So, when I put the question out there for subjects I should write about, someone commented that I should write about how I’ve stayed thin after three kids. So, I guess I’ll write about what I do, knowing that it wouldn’t work for everyone and knowing that I’ve been incredibly lucky with my metabolism/body type/discipline that I’ve been able to maintain a decent BMI throughout my first 36 years of life. Also, understanding that at any moment, all that could change and I could put on 100lbs over a year because of hormones or what not.
********** I am not a human nutritionist. Seek the advice of your physician before trying any of this.
So, in the beginning, I was a stick. No shape, just knobby knees and blonde hair. I was 5’8″ and around 130 throughout college. I always made it a point to go for a run at the intramural fields and during the ridiculously hot, humid summer in Athens, GA, I would ride my horse at daybreak for over an hour, then go for a run, then cut the grass or dig in the garden until I got chills and had trouble hearing. I’d go gorge on watermelon and water until my ears cleared up again. Then, vet school hit. Let me tell you something about vet school, you don’t move much. You sit in a classroom for 8 straight hours, then go directly home to study until midnight (because I believe in getting sleep to retain information), the only thing keeping your eyes open and brain somewhat working was constantly drinking or munching on something. This allowed me to gain a good 20 lb.
I was always in denial about my weight gain. I exercised – running 5-10 miles or biking 30 miles a day, I cut out all fat and ate TONS of fiber, I still couldn’t get it off. I have NEVER in my life had an issue, so I chalked it up to muscle and so forth. Then, I got pregnant with India and when I had gained another 25 lbs, my doctor said something to me about being overweight and I was shocked. I denied it at first and made him back track some, but later, after India was born and I lost all that weight and more, I was finally able to admit that I was probably overweight and needed to start being careful. Here are some “tips” that may or may not work for you, but seemed to work for me.
- When pregnant/breastfeeding, don’t eat for two. Maintain your normal diet before you got pregnant (unless, of course you were too thin) to help to keep the weight gain to a minimum. It’s super hard though, especially in that first trimester, at least for me when I constantly felt the need to vomit unless I was eating a simple carbohydrate (bread, crackers, candy). Advice for that is just to do what you have to do to get through it. Every pregnancy is different and every person is different, but don’t use the pregnancy as a reason to throw out all your normal rules/guidelines for your eating.
2. Breastfeed! – If you can at all breastfeed, even if you have to supplement with some formula, do this. This, of course, as long as you’re at a job where you can go to pump; not all jobs will cater to pumping breaks *evil eye stare*. Yes, breastfeeding is good for your baby, antibodies, blah, blah, blah, but it also can burn up to 600 calories PER DAY!! That’s equivalent to running a 10 minute mile for 6 miles everyday. Admittedly, I was only able to breastfeed Oscar for the entire suggested 1 year, but was unable to with India for more than 4 months before I dried up, and Calvin for only 9 months. Note: if you can’t breastfeed for WHATEVER reason, do NOT feel like a failure as a mother. No one can tell the difference between formula and breastfed people – except that my brother was breastfed his whole 12 months and I only got 2 months and was formula fed from there and he IS smarter than me. But, he also has asthma and I don’t. There’s all the proof you need.
3. The 2000 calorie per day recommendation on the back of every single nutrition facts is based on the raging metabolism of an 18 year-old male. So, unless you’re an 18 year-old male, or run 8 miles a day, try finding a calorie calculator and don’t be too shocked when it tells you you should only eat 1200 calories per day. Cry a little, it’s allowed.
4. Don’t count your exercising as negative calories. Yes, they are, but if you think “I went for a run today, I deserve an extra beer, ice cream, and a midnight bowl of cereal” you will be deceived. If you keep track at all of your calories burned via app, etc, a) always assume they’re lying to you and b) remember (and cry a little) when you remember you can run your butt off for 3 miles and would have barely covered a single serving of vanilla ice cream, which, devastatingly enough is only 1/2 cup (measuring cup, not Big Gulp). Try eating just 1/2 cup of ice cream.. go ahead. That’s what I thought. Exercising is fantastic for you, great for cardiovascular health and building moderate muscles will help support your joints, especially as you age, and secretly you can remind yourself that more muscle increases your metabolism, but don’t let your stomach in on that bit of knowledge.
5. Get familiar with food’s caloric content, but don’t obsess over it. Try keeping track of EVERYTHING you eat for a little while, but once you feel you have a general sense of caloric content – like eating out anywhere and ordering anything is a minimum of 1000 calories – you may be able to let it go. You may learn disturbing things like I did and all those harmless bite sized candy bars receptionists have at their desk or those insignificant donut holes actually add more to your end of day calories than the carefully calculated meals you obsessed over. When I used to keep a journal of my calories eaten, I would often just choose not to add those tiny insignificant calories and then when I saw that I had was negative 200 calories for the day, I would think “oh, good, now I can have ice cream” (remember that, literally, no one can just eat 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream WITHOUT the chocolate syrup, mini marshmallows, and rainbow sprinkles) – I write this while enjoying a piece of birthday cake (the good kind with buttercream frosting) and a cup of coffee cause everyone knows that birthday cakes don’t count.
6. Learn about the value of each food’s caloric content. Not all calories are created equal. I used to be extremely diligent about eating fat free foods as it was how I was raised with my mother constantly trying to lose weight and dieting. I even applied it to my daughter when she was born (and likely harmed her in some way, I’m sure) and fed her fat free cottage cheese and cringed at buying whole milk when she was a year old. Then, after I had Oscar, I took part in a self-care vetCE (continued education) where the speaker talked about the possible benefits of increasing the fat in your diet and decreasing the carbohydrates. I’m not talking about the keto diet – I have treated plenty of animals in the grips of ketoacidosis and do not recommend it – just decreasing the amount of carbs. In very simple terms, carbohydrates (sugars, breads, cereal grains) give you a “cheap high” – they make you feel good, but then less than an hour later, you’re starving again – a reason it baffles me how many diet snacks are carbohydrate based. Protein and fat, on the other hand will give you a nice slow burn (making sure you are not forbidden from increasing these in your diet by your doctor – my father cannot have almost ANY fat in his diet, including the “good fats”). You won’t feel immediately satisfied, but it will last so much longer. This is why a balanced diet is stressed by nutritionists. Being dramatically one way or the other can be harmful.
7. Really pay attention to your body and it’s responses to eating, drinking, and not eating or drinking. Feeling hungry and you shouldn’t be? Try drinking water, try to busy yourself with a task and tell yourself you’ll have a snack after it’s done. Feeling hungry and dizzy, probably want to eat something. Depriving yourself of all the good stuff all the time will just make you want to eat all the things after doing so well for so long (like 2 hours in my case if I tell myself not to eat something). After having dinner (try using small plates and only getting one small serving – you don’t have to feel miserably full to be full) if you’re truly craving some chocolate ice cream, have some, but make sure you’re REALLY craving it and not just “that sounds nice”. I know that I, personally, will just get into habits like having ice cream every night after dinner (the peer pressure from my husband doesn’t help) but that most of those times my appetite and craving center is actually quiet and content, but then I just eat the ice cream because it’s what we do after dinner. Or if I have a particularly stressful day at work, I’ll get home and enjoy some cheese balls and some red wine. Then a few days later, I’ll find that I’ve been doing that same thing every day since trying to re-create that amazing feeling of de-stressing that I had on the first day. By far, most of the time, I’m really not that stressed and don’t really want that drink, but do so out of habit. Stopping drinking with cheese balls and after dinner ice cream (we’re talking salted caramel with chocolate syrup, mini marshmallows, and rainbow sprinkles – and not no 1/2 cup neither!), I could save myself 5,300 calories a week! If I just didn’t have those little extras everyday, I could possibly lose 1.5 lbs per week! That’s never going to happen, but I could!
8. Finally, my best piece of advice: become such a worrier that you develop stomach pains every time you eat =) Just kidding, don’t do that. But, seriously, I wish I could say that I follow all these dieting tips and it keeps me looking like I do, but I know that I struggle with self discipline as much as the next person. So whether you consider me lucky, blessed, or cursed with anxiety and digestive issues, don’t get discouraged, and as Anne Sewell wrote “Do your best and leave the rest for it will all come right one day or night.” <3
