How I Lost the Baby Weight

This my true story on how I lost over 60lbs....

My first pregnancy was a great one. Overall my little girl was good to me, no morning sickness, no heartburn, no crazy hormones, and no being plugged up (it's a pregnancy thing). The only thing that wasn't so great was that I gained over 40lbs and in ALL the wrong places. At 5'6 I weighed in at a whopping 172lbs at the end of my pregnancy. I have never weighed so much in my life!! And let's face it...I felt like poop. Tired, irritable, self conscious, and even a little depressed. 

2 weeks before I had my daughter.

Now, at the beginning of my pregnancy I was weighing in at 130lbs. I was still in shape, exercised, and ate (somewhat) healthy. But I had just got married, I liked my Miller Lite, and I made excuses. So I was 15 lbs heavier than my usual 115 lb totally in shape self. OH WELL! My pregnancy diet consisted mostly of pancakes, chicken, pancakes, pork, and more pancakes (I could not stand the smell of beef). So you can very well see where all the weight came from. And yes...Now, my daughter is a princess of pancakes who has barrels of sugar free maple syrup at her disposal... And hates red meat or all things cow (even milk)...Crazy how that works right??

 Before my daughter at 130lbs. God I miss that tan...

And now the magical question...How did I lose the baby weight? Well first off I have to say that after you have a child you lose some of that weight automatically. 8lbs of baby plus another 2lbs or so of the placenta and other wonderful stuff that comes out during birth. So that's about 10lbs right off. Then if you are breast feeding (which I did for 2 months) your burning 500 calories a day. Which also helps lose all that weight!

I managed to lose around 20 pounds in the first couple of months after I had my daughter. Since I had a cesarean, I had to wait 8 weeks to get an okay from my doctor to start working out. That was probably the longest wait ever...

8 weeks post baby. 

Once I was given the okay, I got a very expensive membership at a popular local gym and had at it. I felt my hubby owed it to me to spend that $70 monthly fee. After all, I had created a child in my body for almost 9 months (in reality it's 10 months) and have been carrying all that extra weight that I was not used to carrying. I didn't need that fancy gym but at the time it was the only gym that offered the classes I was looking for. I'm a brat...

I didn't want to lift weights, I didn't want to run around on a track, and I seriously didn't want to feel like I was working out alone.  So what worked for me, was group exercise classes that contained a high/lo intensity cardio for stamina and worked out every muscle group to strengthen and tone my body. When I first started getting into my workout routine I literally sucked. And I don't mean like, "Oh man I'm out of shape!" This was like, "Seriously Amanda. You better not hurl in front of all these people." It was like someone had taken all the oxygen out of the air and my legs and arms were jello. Top that off with wanting throw my self into the pool and let myself slowly sink to the bottom in shame...I'm so hard on myself. But that's how I felt.

After 2 months of working hard.

This was my workout routine which worked for me:

-30 min of running on a treadmill (I tried to beat my distance everyday)
-45 min of high/lo cardio class
   *body combat
   *body pump
   *butts and guts
   *muscle power
-15 min break
-45 min of RPM (cycling class)

The gym I went to offered Les Mills classes. They were great classes with great instructors and I felt I really got the most out of them. They offered something for everyone. 

Another thing that helped me was my diet. You didn't think you could work out and not eat right too, did you?? I did something I never had tried before. I counted calories...I made sure what I ate throughout the week was less than what I burned off at the gym. So really I was burning more calories than what I ate. Does that make sense? If not, shoot me an e-mail and I'll explain more of my diet in detail.

So, after just 2 months or so of working out 2 hrs a day, 5 days a week, AND burning more calories than what I took in, I lost all my baby weight plus another 20 lbs. Some of you might ask, "2 months?! Well what supplements did you take???" The ONLY thing I took to help me get through those 2 hrs was Noxipro. It is a pre-workout that gives you tons of energy to get you through your workouts. You can pour in your bottled water and makes you feel like the Hulk..Literally. I felt like I could punch through walls and run around the United States 10 times non stop. I think there are tablets too but I just took the powdered form. I didn't stack it with anything and I didn't need to either. I think I would have proclaimed world domination if I did!

It is NOT like riding a bicycle. There is absolutely NO easy way to get started back into working out after having a child (Unless you are a dedicated athlete and that is what you do every day of your life. I'm not.). You just have to push through it, fight it, and want it.....It. Was. Hard.  I thank my husband soooo much for giving me alittle over 2 hrs each day to reach my goals. As soon as he came home from work he took care of our daughter.  He knew how much it meant to me to get into shape and to feel good about myself again. And I did and I still do :)

Photo courtesy of Jason David Page.