A New Advenure

To be honest, it’s been far too long since I posted on here. I’ve been so wrapped up in Baby Mode that I haven’t had time for much else. My weight loss has slowed down tremendously because I took my daughter out of public school in early January, so I wasn’t walking anymore. Fortunately, spring is coming, and the snow will melt and we can resume our daily walks and then some. I plan on getting a family membership for myself and my kids, and my daughter is being homeschooled now. Once we get our Oak Meadow curriculum, I’ll be updating this about our progress at least once a month, possibly once a week. I’m also starting a small business which I’ll be updating on a different blog. I’ll continue to update this on my weight loss progress once it resumes.

Weigh-in for 9/29/14

When  went in to see my doctor, I was told that I weighed 185, and I still have 11 days to go. I have another appointment on October 7, and we’ll see where I’m at, at that point. It’s looking like I won’t be losing anymore weight, so I’m just going to stick with my original plan:

1. Induction until I get down to 153lbs.
2. OWL until I get down to 129lbs.
3. Pre-Maintenance until I get down to 110lbs.

All while slowly increasing my carb intake during each phase. Jon and I finally found a place to live, so we’ll be settling in to our new place while adjusting to our new baby. Once we’re settled in and the baby is old enough, I still plan on going to the gym. I’ll update the weight loss totals once I know how much I’ll weigh when I go into labor and after the baby is born. Hopefully I won’t gain too much more though. I’d rather not be at 190lbs with this one like I was with my daughter when she was born.

Planning for Post-Baby Weight Loss

36 weeks, 3 days. I have 3 weeks and 4 days left before the baby is due. Although I’m not yet considered Full Term (37-40 weeks), I’ve already been experiencing nasty contractions that have made me wonder if I’m going into labor. We’re still living in a motel room so we’re definitely not ready for the baby to come yet. The landlord who posted up the apartment that we applied for failed to tell us sooner that the house was filled with bed bugs and we’d rather not send our daughter to school with bed bugs. It’s also not a healthy situation for a new baby. Plus, the tenants continued to take their time moving out of the apartment and waiting on them was too frustrating. Now we’re on the lookout for a new place. We’re looking at a cute 2 bedroom house that’s close to Selene’s school but we need to send in our application with our holding fee first. That’s the quicky update on our lives thus far. Now to get to the real reason behind this blog entry.

I weighed 182lbs before I got pregnant. I was actually down from my original weight of 190 by the time I got pregnant. I lost that following the Atkins diet, which I plan on getting back on as soon as I can. I’ve noticed that my baby is moving less and less every day so I’ve incorporated a glass of orange juice into my breakfast routine to get the baby to move. I need at least 10 movements in the span of 2 hours. With the orange juice I get that in 10 minutes. Without, I hardly get any movement at all. I’ve been slowly increasing my carb count to get my doctors off my back as well. I was still doing low carb when I found out I was pregnant as well as exercising 3 times a week, and I ended up losing 10 lbs at the beginning of my pregnancy. I’ve gained some back, but I still haven’t hit my pre-pregnancy weight. At my last prenatal appointment, I weighed 178.8lbs. I can usually maintain my weight at 178-180 no matter what I eat. My baby makes my metabolism really fast. That being said, birth ends up losing you about 20lbs, even if the baby itself only weighs about 8lbs. You end up losing more if the baby is bigger. Even if I go past my pre-pregnancy weight in the next 3 or so weeks, I’m guessing I’ll be at least 15lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight. I’m guessing I’ll lose between 15 and 20lbs when this baby is born, putting me between 163 and 158. That’s if I maintain the 178lbs that I weigh now. I don’t think I’ll actually gain more than 3 lbs more than my pre-pregnancy weight, so that would put me at 185 when the baby is born. If I do only gain that much, losing 15lbs would put me at 170, and losing 20 pounds would put me at 165. So I would be between 170 and 165 by the time this baby is born if I look at it from that angle. I’m going to just do the math from my weight now and assume I lose 20lbs. So for the purpose of this blog post, we’re going to assume that I’ll weigh 158lbs after this baby is born. My long term goal is to get down to 110lbs and maintain my weight between 110 and 113. This puts me at a weight loss goal if 48lbs.

I’m going to stick with my original goals for Atkins and just use the updated weight measurements.

1. I’m going to drop my carb intake to about 25g of NET carbs (total-fiber-sugar alcohols) and stay on Induction until I lose 10% of my weight loss goal. This means that before I move onto the OWL phase, I’ll lose 4.8lbs before I can move onto the OWL phase. We’ll round it up to 5lbs for the purpose of this plan. Although, 5lbs is extremely easy to lose. I’ll be weighing myself every Sunday if I can, so depending on how long it takes to lose the 5lbs, I might just stay on Induction for the original 2 weeks that the plan requires. If it takes 2 weeks to lose 5lbs (not likely), then it’s fine. But if it only takes a few days, I’m staying on the plan for 2 weeks. PLUS I’ll be breastfeeding. I lost 5 pant sizes by breastfeeding Selene for 4 months and not controlling my diet, or exercising more than walking to and from the grocery store (then I gained it all back). It might only take me a couple of days to lose that 5lbs because of the breastfeeding. Regardless, I should weigh at least 153lbs before I allow myself to move onto Phase 2 of Atkins.

2. I’ll move onto Phase 2, Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL), assuming I’ll weigh 43lbs. I’ll be staying in the OWL phase until I lose 50% of my goal. In Phase 2, you slowly increase your carb count by 5g at the beginning of each week until you start to gain weight. When you start to gain, you cut your carbs back down by 5 and that is the magical number that you keep to until you move onto Phase 3. Now keeping in mind that my weight loss goal is 48lbs, 50% of that would be 24lbs. 24lbs puts me at a total of 129lbs before I’m allowed to move on to Phase 3. But again, since I’m also breastfeeding, the likelihood of this taking a long time to lose is pretty low.

3. Moving onto Phase 3, Pre-Maintenance. PM is the final stretch. You work on losing the last of your weight and finding your total carb limit. In PM, you increase your carb tolerance by 10 each week until you start to gain, then you cut it back. You keep this up throughout the PM phase as you lose the last of your weight. In my case, the final stretch is 19lbs. Once I’ve figured out my CCL (Critical Carb Limit), that’s the number that I’ll continue to stick with throughout the Maintenance phase. It should be noted, however, that Phase 4 is not a REAL phase. No matter what diet change you make, it needs to be a lifestyle change. Therefore Phase 3 is really the last actual Phase of the Atkins plan, as “Phase 4” never ends. Phase 4 is just maintaining your weight for basically the rest of your life. Chances are, since I’m breastfeeding, my CCL will be much higher than normal, otherwise I’ll keep losing weight. Once the baby begins breastfeeding less, my CCL will also go down, otherwise I’ll gain too much weight. So adjusting my CCL is really going to be an on-going process for me. I’ll be in Phase 3 until I hit 110lbs.

This is all assuming that I’m only losing the weight by dieting and breastfeeding, but I’m not. After a baby is born, they can’t get vaccinated until 6-8 weeks after birth, so it’s really best to keep the baby indoors as much as possible during those first few weeks because getting something as simple as a cold could put the baby in Intensive Care until they get vaccinated. A baby’s immune system is extremely compromised and since my baby will be born in the fall, the weather will be colder, and cold weather will also compromise the immune system. Fall and Winter babies are more prone to getting sick because of this. Plus, the baby will be born during flu season. 3 times the suckage. Once the baby and I go in for our 6 week check-ups, we’re going to stay at home and wait for the vaccinations to do their job for the next couple of weeks, then I’m going to get a YMCA membership. The YMCA here in Battle Creek allows children as young as 6 weeks old to go into their childcare program. By the time the baby is 2 months old, she/he should have some semblance of a routine. Plus, by the time 2 months roll around, the baby will be used to breastfeeding and I can start bringing bottles of breastmilk to the gym with me without worrying about nipple confusion. I’m sure Jon will be happy about that too because he wants to be able to feed the baby on his own. Once 2 months rolls around, he’ll be able to do that. We agreed on exclusive breastfeeding until then.

Since it’s going to be snowing in December, I’ll be going to the gym to do the majority of my workouts. My long term goal for workouts is to be able to run the Camp Pendleton Mud Run in California in 3 years. Why 3 years? Because it gives me time to scrimp and save whatever I possibly can to get 3 plane tickets to California to even attend the event. Also, by then the baby will be 3 years old and more than independent enough to come with me on a plane to California. Jon will most likely be staying here, so my bestie is going to drive from San Bernardino to Camp Pendleton to babysit for me while I do the run/obstacle course. In the meantime I’m most likely going to be joining local marathons to practice for it. So my short term goals for workouts are these:

1. I want to be able to run 1 mile without stopping and walking by March 14, 2015. This will give me enough time to begin building up my endurance for future goals.

2. I want to be able to run a mile in 7 minutes or less and not stop to walk or catch my breath. I want to be able to achieve this by April 1, 2015.

3. By June 1, 2015, I want to be able to run 2 miles without having to stop to walk or catch my breath.

4. By July 1, 2105, I want to be able to be able to run 2 miles in 14 minutes or less without having to stop to walk or catch my breath.

5. I will be doing all of my running on a treadmill until the weather warms up. I will be doing cardio 3 times/week at the gym.

6. I will be doing all of strength training at the gym . I will be doing strength training 2 times/week.

7. I will be doing core exercises 1 time/week in the form of either Pilates or Yoga. I have workout videos so I can do this either at the YMCA, or by staying at home and working out.

8. I will buy a Pedometer and take 10,000 steps/day. This is going to take time to work up to.

This is where my goals begin to take on more detail. By the time July rolls around my baby will be 9 months old, and old enough to take on bicycle rides. It’s also when I plan on deviating from the gym to exercising outdoors. It’s easy to run on a treadmill without stopping to walk, but exercising on a treadmill is a lot different than it is to run outdoors. By now I’ll have a Pedometer to keep track of my footsteps. I’ll spend the first 2 weeks of July making sure I can still meet my mile goals. If I can’t, I’ll work on it until I can. As soon as I make my goals, I will begin using this workout routine for training for a 5k Marathon:

http://www.total-workout-routines.com/Mud-Run-Training-5K-Beginner-Week-1.html

I’ll be loosely following this routine because I’ll also be incorporating cycling into my weekly routine, even if it’s only once or twice a week. But I can work out the specifics when the time comes.

With all of the exercise I’ll be doing, plus the dieting and breastfeeding, I should lose that 48lbs in no time flat. I might stick with this goals page even if I end up weighing more than 158lbs after the baby is born, since chances are, I’ll be losing more than 5lbs during Induction either way. Toning is also a big thing with me, so it’s definitely something I want to work on, as well as weight loss, and I’m hoping these goals will do that for me.