Postpartum Weight Loss

During the course of my pregnancy with EH, I gained a total of 34 pounds.  It should come to no surprise to anyone that I did not birth a 34 pound baby (thank god.)  In fact, he weighed a measly 7 pounds.  Most statistics say that the average mother loses around 10 pounds during childbirth, and I didn't weigh myself until 1 week later, but at the 1 week post-partum point I had lost a total of 10 pounds, so it doesn't seem like I lost at 10 at birth.

In any case, it's really true that when you leave the hospital after having your baby you still look like you're 6 months pregnant.  Here's proof (in the form of two equally blurry pictures.

First, me at 23 weeks pregnant. 

Then, me at 1 week postpartum.

Pretty similar, huh?
That was at 10 pounds lost, 24 pounds to go.

At 2 weeks post-partum I was down to 17 pounds lost - half of the baby weight lost!!! At the two week point I made the statement that I felt that was the "easy" part.  I was fairly confident that the rest of the weight would take more work to lose.

And boy, was I right.

At 5 weeks post-partum I had only lost 2 new pounds for a total of 19 pounds lost so far.  That means I still have 15 pounds to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, and I have a feeling it's not going to be easy.

For one my eating habits have not been very good.  I frequently forget to eat until I'm absolutely starving and then I binge on not-so-healthy stuff.  I need to get myself back into a better eating routine, but routines and newborns do not go hand in hand, so I'm at the mercy of the little one's chaotic and needy schedule. 

Also, until recently, I was still fairly sore from the c-section.  I know that healing takes time, but when healing gets in the way of weight loss, it's frustrating.  I still don't feel like I can exercise.  In fact, we've been trying to take walks in the evenings and although I'm able to finish them, I can't go very fast and I'm usually sore in my incision area afterwards. 


My goal is to lose all of my baby weight by the time I go back to work on November 1st.  I have/had nearly 12 full weeks, and originally I thought that would be no problem at all.  In fact, they say that one average, it takes most women 6 months to get back to their pre-baby weight, and that seems like such a long time!  But now, understanding how significant the healing time/process is for a c-section recovery and understanding how unpredictable life is with a newborn, it's seeming less and less likely that I'll meet my goal. I know I have almost 7 full weeks left, but I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to start exercising and eating like I need to be, and really, that's not a lot of time. 

But in any case, I have to try.  So, my diet*** starts on Monday. 

*** I'm breastfeeding, so I can't really "diet" in the traditional sense, but I can start walking/exercising more and I can stop eating like I'm in college.  That's a good start.