The Fourth Trimester:Month One

I think it was Karen who first introduced me to the phrase 'Fourth Trimester' in a comment she left. I've thought of how appropriate it is since I first heard it. We spend so much time preparing for the arrival of our children during trimesters 1, 2 and 3. There are doctor's appointments, books to read, conversations to have, names to pick, all kinds of decisions to make. Then the kid is born and we're back to living life, except life has totally changed. When Belle was born I just took each day one at a time and didn't really do any long term planning. I think that was a fine approach but it ended up with me not doing some things I would have liked to. The big one being that I was 30 lbs heavier than I wanted to be when I got pregnant with Brooklyn. I am determined not to have that happen again, and so I have spent a lot of time planning for the Fourth Trimester. I only started planning since Brooklyn was born, but there is that 6-8 week hiatus when one isn't supposed to work out, or have sex, or do anything overly strenuous and that leaves a lot of free time for thought and planning.

I wrote recently a post about The Uns and how I need to get rid of them. See I've never worked to lose weight before. I've never been all that petite, but I have this little abnormality in that I LOVE to work out. I find nothing more stress releasing than working out. And I have great metabolism as long as I keep the negative stress in my life in check. So, simply by intentionally moving every day I can do my body a lot of good.

The trick is that I have always had a gym membership before, or simply walked everywhere I wanted to go which is suprisingly good exercise. I love hopping on the eliptical and pushing myself to the limit for 45 minutes. I am proud of myself when I drip sweat, not when I glisten. I love it. So I started looking into gym memberships, and they are expensive. Or at least they seem expensive now as my priorities shift. I can't imagine forking out $40-$70 a month to work out.

And thus begins the journey of working out at home, which I think is the definition of torture. And all the discipline it takes to make that happen with two children under the age of two and a social life. I am also looking at going on a diet, (for the purpose of weight loss), for the first time ever, all the while making sure to remember that nursing mothers need 2,200 to 2,900 calories a day to feed the two lives she's supporting.

That's a lot to remember. I don't think I can do it in a half ass way and still see even semi positive results. So I have to get that discipline and motivation and all that jazz. I don't have a work out schedule yet, but I'm going to be doing Winsor Pilates and I'm looking at a stability ball DVD set that I've seen give great results, and intentional walking, (read without pushing a stroller or walking with a toddler), up hills and down hills and who knows maybe it will even turn into jogging!

It's going to be a journey that is new to me and I'll probably talk about it a lot on here. I'm sure no one really cares about my weight loss journey, but there's this tiny bit of me that thinks what if a teenager struggling with her body image is reading this, wouldn't it be great to have a real life example of what women who can't hire personal trainers to come to their home or personal dieticians or personal chefs do in order to maintain their femininity after they've stepped across the threshold that makes 'frumpy housewife' look so tempting!!

Hopefully the pictures will get better and better and you'll be able to see my progress. I'll post my goals after I get the green light from my doctor to get back on the bandwagon, (okay in reality after I make them!) and we'll see how many months this Fourth Trimester lasts. If you're on the same journey, let me know if I can encourage you in any way! I know that whenever I feel my progress has slowed down or even stopped I just have to look at these faces to remember how worth it this journey is to make sure I can see them get married, have babies and do this journey too!