How to Lose Weight Postpartum

The Journey Begins

     This past Monday I decided it was time. Time to start anew, time to get serious about taking care of myself. After all, my baby is now two months old and I've been cleared by my doctor to hit the gym. Even though I was cleared six weeks postpartum, I took it upon myself to take a couple of more weeks to recuperate given that I had a c-section. My previous five deliveries were all vaginal. I required a c-section this time due to the fact that after my fifth child (who I thought was my last), I had surgery to have a bladder sling put in to alleviate the stress incontinence caused by my first delivery.

     I never thought I would ever have another child after having five children with my previous husband of 19 years. I couldn't imagine any man wanting to marry someone with five children. Well, it happened, I found him, and he didn't have any children of his own despite having been previously married and despite the fact that he was 43 when we met. We got married on April 19, 2015 and in January, 2016 we found out we were pregnant!

This is a picture of me at my baby shower at 7 months and that is my husband with Santiago, my youngest son before baby.

After I had Santiago, I was diagnosed with hypothyroid and I struggled to get back into shape. I was 183 lbs. at delivery and I managed to get down to 137 lbs. in about three years. Once I met my husband and started dating, we did a lot of eating out at restaurants. Needless to say, I gained some of my weight back. I was 159 lbs. when I found out I was pregnant this time around (I'm only 5 ft. tall). I reached 183 lbs. at delivery once again and I now weigh 171.2 lbs. as of Monday 12/12/16. 

During this pregnancy I was diagnosed with 

gestational diabetes and was insulin dependent. Thankfully, it went away as soon as I delivered. The problem is that now I REALLY have to watch myself because I'm at a higher risk for getting type II diabetes. 

This is Caesar Augustus, our precious baby.

  

     So, how do we go about this? Well, the last time that I was successful at losing weight and feeling great I did several things to keep me going. One of THE MOST important things that I did was to log every single thing I put in my mouth. I know what you're gonna say, "Who has time to count calories and log everything we eat??" My answer to that is, some one who wants it badly enough. We MAKE the time to do this, we do it because IT WORKS. Try different apps, log it in a notebook, do whatever you have to do, but do it! I promise you that when you are aware of everything that goes in your mouth, you eat less. No more, "Let me have a taste of this or a taste of that." If you know you have to log it, then you are less likely to want to eat it. Now, you can definitely eat it and not log it, but ultimately who on earth do you think you will be cheating? Absolutely no one but yourself. The phone app I was most successful with was myfitnesspal.com and the website I was most successful with prior to that was sparkpeople.com. Both are FREEEEE!! Previously the app for sparkpeople wasn't working too well on my phone. I don't know if it has improved, but I will be checking on that this week. The site was a lot more complete as compared to my fitness pal. Tracking your workouts is also an effective motivator as it lets you see yourself getting stronger.

     The second most important thing I did to keep myself motivated and accountable was blogging here and vlogging on youTube. This was HUGE for me. I had weekly weigh ins and I interacted with the weight loss community a lot. I felt pressured into doing well each week, so as to not disappoint anyone, mainly myself. I felt that if I was up one week I'd be embarrassed, so I worked really hard to see positive results at my weigh ins. That pressure helped keep me on track. 

     The third most important thing I did that REALLY helped me not go insane was that I allowed myself to have a cheat MEAL, NOT DAY, ONE MEAL. I started with a cheat DAY and let's just say I was going around in circles...

     Last but not least, weight loss is not rocket science, there is NO fast way nor is there a short cut to get there, just as those get rich quick schemes don't work, neither do fad diets. Plain and simple, eat less move more! My plan, as proven effective before (even with hypothyroid), is to go to the gym consistently, include strength training in my workouts (not just cardio), increase my veggies and protein, reduce bad carbs and completely eliminate them after 6 pm. This along with the other tools I've already mentioned should do the trick. 

     Thanks for stopping by! I shall be posting weekly weigh ins every Monday and I'll be checking in from time to time in between to talk about what's working and what's not. You can also follow me on my journey on Instagram @susyeileen75. My youTube videos will be coming soon @ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjXD8lYt2jbB8iAUQW5ROFA

Ciao for now ;)