Before I got pregnant, I was 130 lbs and wore a size 4. I gained 40 lbs while pregnant, which is over the recommended amount. Now, I have been breastfeeding for 7 1/2 months, and I am 120 lbs and a size 2. Some people might say this is great, but I'm not so sure.
I was about tipping the scales at 170 pounds at full term. I was shocked at my weight every doctor's visit. Doctors say that a woman should gain 25-30 pounds by full term, but I gained 40. I wasn't underweight to begin with, but a healthy 130 pounds for my 5'7 frame. I didn't look fat at full term either. I carried Ewan all out in front. My hips, butt, and boobs were big, but looked proportional for my condition. I was wearing small sized pregnancy clothes.
I was nervous when I still looked pregnant for the next few weeks after giving birth. This is normal, apparently. By 3 months post-partum I was wearing all of my pre-pregnancy clothes. By 6 months, those clothes were falling off of me. I've always had a bubble butt, but now I don't. My husband mourns the loss of my curves, and honestly, so do I.
I eat pretty healthy most of the time, despite my addiction to triple-cream brie. (Going cow's milk free helped with this. Goat cheese tends to have less fat.) Given a choice on a menu, I usually pick the dish with the most vegetables and the least meat. This is not so great for eating the 75 grams of protein I'm supposed to get.
Because of this, a lot of my "weight" loss has been muscle loss. During pregnancy I lost muscle too. If you don't eat enough protein while pregnant or breastfeeding your body gets it from storage (i.e., your muscle mass). I try to make it to yoga to build muscle once per week, but that doesn't always happen. I do Vinyasa Power Yoga, which is intense.
I have lost fat as well. I am excited to have a gap between my thighs, but I have to eat like a professional athlete in order to keep meat on my bones.
After I discovered I was losing weight I didn't really want to lose, I reverted to my pregnancy eating pattern. Eat two small breakfasts: one in the early morning and one in the late morning. Eat a normal lunch, then have an afternoon snack at 3pm or so. Then eat a normal dinner. Then eat something in the evening before bed otherwise I will be hungry while I am trying to go to sleep.
I snack for protein: nuts, lunch meats, cottage cheese, Luna Bars. I've started keeping cooked lentils and rice in the fridge for a protein heavy breakfast. I read labels for high protein content. When I was pregnant I started making smoothies with whey protein powder in them. I haven't done that in a while, but maybe I should. (Don't do that if you are cow's milk free because it's pure cow's milk protein.)
Recipe: 1/2 cup dry green lentils, 1/2 cup brown rice, 2 cups water. Bring to boil and simmer covered on low heat for 40 minutes.
Also, you can mash it up with a fork and feed it to your baby! Ewan loves it, but I don't give it to him often because lentils give him gas.
I feel like I am in the third trimester again. If I don't eat I get sugar lows and feel light headed. This happened to me if I didn't eat enough protein for breakfast in the third trimester, hence why I started eating a second breakfast midmorning.
Doctors say that a post-partum breastfeeding woman can safely lose 1 pound per week. I think I was about 150 pounds in the first few weeks post-partum. By about 12 weeks I was back to 135, so I think I lost weight faster than recommended.
I am doing my best to stay at 120 because any lower than that would be unhealthy for me.
