Post-Baby Weight Loss: My Journey to Fit

It was probably about a year ago that I was starting to gain that wonderful extra baby weight. I told myself not to worry, that I’d lose it right after the baby was born, but let’s be honest, it was 6 months later and I hadn’t made much progress.

I think you’ll appreciate candor in this post so I will be as honest as possible, however revealing it may be, because I think that in order to relate you need that honesty. It is a little outside my comfort zone but I know I appreciate honesty from other writers and want to give you guys the same.

Pre-Pregnancy Weight

Starting out before I got pregnant, my weight hovered around 125 depending on how well I ate on a certain day, it’d be a little more. I’m 5’5″, so that was considered ‘healthy’, plus I was working out 4-5 times a week which helped.

When I got pregnant, I actually ended up losing weight because of my morning sickness. I think my lowest was 120? It wasn’t a win in my book though, I literally couldn’t keep anything down, it was awful and I didn’t want that to affect the health of my little one.

After a few months, I gained a healthy amount of weight throughout my pregnancy. And even though I only made it to 35 weeks, I weighed in at 165 when I was admitted at the hospital the day she was born. Pardon the crappy quality of the photos below, they’re screenshots of an app I used throughout my pregnancy, I never actually saved them anywhere else!

Pregnancy Progression

Post-Natal

After giving birth to my baby girl I lost the water weight and obviously weight of a small human, and came back down to about 145… and there I sat. For months. I stayed that weight for the six months mentioned above and probably then some.

To try and get somewhere with myself, I started getting back at it at the gym, even once a week made a difference for me. I went to RIPPED class every week and if nothing else, it was a good way to release some endorphins and regain some sanity for an hour 🙂

After doing that class maybe 5-6 times a month (like I said it really wasn’t a whole lot) I’d lost somewhere around 5 more pounds, not a whole lot but it was something! I started back teaching my dance class once a week at the end of October which I enjoy, so much that I bumped it up to twice a week about a month or two later 🙂

6 Months Later

It wasn’t until around the holidays when I looked in the mirror and knew I could do better. Yes, it was much tougher this time around because for one, I didn’t have the free time that I used to. Secondly, I did not have anywhere near the energy that I did before baby (would that be BB?) because I was now getting 3-4 hours of sleep at night, cumulatively. Who had energy to work out? Not this girl. But I knew I had to make it work if I wanted to lose the rest of my baby weight and feel better in general.

8 Months Later

January 1st, I accepted a challenge from a fellow instructor at my gym called the IsaBody challenge. I was already using Isagenix protein so I figured why not? At the beginning of the 16-week challenge, I was teetering between 136-138. I’d do a shake or two a day (the dutch chocolate is good, but I like the french vanilla better) plus add the ionix supreme to my pre-workout drink before teaching my classes.

Eight weeks into the challenge (end of February) I was back down to my pre-baby weight. Not going to lie, I was pretty proud and actually a little bit amazed with myself because I was only working out twice a week (teaching my 60 minute dance class) and doing the shakes when I felt like it. I was also eating a little healthier (mostly eating out less) but nothing too substantially different.

When I hit my pre-baby weight, I found the worst photo that I took last summer that I knew I looked awful in. In fact, as soon as we took this picture, I looked at it and thought, “That’s going to be a ‘before’ picture…” Well I put on the same outfit and re-took the photo a couple weeks ago for comparison sake.

Oh man, I can’t believe I’m sharing this horrible photo……. I must really like you guys.

Just a couple weeks ago, I put this side-by-side comparison together with an app on my phone and I can’t stop staring at it, mostly because it doesn’t feel like I’ve been working that hard to get here but it’s such a big difference.

I still have a few pounds to my goal weight, but I feel like I’m on the right track right now. I’m actually looking forward to summer and being able to be out on the lake without feeling embarrassed – especially because being on the lake is my happy place, and I hate for anything to keep me from enjoying that.

Recap on Weight Loss Changes

So to make a long story short, here are the changes I made to finally get to where I wanted to be:

• Healthier meals
  • More greens, less sodium (I think I’ll try and do a post on this in the near future)
• Isagenix shakes
  • I became an associate to get a better deal on the products, so I’ve been able to try more of them now, which has been nice. The french vanilla is my favorite, but I also use the dutch chocolate for my sweet tooth sometimes.
• Pre-workout mix
  • I wasn’t doing a pre-workout until about January, but it makes a big difference in your workout energy. I feel like I’m giving a lot more in my workouts now which gives a better return in the end.
• More sleep 
  • I know this one is hard to control but now that little A has been starting to sleep through the night, it has helped me to give my body that rest it needs. Hallelujah!
• Active lifestyle
  • Even if I don’t get to the gym for those high-intensity workouts more than twice a week, me and A like to go for a walk to our neighborhood park. Even a little fresh air and low-intensity exercise helps.
• More water
  • I’ve actively tried to be drinking more water in my day. They say you should drink half your body weight in oz, which for me is about 3 of my shaker-bottles full of water. I love to add lemon to it for a little bit of flavor and because it helps add a little detoxification as well.

Obviously, I’m not a doctor so I can’t say what’s going to work best for you but I wanted to share what has worked for me.

Leave a comment below! I’d love to hear your feedback, what has worked for you? What tips do you have to add to the list? Share with other moms 🙂

Hearts,
Sarah