I’m Baaaaaaaaack.

I haven’t been around these parts in so long I had to reset my password, friends. I, of course, have nothing to apologize for, having a newborn is no joke. I had to wait til about yesterday for my baby boy to finally mature enough to handle more of his naps in a swing or bassinet instead of on my chest all day. This has led to things like making dinner, catching up on emails and sitting at a coffee shop for a few hours now that the sitter is getting to know him a few days a week. Pause: newborn baby pic!

Next week, I go back to work. I’m feeling like most mamas do around this time: saaaaaad. I wish I could stay home longer, I really do but that would mean missing out on a couple of paychecks and gosh darn it, I like paying my bills!

Last friday, I went in to get my post partum stats taken for the MomFit research study I am in. They had me fast, took blood, checked my blood sugar, weight, blood pressure and they even had me slip into this sexy speedo and swim cap to sit in a body pod.

 

My sexy body pod pic

In a year, they will have me do all of this again and let me know my results. I’ll receive nutritional coaching once a month and I have to log my food and activity into Lose It 3 times a week and the rest is up to me. Although I’m 8 weeks postpartum and was cleared for all activity 2 weeks ago, I have not really done anything healthful just yet. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going too crazy on junky food. In fact, I still pretty much only eat 3 times a day because I almost never have a free hand to eat more! 2 of those meals are usually with my partner so he can take the baby while I scarf my food down just in time to take said baby back and calm/nurse/change/hold him because in our house I’m the cry whisperer. And mancakes is the baby poo whisperer in case you needed to know that (the baby poops as soon as he comes home, everyday, almost like clockwork).

So calorie-wise, I actually think I’m below what I need to eat as a breast-feeding mama. I’ve lost all my baby weight plus a couple of extra pounds. I’m by no means starving, my portions are pretty out of control to make up for the gaps between meals but still, I’m happy to say that I’m back to my pre-pregnancy weight which means I can start my unfluffing right where I left off!

It’s funny, I feel like I really am starting all over again. I will have to revamp how I eat, think strategically about my workouts and plan ahead for my new goals. I’m on the fence as to whether or not I’d like to join Weight Watchers again. I frankly don’t feel like paying for the membership and since I’ll be coached by the research study anyway, I think I may strike out on my own this time to get these last 45ish pounds off.

So here’s what I’m thinking:

– Kick off my weight loss with a bang by joining Brooke Not On a Diet’s Birthday Bash DietBet! The pot is over $3,000 and if I lose 4% of my body weight in 4 weeks, I get to split the pot with the other winners! I think this is a great way to jump-start my motivation and start hacking away at my weight once again. Ever done a dietbet? I hosted one last year, it was a lot of fun! You should join me, if you do, let me know!

– Start Couch to 5K again. I haven’t gone for a run in FOREVER. Really. I pretty much set aside my running shoes after my sad attempt at a 10K when I was 14 weeks pregnant. From there I gradually weaned off of regularly working out altogether and I’m sure if I were to go for a run today, I’d be back to a 15 minute mile (I was down to a 11-12 minute mile pre-pregnancy). It’s hotter than a mo outside so I think I’ll do this at the gym at work during my lunch hours.

– Say goodbye to dessert! I’ve pretty much had dessert everyday since the last trimester of my pregnancy. The best thing about breast-feeding is that in the beginning, as your body is working hard to establish a milk supply, you can burn up to an extra 500 calories a day. You SHOULD BE EATING THESE EXTRA CALORIES TO KEEP UP and I’ve been doing so in the form of dessert. Yes, I know this isn’t a good thing. But I told myself that this maternity leave, I was going to focus on my happiness and my baby’s health and establishing his routine. 2 months later, my milk supply is AWESOME! and he’s pretty much sleeping through the night in the breast-fed-baby-way meaning: he wakes up every few hours, nurses in his sleep for literally 5 minutes and then drifts back off. This means we’re all getting more sleep nowadays and so my body and my milk supply is regulating which means my indulgences WILL catch up with me if I’m not careful. So the day I go back to work will be the day I cut that shit out.

– Be gentle with myself. I have a lifetime to lose the weight. I don’t have some arbitrary deadline for when I’d like these next 45 lbs gone, although, if I could do it by my 30th birthday, which is in exactly 1 year and 4 days (my birthday is June 24th), that would be amazing. 365 days to lose 45 lbs is a reasonable goal but mancakes and I want to have a third baby at some point so if I don’t get there by then, that’s ok too. What last year taught me was that I was CAPABLE of changing my life of which the effects happened to be losing weight and making healthful choices. Even though we as a family have slacked off a bit with this last pregnancy and new baby, our fridge is still full of lean meats, fruits, veggies and mostly whole foods. The junk food that has made its way back into our pantry NEVER gets finished anymore so even when we fall off the wagon, we get back on pretty quickly and pretty much forget we have oreos/pop tarts/chips etc. Seriously. I throw out half-eaten junk food all of the time, something that never happened pre-Project Unfluff. So the new habits have been established and are here to stay, it’s strengthening them again that needs to take priority once again.

So I think it’s safe to say that I’m back and ready to get into the game! And although I’ll be navigating this with an extra human under my care and will face days, maybe even weeks, when I might miss workouts and healthy meals, the Unfluffin’ mindset is back and I’m ready to see what lies ahead in this next chapter of PU. I hope you’ll join me once again!

Thank you for your patience, I’ll give my mami back to the fiblogging webosphere now.

❤ M. and Baby Dos!

P.S. To all my Fitbloggin’ friends: I REEEEALLY wish I could join you this year! I wish you all safe travels to Savannah and I hope you have a blast! Fingers crossed that I will join you next year!