Getting Your Body Back After Pregnancy

Hi Everyone!

Today I wanted to talk about how my body has changed with my pregnancy and the birth of my twins, as well as my plans for getting back to my old self, at least from a physical perspective. Also at the end of this post is some advice for others going through this, based on what's worked for me.

Before all my fertility treatments, I was 5'7", 140 lbs, size 6. I was athletic, mostly Bikram yoga and hiking/backpacking, and in the winter snowboarding several days a week. I also ate pretty well, aside from the occasional fast food meal. 

All the drugs associated with 4 IVFs and 1 FET, plus an 11.5 week pregnancy did a number on my body, plus me pulling back on exercise in an attempt to do everything I could to get/stay pregnant. By the time I got pregnant last summer, I was up to 155 lbs and not exercising much beyond very gentle walking. I walked for the first part of my pregnancy, but was very sedentary towards the end. I ate pretty well, especially the second half of my pregnancy, when I had gestational diabetes. By the time I delivered at 36 weeks, I weighed 202 lbs (eek!). So, 47 lbs gained from my weight at the FET, but 62 lbs more than my normal weight.

The good news is I've already lost 45 lbs, so I'm ALMOST back to my weight at the FET (I'm 157 lbs today, 6 weeks after giving birth). I am breastfeeding, but I'm not eating very carefully, and not exercising other than walking. I'm so happy with this weight loss, athough I definitely want to get back to 140 lbs...now that I'm 6 weeks out and not in recovery mode I plan to start exercising more (my husband and mom both said they'll stay with the kids while I go hiking and/or to a yoga class or two) and eat a little better (fewer desserts and fast food runs...sleep deprivation and the business of twins has had an impact on my normally healthy eating habits), although I'm not going to diet per se at this point. I'm giving myself 6 months from the birth to reach my weight goal, although of course I hope it happens sooner. I've also heard it's hard to lose the last few pounds while breastfeeding, so we'll see.

As far as other changes to my body:

• My breasts got HUGE with the rounds of IVF...I went from a 34 B to now a 38 DD. Not sure what size they will end up since the increase doesn't seem to be associated with pregnancy/breastfeeding but instead the IVF drugs
• I had really dark linea negra lines both above and below my belly button, as well as a dark circular mark to the side (like a thumbprint). These are supposed to go away, but they haven't yet
• My whole belly is dark, like I've been out in the sun. Did anyone else have this happen? Does it go away?
• There's definitely fat in my belly area that I need to lose, but my skin seems pretty elastic...there's no sagging or lose skin like I was led to believe might happen
• I made it through with no stretch marks, amazingly. I think it's just my genes vs anything I did...my mom never got stretch marks, either. I did use Mama Bee Belly Butter throughout my pregnancy
• During my pregnancy, my freckles became very pronounced, and a small red birthmark I have on my hairline that's usually flat became bigger and red and blue and raised...all that is back to normal now
• I never felt like I had great hair while pregnant, like they talk about, but I feel like I do now. Weird that it happened after the fact. I'll be sad when I start to lose it
• My gums bled like crazy during pregnancy, but not anymore

So, advice I can offer based on my experience:

1. Don't freak out about gaining weight while pregnant, especially if you are eating good foods and not junk
2. While pregnant, follow the gestational diabetes diet if you can. I did it because I had to, but I think it kept me from gaining too much weight and has made weight loss easier. Basically, it's eating 6 small meals a day vs 3 large ones, limiting portion sizes of foods high in carbohydrates, eating both carbs and protein at every meal, and really minimizing sweets and other high-sugar foods
3. I used the Belly Bandit BFF for a couple weeks right after delivery...and I can't say for sure it made a difference because I have nothing to compare it to, but my tummy flattened out really fast 
4. Breastfeed
5. Buy yourself some things for the interim period. Something that's helped me tremendously as far as not hating the way my body is right now (and I've done a pretty good job of embracing the changes, not feeling terrible about them) is my husband sending me out to buy some clothes. A few weeks after the birth, I was still wearing maternity things, which were big and I hate all my maternity clothes at this point and I was feeling so frumpy, but none of my normal clothes fit. So I bought some cute (and relatively inexpensive, since I don't plan on wearing them for too long) jeans and tank tops and T-shirts I can wear while I lose the remaining weight. Oh and some cute lacy nursing bras and panties, too. :)

Anyone else have some tips on getting back into shape after pregnancy and/or how to love and not hate this period? Would love to hear...

XOXO

Getting Healthy for IVF

Wheat grass shots: my latest obsession.

Hi Everyone!

So I've been thinking a lot about what I can do to get as healthy as I can for my upcoming IVF procedure (FET in July). As many of you know, I've just recently come off being pregnant for three months, and after that I have just felt like my body was incredibly depleted (especially because I had such bad morning sickness and ate like crap for most of that time...well, it wasn't like I was eating Oreos 24/7, but bread and cheese and bean burritos were just about all I wanted. And popsicles. I had a huge aversion to vegetables, but my mom made me lots of vegetable soups, which I could stomach, so maybe I didn't do too bad).

The other thing is I gained about 15 pounds with my last round of IVF and the pregnancy. I've lost a little of it, but not nearly as much as I would like...would like to get back to as close to my normal weight as possible before starting all this up again, but that is secondary to getting my body healthy and strong.

I've been reading a book called The Fertile Female, which I'm not sure whether or not to recommend. I tried reading it about six months ago and couldn't get into it. Picked it up again after my miscarriage and am doing better with it, but still haven't finished it. But there is one piece of advice in there that I really like and have been thinking about a lot. The author says that there's no one-size-fits-all prescription for getting your body in the best place possible for a baby; rather, if you listen to your body and what feels right to you, you'll know what to do.

My big thing in trying to figure out what's important for me to incorporate and what's not has been time. I wish I didn't have a job and other obligations and could make getting healthy a full-time job...go see all sorts of alternative healing practitioners, go to yoga and hike every day, meditate, visualize, cook orgainc meals from scratch breakfast, lunch and dinner, etc. But working full time and with all the traveling I'm going to be doing, that's just not realistic. I only have so many hours a day I can devote to this, you know?

That said, here's what I'm making a priority:

Diet

• My big goal is to replenish my body, and key to that is eating as healthily as possible. Vegetables and fruits and meats, as much of it organic as possible. Eggs. When I do grains I'm trying to do whole grains.
• NO sugar, NO white flour, as few processed foods (eg foods that come in a box) as possible (well, I am allowing myself one small dessert once a week. That mini Blizzard I had last night was YUMMY)
• No caffeine (mostly because it's really painful for me to withdraw from it, so I figured since I was off it from being pregnant, I may as well stay off)
• A vegetable bag a day. They used to sell these at one of the delis down the street from my old office in San Francisco; now I make my own. Essentially what it is is when I go to the store I buy a ton of extra fruits and veggies, wash them all, and divide them evenly into 7 bags for the week. So in a given bag I may have an apple, a carrot or two, a handful of sugar snap peas, a handful of tomatoes, a few radishes, a pepper (which I cut up the day of), a piece of celery. The bags are different every week. I just snack on the vegetables raw. That way I know I'm getting enough of them
• Wheat grass shots. Supposed to be extremely nutritious and there's a little shop that makes them just a few minutes away. I figure they can't hurt
• A little bit of wine. I don't drink a lot, but a glass of wine with dinner is such a nice little luxury. I've been on the fence over whether to cut out alcohol completely...and I will do so as soon as my actual cycle starts, no question, but for now I've decided that the treat and relaxation benefits of a glass of wine win out 

 Exercise

• Bikram (hot) yoga is my major thing at the moment. I essentially did nothing but short easy walks the whole time I was pregnant, and it's so good to get my body feeling strong and flexible again. I'm trying to go 6 days a week, although I'm going to have to be flexible with the traveling we're doing and just do my best
• The other thing I'd love to do every day is hike...I think the cardio is so good for me (and will certainly help me lose the weight I'm trying to lose), and being out in the fresh air and sunshine I think is great for me as well. But I don't have time to hike AND do yoga every day, so my goal is two hikes a week (and good long ones when I go...1-2 hours each)

 Other

• I think massage is so healthy and relaxing for me, and have been trying to go once every other week
• There's a chiropractor that my yoga teacher recommended that I'd love to get to go see...
• I've been trying to meditate, even for just a few minutes every morning, but I'm so terrible about it. Need to keep trying...
• Generally trying to get enough sleep, spend time with friends and family, and relax and have fun and be happy. When I got pregnant this winter was shortly after an extended vacation, and I have the suspicion that being relaxed from that helped (and am trying to duplicate that feeling with some trips this summer). Also, I went to an acupuncturist last summer who told me the reason I wasn't getting pregnant is that I wasn't happy enough, and while I was really bothered by that assessment, it's still on my mind, and it doesn't hurt to try my best to be happy. I'm feeling a lot better (happier) than I was last summer overall, anyway, so maybe this summer's my time...

Would love to hear what others are doing (or skipping) along these lines...

XO

{Image credit: James Cridland.}