FAT Friday: Goals

I'm linking up with Ginger over at (not)Just Another Mom of Twins for her F.A.T Friday series. 

 First things first.  1.6 gain on the scale this week. I didn't really expect to lose. We were out of town for the weekend. I didn't practice great self control  and I didn't really do great for the rest of the week. But I didn't lose control so I am surprised to have gained.

Additionally, for reasons I haven't figured out, my milk supply has dropped drastically this week. I went from  pumping well over 20 oz in 3 pumps during the day to struggling to get 15 oz and a baby who is getting frustrated at the breast. That basically happened overnight. It is distressing for a number of reasons, including the fact that I'm not benefitting from as many milk making calories.  I'm trying to fix it though and counting calories may have to go on hold until that situation is resolved.

So. May.

                       May 1                                                     June 1

Weight          229                                                         226.2
Waist            38.25                                                      37.75
Most recent run: 1.74 miles in 30 minutes                 2.69 miles in 35 minutes


I am pretty disappointed underwhelmed with my results from the month. I'll admit I have half-assed it, but still at my weight, with breastfeeding and it being the beginning of focused efforts, I thought I would drop more pretty easily. Like I have in the past. In the past though, I guess I have been able to get a lot more exercise in.  How sad is it that I have re-started enough times to know how it should go.

Oh well, June is a new month and I am going to try to really tighten up my eating.

But I did make big strides in running. I'm on week 7 of the C25K program and currently running 25 straight minutes. My fitness is improving even if my weight isn't plummeting.


F.A.T. Friday topic for this week:
Do you set short term and/or long term goals? Are they visual?  Do you "allow" yourself a reward for reaching a goal?  Have you reached a goal recently?  Please share!

Ahh, the answer to this question can be best answered by viewing one of my beloved spread sheets. Spreadsheets are my not so secret lover. 

 So yes, I do set short and long term goals. If you don't have a goal, how do you know what you are working toward? And I do reward myself, though I don't set my reward too far in advance because what I want can change drastically over the course of a few months. As you can see i have my goals broken down into stages. The first stage is to lose the weight, I gained with my second pregnancy, stage to is to lose the remaining weight from my first pregnancy and so on. 

What I don't do is put time limits on my goals. I'll never put a goal of "losing 15 pounds by June 21". Adding a deadline to weight loss goals only adds another way to fail. A way to fail  even if you have succeeded.  If I only lose 13 pounds by June 21, I could easily get down on myself for not meeting my goal even though I should be celebrating losing 13 pounds.  So goals? Yes! Deadlines? No! 

On to June and hoping I can get it together this month. 

Fat Friday: Getting into the groove

I am now  just over 1 week into being back on track. That's not a long time but it is something. Sometimes just getting through those first few days is a huge hurdle.

I hope I have found a calorie range that will let me lose weight and maintain a good milk supply for nursing my little guy. You would think it would be easy to lose weight when nursing such a big baby but it is so easy (for me, especially) to overeat when I am not tracking. I weigh everyday and honestly nothing is happening yet. I am sticking with it though. I don't feel like I can eat less and still maintain my milk. Unfortunately for my weight loss goals, nursing Landry is priority one. I am determined to get back in shape though. I do not want to be a fat mom.

Going back to work this week has been good dietarily speaking. I have not reached for chocolate when I was missing my baby (and oh, I have missed my baby). I really didn't know how things would go but I even managed to get in a day of C25K training in during lunch on Wednesday. I am going to try to get another run during lunch today.

I've joined The Last Mommy Standing challenge on the Mommy to Wowwy team on SparkPeople (YARAC211) and it is proving to be a good motivator. We weigh in every week and as long as you lose or maintain you are still in the game. I am determined not to go out early. Healthy competition is good for me, even if I am the only one paying attention to it.

Post-partum faves

Ahhh, the post-partum period. Is there ever a time when you feel more beautiful? Not only do you have liquids leaking out of multiple parts of your body, you also tend to be covered in the body fluids of another, smaller, human being. If that weren't enough your body has the consistency of the StayPuff Marshmallow Man and you get suffer from sleep deprivation. Oh, and you may be in some pain.

These are a few of the things that I have found that made this postpartum time a little less gross than my first time around. 

Kickernappies Nursing Pads- I have tried both cloth and disposable cloth nursing pads and these are my absolute favorite. For starters, they are large so they cover a big area. This is a huge bonus in the middle of the night, in the dark, in a state of delirium when you are trying to get yourself together to go back to sleep. Smaller nursing pads that require more precise placement can be disasterous.

Second, they are stay dry. You do not want to deal with a cold, wet nursing pad. Trust me.

Finally, they absorb like a MoFo. This is a good thing, because you leak a lot. Which brings me to..

Milkies Milk Catchers- Oh how I wish I had had this thing the first time around. In those early days, when you nurse the baby on one side, the other spews like a open fire hydrant. This thing tucks inside your nursing bra and collects all that leakage to be used at a later date in a bottle. I have collected up to 2.5 ounces at a time in it. Any pumping mama knows that every ounce of milk is as precious as gold.

Mother Tucker Nursing Tank- At $80, this is an investment. But let me tell you when you are flabby and leaky and feeling very unpretty, having something that contains the flab is worth every dollar. This one works great and I love the pull over cups.It has an amazing ability to stretch and go over my hips while still being tight enough to suck in my tummy. Fabulous.


Woombie-This is not technically a post-partum item but as it helps your newborn sleep, I consider a post-partum essential. The Woombie is not like the standard swaddlers that bind the baby's arms to his side. Instead it is a stretchy "sleeve that you zip your baby into. He can still move his arms around but it is snug enough to keep the arms from flailing when the startle reflex hits.

Does he look hilarious in it? Yes! Does it work? Also, yes!

iPhone- For all those hours you spend nursing. One handed entertainment.