maybe less). And once again, no dice. I started off nice and small gaining a few pounds...ended up gaining about 40 pounds. Holy moly.

Is that a basketball or are you just happy to see me?

It was so freaking hard not to give into a lot of the cravings. I always ate (or tried, my hardest) to eat healthy, drink lots of water and exercise, but I have ALWAYS hated the gym, running, lets face it, anything that has to do with working out in general. Why can't we just eat what we want and not ever gain a pound? I guess in a perfect world that would work. Not here. I always wished (wish) I could be one of those that LOVE working out. I mean LOVE LOVE. You get up early in the morning and say "I'm going for a run" EVERYDAY what.the.hell. Those of you out there who are like that, I don't like you!! Not really, I admire you. I had a membership to the gym that I hardly ever used and I'm one of those that starts off going for a couple of days saying hell yeah I'm gonna keep this up and feeling good then after a week you're like to hell with this shit. I'll stay home and watch TV. Ugh. Hey does watching people workout on TV help? No? Fine, I didn't think so.

You would think that being married to someone who loves going to the gym, working out, eating healthy would rub off on someone whom the only thing out of those three things they do is eat healthy, so far it hasn't. Doubt it will. Ok, now that I have professed my hate for working out we can move on.

My doc told me that as long as I ate a  balanced diet, walked, and drank a lot of water I would be ok. I did work out a little bit and I already ate healthy and drank a lot of water. I was on the right track. Then once I got over all the nausea and feeling shitty, the hunger set in. I ate everything and anything in my path. Ok, Ok, not everything but boy was I hungry. This baby was sucking the life out of me! The cravings didn't help because I did what I said I would never do, the whole oh-I'm-pregnant-I-can-eat-whatever-I-want deal because I just wanted everything.

I really gained A LOT of weight. So much that my doc told me to slow my reigns down and start eating better. It was kind of a wake-up call and I started slowing down on the cravings and went to the gym a few times. I also started doing prenatal yoga and that made me feel soo much better. That was the only workout I liked and could tolerate for more than twenty-thirty minutes. The workout is perfect for all stages of pregnancy and all you need is a chair and a mat or a blanket. The poses felt really good because they teach you stretches for every part of your body especially your back to relieve some pain. The instructor's voice is so soothing and the sounds they play are relaxing, but it does make you break out in a sweat so you do feel like you're working out without much of the strain. You can find that DVD here.

When I had Button, of course I was swollen and felt pregnant all over again, but the swelling slowly went down. Breastfeeding helped a lot and I quickly lost a few pounds. Then I couldn't go back to my healthy eating ways right away because of my milk. I needed to produce as much as I could and when I tried eating smaller portions and healthier stuff my milk supply would decrease. My breastfeeding story is here.

Now that I have stopped breastfeeding it has been hard to go back to my normal ways of eating and I've been having such a hard time getting rid of the last few pounds. My mid section has always been my major problem area and gaining all that weight didn't help at all. 

I still drink a ton of water and will be turning our garage into a workout space and with the help of Shaun T I know I can do this. I will keep you posted on my journey to losing ALL baby weight and some (crossing my fingers) as well as some recipes for healthy dishes I make at home. Stay tuned!

As I always say, I would do it aaaaall over again for this little monkey (minus all the extra pounds).

I'm hungry now :)