~18 Weeks Postpartum Update: Fitness, Weight Loss, and Baby Bea is 4 months old!
~18 Weeks Postpartum Update: Fitness, Weight Loss, and Baby Bea is 4 months old!
Hello, Friend! Happy Tuesday!
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I JUST sat down to start writing this post and Baby Beatrix woke up from her nap… after just 25 minutes. I was able to rock her back to sleep and we’re back!
Look at this little 4 month old cutie pie!!
Jokes about short naps aside, Bea is actually crushing sleep… she’s literally slept through the night for the past 48 nights in a row. I am not joking. She is amazing! I’m sure we’ll have some sleep hiccups sometime soon, but for now Mama is getting all the sleep possible and is proud of my little hunny!
She’s starting to master rolling over and witnessing her learning how to do it is really something! She loves coming to the garage gym with Mom and Dad to fitness with us, too!
Okay, enough about her and her cuteness, let’s talk about my postpartum experience ; )
Full disclosure as we dive in, I would have though I’d be further along by now… Like feeling more like my old self, losing weight easier, fitting into my clothes, etc. but what are you gonna do?! We keep moving forward.
I’m remaining consistent with my movement, workouts, and food efforts but gosh it is tough not to get frustrated every once in a while! I still weigh about ~10 pounds more than when I got pregnant and my weight has been sitting right around 155 for just about 3 months now. It’s literally been at 155 for THREE MONTHS… my weight has never been more consistent at one spot like that ever before in my life.
I will say, however, that my body composition does look different now than at 8-10 weeks postpartum, so I am seeing changes, just would like them to happen faster… you know, along with every other human who is working on body composition changes!
You may also recall a past postpartum blog post where I said I had yet to take a postpartum photo because I felt discouraged/didn’t like it/didn’t want to. Well, I finally did so today… here goes:
That second photo shows more about how I feel about things than the first! haha! BUT, I wish I took photos before this one… it’d be nice to be able to SEE the changes that I feel happening even when weight isn’t necessarily shifting. This is your message to TAKE THE PHOTOS! You’ll be glad you did.
Here’s the thing though, despite my occasional frustration, I am not yet willing to eat less or cut calories because I am still exclusively breastfeeding and I’m not going to do anything to compromise that milk supply. I might be a little paranoid about this, like I probably could afford to cut a few calories, but I really believe that trying to make myself feel better about any “discomfort” with my current body isn’t worth potentially making feeding my little babe any harder. I can wait a few more months to make any adjustments.
So, in the meantime, I’ll continue to focus on eating enough, getting my movement/steps in, and working out 5 days per week. I recently got an apple watch and it’s been fun to look a little closer at my activity. Turns out I am getting about 10k steps at least 5 days per week, too, which feels good! Aside from that, I’m doing 10-30 minute Crossfitt-y style workouts 5x per week too. Still modifying weights or adjusting movements as I need to! Exciting news though: I ran my first postpartum mile today and was pumped about it!
We added some things to our home gym—including a rig—and mama can still do a few pullups! Yay! My body is certainly not used to any kind of volume on those reps, but being able to work on them again is exciting! I also did a workout the other day with toes to bar in them, and it was eye opening! I was surprised that I couldn’t really get any! so just stuck with toes to eye level.
Logically, I know that these things take time. I know that it’s okay to adjust movements and weights and things like that based on needs and abilities in that moment. Even though I know these things, it’s still hard to do sometimes! To this point, if you’re in it too, it’s fair to feel frustrated sometimes, but the key is to keep doing what you can when you can and move yourself forward.
Another postpartum milestone: our first date night / time away from Bea is tonight!! We’re going to see Beyonce and I am PUMPED! We’re going to be away from Bea for a whopping 7-9 hours, and I am a little nervous! I know she’ll be safe with her Auntie, and sleeping post of the time, but still! I bet she’ll do just fine, it’s just a new occurrence nonetheless! Fingers crossed for all of us! And also fingers crossed for nice weather at Gillette tonight!
Anyway, if anyone has questions about my postpartum experiences I’d be happy to chat about it, answer questions, or write more about any specific topic! Let me know in the comments or send me an email at sara@nutritionforlifeproject.com!
If you know anyone who can benefit from reading this, please share!
As always, thank you for reading!
xoxo,
Sara