By Staff
In last week's article we looked at the downfalls parents have with keeping the weight off when they have children. It seems like after having children it is harder and harder to keep off the weight. Since I am always writing about easy ways to lose weight and keep it off, this week we are going to look at what I had to do to lose the weight after my second child and how well I have kept it off.
After my first child it did not seem too hard to shed off the weight. Now I am at the 30 mark when the metabolism starts to slow down and I gained a bit more weight with the second child. After child number two the shock of how I could not get my biggest pair of pants over my hips sunk in. I thought hard of what my options were. I could starve myself, workout excessively or cut out my carbs. Even though these choices sounded easy because of the quick weight loss and quick pay off it would give – those were not the best solutions. By picking one of those choices I might lose the weight quickly but I would not be able to keep it off because I would not be able to eat that way forever. I chose to pick a certain amount of calories to intake each day. Every time I ate I would write down every calorie I ate. It is amazing how fast you can eat all of your calories for the day. One bowl of cereal can easily add up to 400 calories. Add toast with peanut butter and a glass of orange juice to that and you are looking at almost half of most women's calories for the day.
As soon as I was able to, I began working out again. Nothing too crazy. I tried to walk or run for half an hour 4 to 5 days a week. If I could not get to the YMCA to workout then I would run up and down the stairs at my house, do push ups, dips and crunches. By three months it really paid off and I was back in shape. Do not get me wrong it was not easy and I would not want to have to go through it again. All the times I wrote how easy it can be to lose weight – that is not always the case – you have to really want it. I really wanted it and there were still times where it got hard and I wanted to give up and I only had 32 pounds to lose. If it were 100 pounds it would be a grueling process. I will tell you even though it seems grueling at times it is so worth it in the end.
People ask me if I gave up sweets to lose the weight – NO WAY! I am human too and I like to have sweets. I just have them in small portions. If someone were to ask me what it takes to lose weight – two words – DISCIPLINE and WANT!
So how am I doing over a year later? There are months were I put on a few extra pounds but for the most part I have stayed the same. I still find it hard at times to keep my weight down and I am very aware of the calories I intake everyday. I have found that it is very easy to get off track – and that is OK – just start again the next day. I find it harder now at 30 to keep my weight down than when I was 25. It is just the way of life and a fighting battle. I never deprive myself just stay disciplined on the amounts I eat and regular exercise!