Losing the Rest of the Baby Weight

I’d heard that it was relatively easy to lose weight after having a first child. In fact, thanks to nursing, I lost five pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. It took about 3-4 months. :banana:

With my second child, my weight plateaued when she was eight months old, and I just couldn’t shake the last seven pounds. It wasn’t until I did the South Beach diet for two weeks that I managed to kick-start my metabolism. I was completely back to my pre-pregnancy weight by the time she was nine months old.

I don’t think I was eating wrong, but I do think that something about childbirth messes with your ability to burn calories. Might have something to do with not exercising for nine months. Oh, they say you should keep up mild exercise while pregnant, but I was always one to embrace eating whatever I wanted while pregnant and forget the exercise. :bath:

Yeah, I’m paying for that now. With child number three, I’m stuck on the last ten pounds (okay, maybe thirteen…). I can sort of fit into my clothes, but it’s not great. I tried cutting out the extras, like soda, but that didn’t work. I nursed my son, hoping that it would burn off more calories. And now, I’m faced with the same issue as before. Only there’s a new twist…I developed hypothyroidism during my last pregnancy. And your thyroid gland has a direct impact on your ability to metabolise food.

I know that the least amount of hormonal shifts can completely mess up your thyroid and that’s why I’m reluctant to try the low-carb diets. I worry that the ketosis (basically where your body doesn’t get enough carbohydrates and starts burning itself) could truly make things weird. And it suddenly struck me that I don’t want to live this way. I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want to be able to have an ice cream cone with my kids or the occasional Coke and pizza.

There’s only one way for it to happen. I have to exercise. :ick: On a regular basis. And the idea of going to an aerobics class where I’d flounder around trying to keep up with the choreography makes me really, really reluctant.

So my husband has been helping me out. Every night after supper, after things have been cleared away, he watches the kids for 15-20 minutes while I go out for a neighborhood bike ride. It’s actually been kind of fun. I get to see what’s happening in the neighborhood, see some scenery, and I force myself to keep up an even pace. I’m gradually working my way up, but last night I biked two miles. It actually felt good to get out of the house and have some time to myself. I borrowed my hubby’s iPod and listened to music, so the exercise was fun.

Somehow I thought I’d never use the words exercise and fun in the same sentence.

In any case, I’m hoping I can keep this up. I’ve learned that my thirty-odd-year-old body truly isn’t the same as it was in my twenties. But maybe, just maybe, it’ll work. Life’s too short to give up the tasty goodies.

How about you? Any weight loss tips that worked for you?