It seems like the last month went by really fast, and it makes me freak out a little inside to know that my baby is already two months old. (FYI, Raven will get her own little update after she has her doctor’s appointment on Monday, in which she has to get all those dang shots. It will be awful–for both of us (the appointment, that is, not the post)).
But, today has been reserved for my two months postpartum update on how well I’m doing (or not doing) with the goals I set for myself one month ago.
Losing weight postpartum has been an interesting process–I quickly learned that I need to strike a delicate balance between trying to lose the weight and also trying to take it easy (not to mention keep up my milk supply), so even though I now know I won’t see results as quickly as I thought I would, I’m still pleased with my progress.
–I did not lose 2 inches from my waist OR hips, but I at least lost a little mass around both.
–I did start some weight lifting (just some arms stuff) about twice a week after I hit 6 weeks.
I’ll admit, I’m pretty bummed I don’t already have my first run post-baby behind me. When I was pregnant, I couldn’t wait to get back into running, and I thought that once I hit those 6 weeks postpartum, I’d want to be out the door every other night to start running again. And it’s not that I haven’t wanted to, but the weather really did mess up my plans several times (and I can’t stand running on the treadmill at the gym), and the other nights were foiled by either Matt having to leave to take care of church responsibilities or me not feeling up to it.
I’m determined to remedy the non-running situation ASAP, especially because I want some of my postpartum goals to include decreasing my mileage time, which is hard to measure when I don’t even know my current speed. So I guess those particular types of goals will have to wait until next month’s post.
But enough rambling: now for the stats!
I think my biggest challenge for this next month will be that after I do start running again, I’ll need to watch my diet much more carefully because running makes me SOOOO hungry all the time, and I’ll need to try and balance out all my calories with the amount I need to produce milk for Raven. In the past, I’ve rarely lost any weight the first month after starting to run (because of the eating thing), so I know the next month will have some challenges for me.
Exercise: Continue going to the gym for a group aerobics class at least once a week and doing some strength training twice a week for 10-15 minutes, and then my new goal is to fit in two 30-minute run/walk sessions per week.
Diet: My doctor discouraged me from counting calories, which is, in the past, my surefire way of losing weight relatively quickly, so I’m going to try her advice and just focus on making sure more of my calories come from wholesome, filling sources rather than from empty ones. This is something I generally try to do anyway, but I could be much more vigilant about it, especially since I have SUCH a weakness for baking sweets and carb-loaded breads and muffins all the time. My one surefire rule I want to adhere to this month is that I want to mostly only drink water throughout the day and allow myself just one cup of a non-water beverage a day (like milk or orange juice). I’ve been having milk or juice with almost every meal, so if I can do this one thing, I’ll easily save myself around 350 calories a day (or more).
By next month, I would like to be down another six pounds, and we’ll see if I can knock off two inches from both my waist and hips for real this time (now that I can start doing some light core work).
Also, if any of you are runners and moms, what was your mileage like soon after having a baby? And how many sessions did you try and do a week?