The Great Baby Weight!

I think your body gains what it is supposed to in order to grow a baby. I am not a fan of the limits that are set on how much one should gain, and as long as you are not overindulging in trash food, you are fine and healthy. When I was pregnant with Peanut, I gained A LOT of weight. I did have a few too many cookies and Doritos at the end, but mostly I ate well. I can clearly remember that I stopped looking at the scale after I had gained 50 pounds, so I gained more than that with her and I remember losing it all pretty quickly. This time around, I gained about 50 pounds, and felt good and exercised pretty much up to the birth itself. I definitely ate better, and had less swelling as an added benefit of a better diet. I know I would be curious, so I am going to keep track of how long it takes to take it all back off.

Pumpkin is 2 weeks old, and I have lost about half of the baby weight so far. I think about 16 pounds came off right when he was born, so the next 10 has been from nursing and whatnot since then. I did my first walk yesterday, and hope to get out walking at least a few times a week - we all need the fresh air and the dog needs a little Caesar (exercise, discipline, affection). I'm wanting to start doing some Pilates and yoga but I think I need to wait until my pelvis stops popping...

OK, so far, here is what I have found to work in getting rid of baby weight:

1 - Have a big baby! This is a great way to see progress on the scale. If the baby is big you can lose a whole bunch before you even get up to exercise!
2 - Nurse! This just takes whatever food you just ate and passes it right along to someone else in my book. Now mind you, you have to eat good food since you are feeding yourself and your progeny - no "crap food" is included in the pass along so you will get, literally, saddled with it.
3 - Cloth diaper! This makes you climb up and down stairs several times a day to do laundry so you get lots of exercise and keep poopy plastic diapers out of the landfill to boot.
4 - Chase a toddler! Said toddler can be yours or one on loan. Mine says "more run" and just goes most of the time. If I don't want her running of onto the golf course, I have no choice but to run.

Of course, I could go on for hours about how our society has a major issue because we are so fixated on weight and appearance and we need to cut new moms (and pretty much everyone) some slack... I'll save that for another day though.