Today marks exactly five months since the birth of my second child. I am amazed at how quickly those five months have gone and how quickly my newborn daughter turned into a laughing, squirming, and very interactive baby. Gone are the days of healing and chilling. Life has returned to normal swiftly and without warning.
It is rather difficult at this point in the post partum stage to recognize how my journey has progressed. All the signs of my pregnancy are pretty much gone aside from a few stretch marks and a few extra pounds that still remain. My clothes fit well again without being too tight and my abdominal muscles are stronger than before my pregnancy. Even though my workout routine plateaued nearly three weeks again, I have managed to change things up enough to confuse muscle memory and to shock my body into changing a little bit more. The last few pounds are still stubbornly holding onto my midsection. I still want to lose the last five to ten pounds. My grain intake has increased since the birth of my daughter which is probably not helping me lose those last sticky pounds. I have let my food journaling slide a bit too but I try to keep track of my calorie intake by spacing meals four hours apart. It is the evening snacking that gets me in trouble; over indulging on the healthy stuff is still overeating. To help counter this I am trying to not eat past nine in the evening (maybe I should switch it to eight at night…). My biggest and most persistent setback is awesome well made sweets. We have had lots of birthdays in our extended family and I, being the baker that I am, volunteered to make all the cakes/desserts for these celebrations. I need to turn my self control back on … one dessert once a week is not a problem; one every day is. My diet needs a little tweaking and my workouts need a little changing (again) but I am confident and determined to reach my post partum goals.