I'm a bit over 5'6. I just had my second baby in Feb weighing in at 206 when I gave birth. As with my first one, I get down to 160 and there I sit. And so here I am again! Honestly, with breastfeeding, it is not too difficult to get back to 160, but breaking that barrier seems impossible. Why is that? I would like to be a steady 150 person and would LOVE LOVE to be 140. Why can't I ever seem to get over the 160 hump?
Have you tried a stroller fit class or group? It's where a group of women get together usually at a park and walk with their children in strollers, doing lunges, etc. to up the impact.
It's all I can do working full time, taking care of an almost 3 year old and 3 month old. Housework, cooking, no time or organized exercise. Plus, I live in a small town that doesn't have stuff like that.
Can you give us more info? What are you doing? What's your exercise routine? What's your diet? I'm a working mom as well and I hear you with the time, but I can tell you it's possible, but it takes commitment and prioritization and a schedule. Also maybe 160 is just what is right for you. Sometimes we just have to accept where our body wants to land, especially if more exercise or a different diet is not feasible for our lifestyle.
160 is probably just what is right for me. I'm not miserable at this weight, just frustrated at times. I've done it all...weight watchers, calorie counting, strict work out plans. I've found for me that traditional working out doesn't do much for weight loss for me. I have completed the C25K program before and am thinking about starting that up again just to feel more healthy since it didn't make me get over my 160 hump. Would just be nice if the baby girl would stop waking up every 3 hours. I'm always just so tired. Getting up early to work out isn't an option and by the time they are both asleep, I just don't have any energy left because I know I will be getting woke up in a couple of hours. So pretty much the only exercise I get is chasing the 3 year old around. As for eating, I just try to eat as healthy as possible...kind of the initutive eating plan.
155 was my magic number for many years. I can relate. It sounds like you are doing the best you can with exercise. Perhaps, you could tinker with your eating plan. Maybe if you kept a food journal for a few days, you can discover some improvements. I have found that replacing some bread/starches with more vegetables and fruits helped a lot.
Would just be nice if the baby girl would stop waking up every 3 hours.
I breastfeed my son for 14 months and I decided early on that I would not diet or focus on weight loss until we were finished. Being that you are a second time mom w/ added pressures I would highly recommend waiting until you are done with journey before adding more stress and pressure. Take care of you girl! And enjoy this time when you can eat what you want b/c of breastfeeding I lost 50lbs of baby weight and pigged out while breastfeeding it was awesome!
I'll jump on the grain and starchy carb wagon. I find it easy to gain weight on a very healthy diet if I include grains, beans, and/or starchy veggies (sweet potatoes, squash, etc).
You mention that you try and do the intuitive eating thing, so to me that sounds like where your *problem* can be.
I personally don't believe that 160 is where you're destined to be. I think if you perhaps put a bit more effort into it, and of course only you can judge if that is worth it do you, you can get even lower.
So since you rely on intuitive eating, that would seem to me that you don't track your calories. I bet if you started tracking them, and sticking to an allotted amount, the one you find out through trial and error, you'd get that scale going down.
You obviously eat fairly well - look how well you've done in the weight loss arena, but perhaps you're eating too much of it. *For me*, my intuitive eating button is totally haywire. My intuition tells me to eat, eat and eat some more. In fact, I intuitively ate my way up to 287 lbs. So, that wasn't working out so well for me. I needed the forced portion control and built in accountability that calorie counting provides. It also provided me with an education. Wanting to get the very most from my calorie budget - satiety wise and volume wise, my choices became very good. Lots of low fat proteins, enormous egg white omlettes with sauteed veggies, chinese inspired stir fries, chicken marsala, roasted pecan salmon, maple glazed salmon, tiliapia with tomatoes, vegetable fritattas, incredible and interesting salads, using mango, mandarin oranges, peaches, red cabbage, baby spinach, hearts of palm,etc, phenomenal roasted veggies of all sorts, filling tasty soups, hearty chilis.
So I say, kick it up a notch, put forth the effort, because it IS worth it, by a LOT - yes, journal your foods, count those calories, tweak your foods - and live the life you've always dreamed of. It's right within your reach. Stop wondering if you can get into those 140's and make a PLAN to get into them.
I was stuck in the 160s foooorrrr...8 months. Yep. 8 *bleeping* months. It drove me insane. I lose weight very slowly anyway, but 8 months was just too much. Especially when BMI says I'm "normal" at 159. I know it's not really an accurate measure of what normal is, but it was a psychological block. It drove me nuts.
I didn't do anything special. I just kinda...ignored it after a while. I kept working out (mixing it up occasionally) and I ate the same way I had been eating. It happened, finally, and I did my happy dance right there in the bathroom.
So maybe you just need to be consistent and follow your plan (ie: be conscious of making sure you are making good choices 90% of the time) and look for different ways of exercising that might interest you. Your body could "like" 160, but if you give it some time it might learn to "like" 159. Another thing, you probably look great, so it wouldn't be a tragedy if you got stuck at 160. I think that was kinda my mentality. If I was stuck in the low 160s and I just never got passed that...well it wouldn't be ideal but I was relatively happy with how I looked. I think once I accepted that I just felt better about everything and I stopped being so focused on what the middle number said. It's probably more of a mental block than anything.
I'm suuuuuure you'll kick the 160s, it's just a question of when. Good luck.
Always stuck at 160! rarrr!
As for eating, I just try to eat as healthy as possible...kind of the initutive eating plan.
I lost 50lbs of baby weight and pigged out while breastfeeding it was awesome!
