|
There’s no better feeling than knowing both the kids are soundly asleep as I plop down on the couch with the TV remote and a bowl of ice cream. Well, other than the feeling of zipping up those pre-pregnancy pants without having to suck in. Haven’t felt that feeling first-hand yet, but I imagine that would be a pretty good feeling.
It’s not like I have a ton of pre-pregnancy weight left to lose. Eight pounds to be exact. But getting into those pre-pregnancy pants is a lot farther away than eight pounds—I can tell you that right now. Things just aren’t the same in the mid-section region. If you’ve had kids, you know what I mean. And if you’ve had twins like I have, you really know what I mean. When you grow that fast and that big, things kinda… well, shift. At 35 weeks pregnant, I was measuring 41 weeks. All that belly has to go somewhere.
When you’re pregnant with twins or more, you are encouraged to eat, eat, eat. Not just by friends and family, but by the OB/GYN, the multiples class instructor, books on the subject, everyone. With a singleton pregnancy, experts recommend that you gain around 15-25 pounds. With a twin pregnancy, it is recommended that you gain around 35-45 pounds. Research shows that twins born of mothers who gained at least this much weight are healthier weights themselves at birth. As someone who has always loved food, I was obviously happy to oblige. It was for the sake of the babies! Wink, wink.
I gained 50 pounds with my twin pregnancy. The day I came home from the hospital—just four days after giving birth—I was already down 26 pounds in fluids. By the time the girls were five weeks old, I had lost all of the pregnancy weight. I attribute this to all the lactating and pumping I was doing, in addition to simply being so busy and exhausted (my husband and I were pretty much on our own, living so far away from family) that I wasn’t eating all that much.
I had never seen weight melt off of me that fast before. Every time I stepped on the scale I weighed less than the previous time, without even trying. I could see the year ahead of me: with the help of breastfeeding two babies and being too pre-occupied to eat more than I needed, I would get down to my goal weight. That was my big plan. Well, here I am a year later and I am unhappy to report that, as I said before, I am now eight pounds above pre-pregnancy.
I think that as I started to become a better mom of twins and get more efficient, I wasn’t always in “survival mode” as we say. Plus the babies got older and were less and less like the needy newborns they once were, demanding my attention nearly 24/7. They became better nappers, and I was getting a little more time to head to the fridge and pantry to find something to eat.
The other thing that happened was that as I got more and more sick of being stuck in the house all day, my escape would be to pack up the kids and get in the car and drive around town. This would also become my method when I had two cranky, tired babies on my hands. As we rode around town and they finally drifted to sleep, you can bet I kept on driving for as long as they would sleep, but not without a value meal from the McDonald’s drive-through or a milkshake from the Arby’s drive-through or a Frappuccino from the Starbucks drive-through, or whatever drive-through I happened to be in the mood for that day.
So, that’s how you gain weight while breastfeeding twins. I should have been eating enough for three, but I was eating enough for four or five. I’m not going to hate myself here because I know how hungry breastfeeding makes you, and those hormones and signals from the brain are there for a reason. Plus I know that I helped them gain weight like they needed to in their crucial first year. I did that. So instead of feeling depressed about my missed chance to use breastfeeding to my advantage and get down to my goal weight, I’m going to move on and do this the right way.
So here’s the cut-and-dry. I want to get down to the weight I was on my wedding day: 155. Even better would be 150. Can I go from 178 to 150? I know I can, so rather the question is Will I?
|
1943 kcal
|
Gras: 85,80g | Prot: 108,01g | Carb: 191,15g.
Colazione: cheese, bread, Eggs. Pranzo: cheerios, banana, tuna, pear. Cena: wendy's chicken pecan. Snacks/Altro: slim fast chocolate bar, slim fast chocolate shake, ranch dressing, ranch dressing, baby carrots, baby carrots. Di più...
|
|