I won the competition which was both exciting and sad. I was ecstatic that I won, I put in lots of hard work, but there were lots of other teachers who had more weight to lose and they could have easily beat me and should have. Either way the “biggest loser” competition was the motivation I needed to jump start my weight loss and get me in the habit of regular exercise. I did not stop exercising after the competition … I still had about ten more pounds to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Instead, I continued to exercise regularly, five to seven times a week for thirty minutes to an hour each session. I did, however, switch to more challenging cardio and toning workouts. My commitment to exercise almost daily continued because I not only wanted to stay in shape, but I also did not want to have as much difficulty with weight gain with my next pregnancy which would of course make losing the weight, hopefully, easier too. With my second pregnancy I had a plan, a goal, and focus. The end result of this pregnancy was going to be a healthy baby and a fit mommy. I wanted to put myself in the best possible situation for taking off the baby weight at the end of the nine months/thirty nine weeks. I exercised regularly throughout my entire pregnancy, I even exercised the day I went into labor, which put me in a great position for taking the weight off and getting back in shape. Out of the thirty two pounds that I gained during my pregnancy, I lost twenty by giving birth to my daughter, the placenta, and the amniotic fluid not to mention the re balancing of my own fluids and blood volume. While I did not seem to lose weight very quickly by breast feeding my son, I seem to be burning more calories (granted I am also eating much healthier this time around too) by breast feeding my daughter …
(To be continued …)