“That’s Fat, Mommy!” Motivated Me to Get Fit

My weight has been a problem for me since giving birth to my son in 2009. I had a miscarriage before being pregnant with my son, where I gained 10 lbs, which did not go away. Then I gained 35 pounds during my pregnancy and I didn’t lose all the weight before I got pregnant again with my daughter. My weight gain during pregnancy was not too far from guidelines but breastfeeding makes me so hungry (more than when I was pregnant!). I have been either pregnant or breastfeeding since December 2008 so it feels like my body is always working. It was still healthy for me though since I quit smoking in early 2008 before getting pregnant and I have not had alcohol or caffeine since December 2008 as well. It was also my son who gave me the wake up call Christmas Eve 2011 when he slapped my bare belly and exclaimed, “That’s fat, mommy!” I don’t know where he learned it, but he is not even quite 2 and 1/2 year old yet! There is nothing like the unadulterated honesty of your child who has yet to learn to be politically correct.

My goal is to lose 20-25 lbs and go back to down 125 lbs or less. More importantly, I want to lose the belly fat, be toned, and be strong enough to keep up with my little ones. The tummy has always been a difficult body part for me and since having children it has gotten BAD. The clothes in my closet don’t fit me anymore. I had my body fat measured today and it is depressing. My coach Joy’s tool measured 28.9, while my scale at home measured 33.5%. For the first time I looked up what that means and at 32% body fat or more, a woman is considered obese! So that means while my doctor informed me just a few weeks ago that I am in the high normal range for BMI, my body fat is saying something else altogether.

Here’s the info on body fat percentage from Wikipedia:

My biggest obstacle is that I have never really had a good fitness habit, never counted calories or tracked my eating, and I have never dieted before. I am a pretty serious foodie and I am used to eating what I want, when I want. My metabolism first slowed down when I was around 26 to 27. However, to moderate my weight I relied only on portion control (by giving up the habit of cleaning my plate) during the last 10 years… but breastfeeding has seriously increased my appetite so that has been hard to do since the birth of my son in fall of 2009.

Now that I am middle aged (gasp!) I clearly need to step it up. My life has changed so much in the last 5 years (marriage, home ownership, pregnancies, children, laid off, staying at home) and it currently revolved around my children. I am still breastfeeding but my daughter started on solids a month ago so I feel that it is a good time to start even though I will not be able to cut calories too much yet. I have tried exercising before but when I hear my baby cry then I can’t help but stop. Being sleep deprived has not helped, either — what free time I have I spend it on sleeping when my baby is sleeping. It has been the most challenging job to be a stay at home mom and difficult to accomplish things I used to be able to do easily, let alone adding the fitness component…. but I really want this and I need to level up! I also want to learn to do this well so when I start working again I can still stay fit. I am going to focus on getting in shape and then maintaining it long term, not just for myself, but also for my family.