When at the kid play area at the mall you get bored and look at the other moms. I notice most of the moms are usually overweight. Sometimes you see medium sized or thin moms and I would love to be one of them!! I know me and the other moms are jealous of them. You hear them say things about them, like "how can she be so thin and have kids??" or "She must just exercise all the time and have no time for the kids" or other little comments. I think we just dont want to admit they watch what they eat and dont eat as much as we do. My friends who have always been thin tell me they "forget" to eat sometimes and their food portions are usually small. One friend orders happy meals for her lunch at work or when she is out (the kind meant for kids) and gives her kids the toys. This keeps her portions in line. Some eat just an apple and yogurt for lunch. I am starting to believe the naturally thin do eat much less. I always just thought they had amazing metabolisms!!
I know some poeple can eat a ton of food and not gain, but I bet its not a ton all the time or they eventually would gain weight.

Any comments from the moms or from anyone??
laura

Hi Laura,

I know just how you feel. When I used to work part time, and took my son out with other moms and kids in a local moms club, I was always comparing myself to other moms, and wondering how some of them were so thin. I heard one complaining because she had twelve pounds to lose-big deal! But I do think some people do really work at staying thin, and to be honest, I am not working at all on losing weight-right now i"m just trying not to gain!

My husband has a friend who has two kids, and she is very slim, but I know she eats mainly salads, fruit and yogurt. It's the naturally thin people that kill me. My friend Sue eats constantly-and I don't mean low calorie. She'll talk about going out to breakfast and eating eggs, biscuits with butter and home fries, eating fettucine alfredo etc, and she never exercises. I never eat any of those things except eggs.

I also get those feelings while grocery shopping too. Does anyone else compare grocery carts while in line? I swear this is true-one time I had this really skinny lady in front of me in line-she was buying white bread, marshmallow fluff, peanut butter, potato chips and candy. She was thin as a rail. I had fruits, vegetables, chicken, cottage cheese and skim milk in my cart, and I need to lose a hundred pounds. I get so frustrated, but have to remember being skinny doesn't mean you're healthy.

My mother in law is very thin, but she mainly lives on coffee and cigarettes and forgets to eat. I can't imagine forgetting to eat. If we go there near lunchtime, we have to stop and buy a turkey sandiwch from the local deal to share, because she doesn't even keep much actual food in her house.

Oh, well, just ranting.

Sherry

Yes, yes, yes! I know just what you mean! Last spring, my husband and I went to our daughter's kindergarten play. He looked around and whispered to me "We're the only fat family here!" Not just us, our daughters is a bit chunky, too - not horribly fat, and I'm not trying to be defensive here, but she is pretty "solid" AND she does have some extra fat on her, especially compared to the others in her class. Anyway, it made me SO self-conscious and embarrassed. That event is what really set me off on my most recent weight loss endeavor.

Not only that, I know two women who are young mothers, and they both seemed to bounce right back to their pre-pregnancy weights right away. Thing is, both of them had great figures and were pretty fit when they started out -- I was very overweight at the beginning of both my pregnancies. Both of them gained "normal" amounts during their pregancies -- I couldn't seem to control myself and gained 50-75# during each of mine. But at least I know these two are very careful about what they eat and they do exercise -- unlike those people who don't seem to work at it at all.

And what I really hate is that whenever I get in a group situation, I'm always checking out to see if there are any other fat moms ... the 5-year-old (wait, she's 6 now) recently started playing soccer, and I'm ashamed (?) to say I was relieved to see there's one other mom who is quite large ... And again, during a little talent show they did at her new 1st grade class, I had to check around the room to see if there were any other plump women -- There's one, but of course I had to notice that she's not nearly as large as I am!

So in the meantime, all I can do is keep plugging away at my program. I've managed to get into the habit of exercising for the most part, and though I've managed not to pig out all the time, my eating is not perfect ... I'll just have to keep working at it. I'm hoping that by the end of the school year I'll at least be close to normal size.

Pen

Pen, don't feel ashamed, I do the same thing. I always feel a little better if I'm not the only overweight person around, I feel like not everyone is looking at me and thinking, gosh is she fat if there is another larger person around.
I will say, that I have been feeling better about myself since I've started losing the weight, but I do still wonder how they do it. Those skinny moms, you know the ones who seem to be thinner after childbirth than before. But I know that my own children don't see me as overweight and I can keep up with them and play with them, and generally just enjoy them. Isn't that all that really matters anyway?

I don't know that I've ever singled out other moms in my comparison. But the thin people around me simply eat less and exercise more. Take my boss for example. The other day she brought in her lunch. a half of a sandwich. It was even in one of those snack bags. Ok, sometimes I can't fit all my pretzels in a snack bag!! Another day her kunch consisted of cucumbers and tomatoes with salad dressing. And I know she works out regularly (Mom with 3 kids). She says she pigs out late at night, but she's very thin and at most could lose MAYBE 10 lbs.

I know I need more to keep myself alive because I am so big, but my portions are definately out of whack!!

Okay, I'm not a mom but I am glad someone else also checks out the other fat chicks in the room. "Am I the fattest one here? Where are all the fat girls?" I used to take private belly dance lessons so when I moved out to SoCal I went to a class (singular-one-uno). Almost all the girls were bone thin. There was only one other girl was chunky and at the end of class the ran up to me like I was her life line. She begged me to come back again. I didn't.

The sad thing was, I was better than a lot of the girls in that class.

hey everyone!
I was wondering with my long aimless post if you all would "get" what I was saying and it looked like you got it! I am glad I am not the only one who checks out the other moms or people when I go places. I hate to be the biggest one! I have also learned like some of you have that most people who are thin really do eat less like the example of eating half a sandwhich for lunch!! I have a coworker who is thin who eats one instant packet of oatmeal for breakfast. We are talking 100 calories! A Lean Cuisine for lunch (maybe 300 calories) snacks usually a yogurt or fruit. This is how they do it-it's no secret. They dont eat that much or atleast when they eat it's low cal like an apple vs. m&m's from the vending machine!! I admit to being an m&m junkie in the past!
I am sooo glad we are all in this together. I think it helps keep us sane!

laura

I was at a BBQ a few weeks ago and this woman showed up with her 4 day old infant and the woman looked liked she had never even been pregnant. Of course the baby weighed like about 4 or 5 lbs so I don't think she gained much weight. It scares me to think what she looked like before she put on any pregnancy weight, she was so skinny. Also she was smoking at the BBQ, I don't know if she smoked thru her pregnancy, I would probably guess that she did.

I check out the other moms at the playground and when out shopping too.

I also check out other women when I am out, but sometimes I think "That's what I'll look like when I get to 200lbs, etc." When I weighed 170 lbs, I thought that I was too big, now I think when I weigh 170 again, I will go out and buy myself a bikini!
Beth

Beth-I do that too. I have friends who I know how much they weigh or what size they are and I tell myself. If you only lose 25 more pounds you'll be her size. It's inspirational. You are right about getting back to 170 wearing a bikini-I will too! When I weighed 175 I was a 14. Compared to my biggest size of a tight 26 (now a 20) a 14 is small!! I cant wait.

Jen-I have had friends like that too. They have just given birth maybe a few weeks ago and you can never tell they were ever pregnant. Even if they had normal size babies. I would never smoke though to keep my weight off or to lose. I have enough bad habits!! I have a friend who gave birth in July and by her 6 week check up had lost 40 pounds!! I know most of her weight gain was fluids but I was floored. She weighed 230 before she gave birth and now weighs 190 at 5'6.

happy weekend all!
~~laura~~hot mom "wanna be"!