dianaschnuth

I would venture to say that I was on the verge of being obsessed over my pregnancy weight. I continued to track my food intake while I was pregnant, just as if I were actively trying to lose weight (as I have been for the past several years), except my intention was to allow myself to gain — ever so slowly. After having been on Weight Watchers for the past three years, intentionally letting the scale move the other direction was disconcerting, and I monitored my weight just like I always had: daily, every morning, but without letting myself obsess too much over daily fluctuations.

From Connor’s conception to his birth, I gained 33 lbs. (Granted, I lost several pounds in that first two months when I didn’t know I was pregnant and was still eating to lose, so my pre-pregnancy weight was not my lowest weight.) Within a week of Connor’s birth, I lost 20 of those 33; after another week, I leveled off after having lost 26 pounds total without really trying.

I had hoped that breastfeeding would be enough to keep the momentum going, but my body apparently decided that the low 190’s was a good place to chill at for a while. Not surprising: I’ve plateaued at that weight before.

My measurements reflect my slightly higher weight: since mid-March (when I was not yet three months pregnant and before I started showing) I’m up two inches in my hips and three in my waist. My bust is obviously bigger now that I’m breastfeeding, and I’m not concerned about that. The other parts, though… those do concern me.

So, since I know what’s worked for me in the past, and since I won’t be going back to work for another month, I signed up for Weight Watchers Online. Once the next At Work session starts in February, I’ll jump on that, since my employer subsides the cost, so it’s actually cheaper than Online. Until then, though, I needed to return to the structure that I knew.

Non-Scale Victories (NSVs) for this week:

• My pre-pregnancy jeans fasten! *happydance*
• I made a successful return to tracking my food and exercise, after a six-week post-pregnancy tracking hiatus.

I’m focusing on my NSVs because I actually gained 1.2 pounds during my first week back on Program.

So, how am I going to turn this around and really get back on the wagon?

Turns out that, in my absence, Weight Watchers has added a new tool to eTools: a Weekly Progress Report. I’ve been desperately wanting a dashboard like this, but have also been too lazy to manually tabulate all of my data for myself.

This definitely helps me see where my issues lie. First and foremost is to stay within my daily Points range. I’ve come to learn that my body doesn’t need those extra Weekly Points Allowance if I’m looking to lose weight. I also need to eat my fruits and vegetables. Saturday wasn’t a tracking flub: I really didn’t eat enough fruits or veggies to bother tracking, unless I had an entire cup of shredded lettuce on my tacos at San Marco’s or ate an entire half-cup of kimchee and other veggie side dishes at Korea Na.

Finally, and this is something I’ve been looking forward to addressing for some time now, is to increase my exercise frequency. It’s going to be a challenge to fit in a walk or a run/walk with a baby in the house, but it’s just not negotiable. Not in the long run. Eventually, I’m going to figure out a way to work this into my new baby-toting lifestyle.

I’m hoping to keep myself honest by posting weekly updates — at least until I have the accountability of meetings again.

I don’t feel like I “wrecked” my body by having a baby; this was just another detour on my journey to getting as fit as I want to be.