I'm back and ready to lose! (very long re-intro)
Ok, well I can't remember what my name was from 2007. I was the archaeologist living in Peru. Some oldies may remember me as the person who was told to drink my pee as a way to lose weight.
In any case, at the time my highest was 217 and through calorie counting and tons of exercise I went down to 160 pounds in about 8 months. In Peru I went to this awful gym and did aerobics. When I returned to the states my routine was running 3 miles 4-5 times a week. Then riding my bike 4 miles to work, some days walking fields all day, riding the 4 miles back home and doing stretches at night. Three times a week I would lift on a 5 x 5 program (squats, overhead press, bench press, pull ups - or hanging for dear life -, and something else I can't remember, but I'm sure it was hard)My old fitday says that I maintained at around 160 for 2 months eating 1800 calories. I remember not being able to eat less or else I would get dizzy. I remember being completely discouraged at my inability to lose any less. Looking back, I think I needed to rest and refeed for 2 weeks and then get back at it.
In late 2008 I went to the doctor and weighed 155. I wore a size 8/10. Medium shirts. I would go into any store and find something that looked great on me. I look at pictures of myself back then, I really had great legs.
I was able to maintain around 160 until mid-2011, then a couple of things happened: I got pregnant, and then promptly got laid off. I was shaken, but not very afraid. We had savings and I had plenty of marketable skills, but I didn't want to return to archaeology because there was too much travel involved. I now had a child to think about. I started off the pregnancy as a vegetarian because meat would make me puke. My starting weight was 164.
I was able to find another job in another field but a routine sonogram showed that my baby's heart had stopped. It was the worst day of my life. I didn't care about my diet, I don't think I cared about anything else at all. Around that time I started eating fast food again.
My husband and I were desperate to get pregnant again, and in 2012 we succeeded. My starting weight for the pregnancy was 208 pounds. I had sworn to myself never to see a 2 in the beginning of my weight again, and I had failed. I developed gestational diabetes and another complication that left me on bedrest the last 8 weeks of my pregnancy. The day my son was born I weighed 240 pounds.
Now, for those who are not aware of this, there is an entire movement to get women to breastfeed. I was planning on doing it anyway, but the nurses in the hospital really drill it in to you. The lactation consultants I saw were just as militant. Two weeks after giving birth I was down to 220 pounds, but I was struggling to keep breastfeeding my son. I ate, and I ate, and I ate to keep up my supply. I had post-partum depression and had been prescribed Zoloft. I just kept on eating. Lactation cookies are freaking yummy and it's really easy to overdo it with them. I think I could easily eat more than a dozen of them a day.
4 months after the birth of my son I had a follow-up at the ob-gyn and I weighed 240 pounds. It was a wake up call for me. I demanded to be switched out of Zoloft to Wellbutrin and I slowly started to feed my son formula. So far he has not turned into a sickly, low IQ thug that I was led to believe that would happen if I fed him formula...
About a month ago I started feeling like myself again and I got the courage to step on a scale again. It said 232. I had been losing about 1 pound a week just from giving up breast feeding and Wellbutrin. A week ago I stepped on the scale again and it still said 232, so I decided to get serious about losing this extra weight. I have a really great wardrobe that is all in size 8/10. I want to fit in it again.
Sooooo, my current plan is to work on my diet. I dusted off my digital scale and I am counting calories again. I am really impressed with the mobile version of myfitnesspal. It really beats writing out my calories on paper and then going to the computer at the end of the day or week and entering my food.
Because a piece of bread is like an ambien to me I decided to lower my carbs. I'm shooting for 1500 calories because my exercise routine is still sporadic. I'm going to work on that after I re-figure out what works for me diet wise. I'm thinking to start with a 40/40/20 in terms of protein/fat/carbs but I'm not married to that. Today was the closest I got to that and I was about 33/33/34. I didn't feel that hungry today and it was nice enough to take baby out for 45 minute brisk(ish) walk.
I weighed myself this morning and I weighed 228. I spent about 2 hours lurking like a dirty lurker around this forum, the 100-pound club, and maintenance. There are many names that I recognize and some memorable ones that I guess are no longer active. I hope they are all beating the odds and maintaining.
3FC was my anchor when all I was given was bad weight loss advice (pee? really?) and being shamed for my weight. I hope you can have me back.
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and congratulations on your baby!
