Battling the Baby Bulge
I’ve been fighting the baby bulge. No, not the kind that you have when you are newly pregnant and possess a cute little bump that later turns into an adorable basketball on your tiny frame (uh, yeah, unless you’re me and even your ankles get a baby bump). I’m talking about the baby bulge you battle once the baby is already out. To be fair, I did just have a baby (8 years ago), so I can’t claim a Heidi Klum body anymore (stop laughing). But for the past year I have been trying different diets and exercises to lose the weight once and for all. And in one year I have lost (drumroll please)…..
10 pounds.
Yes, that’s right. Only 10 pounds. And do you know why? Because of yo-yo dieting. It’s getting ridiculous. I have pretty much lost and gained the same 10 pounds more times that I can keep track of. I tried giving up carbs, went through hell for several weeks as I felt like my stomach was eating my brain cells, and wanted to attack the first unlucky sourdough roll I came across like something out of a horror movie. But then I eased into the no carbs rule and felt like, “Hey! This isn’t so bad! I could never eat carbs again and be totally fine!” And then someone gave me a tiny bite of their cake. Suddenly I realized that I couldn’t live without bread. I started begging friends to hook me up and give me a fix since my cupboards were bare of anything that might have more than 2 carbs in it. Then I tried counting calories, and felt like I was starving by the end of the day. But by week 2 I was calmly eating 6 small meals while burning at least 400 calories a day, strategically planning my meals so that there was no surprise of a 600 calorie meal by accident. And then I was taken out to dinner and decided to try the cream based salmon served on fettuccini for a cool 1200 calories only because I had been so good for so long. And it awakened the fact that I was HUNGRY. And that little piece of cream covered salmon snuck in all his friends – like chocolate swirl cheesecake, huge deli sandwiches, potato salad, and French fries. And then I tried the “no flour, no sugar” diet – which is really hard if you don’t think about it constantly. But I figured out that rice has no flour. Same with French fries and the “Protein Burger” at In N Out. Um…..I think I was missing the point on that one. Then I tried the Gluten free diet, which was a lot like the “no flour, no sugar” diet, except now I could eat bread as long as it had no wheat or gluten in it. I discovered a brown rice bread I would eat even if I wasn’t on a diet, and I fell in love. But I also realized that this was just another diet that I was treating like a gimmick, and that one failed too.
Then there’s the arguments I get into with the scale. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. Do you really expect me to believe that I’ve gained 7 pounds between yesterday and today? I only LOOKED at that bowl of ice cream with fried plantains. I mean, I only took one little bite to make sure that the plantains weren’t too hot. Seriously, I only had one bowl of it. But 7 pounds? Seriously? I think you just hate me.” I weigh myself in the morning – before I pee, then after I pee. I just like to see the scale go down a little bit once I’ve gotten rid of a pound of liquid. Then I take a shower and weigh myself again (as if I have just washed away a pound of dirt). I try it with my hair unbrushed, then I brush it and see if there’s a difference (there isn’t, by the way). When I get home from work I go straight to the scale, stripping before I step on to make sure that my 10 pounds of clothing don’t add to the number. And then before bed I try one more time, just to see if the scale has come to its senses again.
Anyway, back to square one.
In all my dieting failures and successes, I’ve realized one thing. It’s all about calories in vs. calories burnt. For me, the diet that worked the best out of all of them was just old-fashioned calorie counting – when I was being faithful to it. 100 calories can be several different things – a piece of bread, a slice of cheese, a pat of butter, a spoonful of peanut butter, a glass of milk, 7 slices of turkey meat, or 1/3 pack of tofu. I have to make conscious efforts to decide which choice is going to be the most filling for me so that I’m not too hungry and so that I don’t binge at the end of the day. And if I work out that day I am allowed to eat even more. So I am given an incentive to sweat my ass off on the elliptical machine at the gym.
Have you had success in battling the baby bulge? What’s your secret? How do you stay on track, keep up with exercise, and avoid the cream based salmon and all his friends?
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P.S. Do you have yummy low-cal recipes to share? Post them in the Recipe Box forum on Santa Rosa Mom!
Tags baby, battle, diet | Category Food
Single-parenting it since 2004.
You got the right idea in your last paragraph, Crissi. I think the most important ingredients is simply consistency and discipline. Myself, I don’t battle the baby bulge, I battle the Flupova Syndrome; my belly flup’s ova my belt, see
Not so much if I’m being disciplined, but that’s the aspect I fight EVERY SINGLE DAY.
by Matt the Bat
I have no pearls of wisdom. Except I try to be conscious of what we eat when we’re together. I know, how can I say anything when i’m on the seafood diet — I see food and I eat it. I keep trying to keep pace and gain what you lose- but to no avail— for now I think I’ll have dessert.
by Shawn
I think you hit the nail on the head with those two little words, “conscious effort.” So often it’s the unconscious eating that does us in…a bite of the kid’s cookie, a taste of the potroast we’re cooking, one cracker with cheese for the toddler, two crackers with cheese for the mom. As a mom at home, it’s hard because I’m next to my cupboard all day long and if my energy is lagging during that 3-5pm lull, I really really want to have a piece of chocolate. Or cake. Either one, really. What has worked for me? Every day, I go to the gym before my husband wakes up. I cut out junky processed food over a year ago and now bake with organic unbleached flour (often whole wheat), and use olive oil instead of butter (most of the time). We eat a ton of vegetables and fruit and natural, free-range animal products. If I hit the afternoon drag, I make iced tea with lemon instead of sugary sweets. Little, conscious efforts to change my bad habits over a span of 12 months has led to some weight loss, sure, but more importantly, more energy, more enthusiasm and better health. Because dieting and deprivation are no way to live. Moderation, natural food, and exercise, so we can still enjoy the finer things in life? Sounds good to me!
by Erica
From everything I know, deprivation diets do nothing but lead to an eventual breakdown and binge, which puts you in a worse place than where you started, because your body grabs onto the bounty you finally allow it to have with a death grip and stores it away for a rainy day.
Not only that, but almost all those things that get cut out on trend diets are things your body actually needs–carbs are your body’s first source of energy and are used for brain function, among other things…fats are super vital for a bunch of things, from lubricating joints to building hormones and neurotransmitters…even saturated fats are necessary to some extent–if you don’t have them in your diet, your body forgets how to process them. And cutting calories works, but if you do it too harshly, your body will believe that you are in a famine situation and will hold onto every ounce of fat you ingest that much harder, to keep you from starving. Sugar, sadly, I can not make a case for. There is enough naturally occurring sugar in so many places that we never have to worry about running low…HOWEVER, eating sugar releases serotonin, which makes you happier, and reduces stress, which is good for both your mind and your body…Bob’s your uncle!
In my experience, the very best thing you can do is to eat a balanced diet that is high in stuff like veggies, whole grains and light proteins and low in large amounts of fats and sugars (but not entirely without them) and get regular exercise — one of the big problems with keeping weight down in our culture/time period is that our lives are much more sedentary by necessity. The stuff we have to do (jobs, school, etc.) keep us very busy and are both physically and mentally exhausting…but don’t include much physical activity–and even worse, take up so much time and energy that finding extra time and energy to get exercise is very difficult–and it doesn’t help that the foods we should be eating are expensive and exclusive, while the the stuff that is the very worst for us is super cheap and readily available.
Basically, after yet another super long ramble…sorry about that…your best bets are making good balanced food choices, exercising AND not depriving yourself. If you really need some chocolate ice cream, you really need some chocolate ice cream. And if you let yourself have a small bowl when the craving sets in, you are less likely to polish off an entire quart to yourself when you have had no fat or sugar for 3 weeks.
by Str4y
I had a baby in October 2008. By May of 2009, I was within 10 pounds of my pre-prgnancy weight. I was sure I’d be back to normal size within a couple of months, AND THEN… pregnant again! I’m six months along into my 2nd pregnancy in two years. At 6 months along I’m the weight I was when I was 9 months along last time. I haven’t yet gotten rid of my size 4 jeans, but I fear the time for me to wear those again will never come. Someone throw me a lifeline, please. Chocolate is evil.
by Zoe
I made a personal goal for myself to get to a certain weight by the time my next birthday rolled around. My birthday is 3 weeks away, and I am 5 pounds from attaining that goal. I tried on clothes yesterday and realized I had lost two sizes when I thought I had only lost one. Needless to say, I’m stoked! My approach? Portion control. My meals are light, especially in the evening, but I’m not starving myself. I know that if I get too hungry, I’m liable to grab foods that aren’t the best choice. I’m not killing myself by keeping away from foods I love, but for things like dessert I limit myself to one bite just to enjoy the taste but not to gorge on it. And I keep foods that I know will trigger a binge out of my house. Chocolate could never stay in my house! The biggest challenge recently was when the kids made me store their Halloween candy in my room. I stayed out of it, but I reminded myself constantly what was more important – that little fun size candy bar or continuing the hard efforts I was already putting in. With the holidays just around the corner, I know the challenges still exist. But I also know that with discipline, anyone can still maintain or lose weight.
by WineCountry.Mom
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