[M1m1cat]

Hello,
I just recently had a baby and am breast feeding. It seems like everyone has advice on what to do for the baby but not when it comes to the moms eating healthy. I have put on so much weight from unhealthy eating habits while pregnant and can't seem to lose anything. Every time I try to talk about it the responses are, "when he's older it'll be easier."
I can't just sit here gaining more weight waiting on him to get older. My husband has no problem dropping the weight he has gained because he has the ability to eat whatever and workout. When I try to talk to him about it he just tells me he doesn't know how to help.
When it comes to cooking, I don't have the time to cook every meal and snack. I don't know if I am just not using my time in the kitchen effectively or what. I feel like every meal I come up with that is healthy he is there telling me everything that's wrong with it.
Any time in the past when I tried losing weight, I always felt like I was alone because I never had any one to celebrate even the small victories with.

I need more help than ever finding motivation to better myself.

[Treasa]

Hello M1m1cat! I want to answer you as carefully as I can. I don't want to be offensive to anyone. How's that breastfeeding going? Personally, I found it completely draining. And my kids all nursed every hour to hour and a half, so not only was it draining, it also disrupted my sleep. If I let it. Which I did with my oldest, but then with the other kids, I supplemented (a lot) with bottles. After a bottle my kids would sleep anywhere from 3 to 5 hours. For me, combining breast and bottle was the best way. For me, the more I nursed, the more exhausted I got. The more exhausted I got, the more I craved and ate refined carbs to keep up my energy. The more refined carbs I ate, the fatter I got. Keep in mind that babies thrive most when their mommies are thriving. And if formula is what it takes for mommy to thrive, then I say bring on the formula.

You're also mentioning that your husband is not supportive of your weight loss efforts. I'm very sorry about that. First, keep in mind that you're dealing with post pregnancy hormones and his lack of support may not be as bad as you're currently perceiving. But it might be. And either way you need a plan to deal with what you're experiencing. If he's not happy with food you're making, then have him make a list of meals he likes (and make sure there's some takeout, or at least some frozen dinners on there) and just accept that you're going to have to make two separate dinners. I've got 5 kids in my house plus my husband and that means I usually have at least two or three different versions of dinner. My husband usually comes home late and eats one of 3 things - homemade chicken salad, Marie Callendar pot pie, or frozen pizza. He sometimes, but not always eats a salad (from a bag with grape tomatoes thrown on) with his dinner as well. For me, I'm low carb, so I usually have some meat and vegetable thing. Best case scenario, I can just add pasta or rice or rolls and feed the same thing to the kids. e.g. chicken broccoli alfredo for me but along with some pasta for the kids.

Good luck. You can get through this. And everything will look brighter once the baby is sleeping through the night. Your answer may be to wait to try to lose weight until you reach that point.