Much to my surprise, it turned out to be pretty easy to start my weight creeping downward again.
The whole time I was losing weight for the first time, back in 2008, I kept expecting that "it" would "stop" -- whatever kind of magic was working on me. Mark laughed at me and pointed out that the weight loss slowed when my habits got loose, and resumed when I turned back to my habits. "IT" wasn't something external to me, but was the sum of my actions, my choices. That didn't exactly cure me of wondering when "it" would stop, because I couldn't understand how I had gotten the power to make the choices I was making, and I would also wonder when that was going to desert me as well.
But. "It" stayed.
Now here I am four weeks postpartum, and after the usual (I've come to expect it) two weeks of starts and stops, I'm well into practicing the habits I know I need to practice to drop the postpartum weight (roughly twenty pounds, allowing for keeping a few extra pounds to support breastfeeding). Two pounds came off in those two weeks. What do you know, the laws of nature are the same in 2010.
Plenty of vegetables. Enough protein and fat to satisfy. Go to bed a little hungry. Eat on schedule. Have just enough to feel the appetite growing in that hour before the next meal. It works, it really does. And I think I've done it enough that I can pick it back up again, even after the childbearing year. I do have my moments where I drop control -- nibble the kids' plates, that sort of thing -- but I'm mostly "on."
So. I think I've lost, already, the fear that I'll stay heavy postpartum. I'm not sure where I'll decide to stop, but I'm more confident that it'll be where I decide to stop -- not where "it" decides for me.
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