Tag: postpartum

FITNESS UPDATE: MY POSTPARTUM WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY MARCH 2018

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This month has been an amazing month of testing my boundaries with eating chocolate (because Easter), starting a new fitness class, making friends (which might or might not have resulted in a day of cocktail drinking and a disgustingly delicious Italian pasta meal), and of course, a month of yet again wearing my lycra gym pants 5/7 days of the week because of the much-loved spandex benefits.

If you remember my brave decision as of last month to finally ditch the bloody scale because we weren’t really seeing eye to eye, then you’d have probably guessed that YES, I was of course close to a little pants piddle when tallying up my results from the last 30 days with my monthly weigh in and measurements. The main thoughts running through my mind were “Have you managed to pull this off?” and “Heavens above, please don’t let the scale defeat me”. Having not checked in on my results weekly as I normally would have kind of left me off track, not really knowing what to expect.

4th March vs 4th April

Although my results aren’t happening as fast as they once did before, I am reaping the rewards in other ways. I started this journey as a size 18 and have bought my first pair of size 16 jeans during the month of March. I also have a few items of clothing that I set as short term “goals” to fit into. These were mainly tops/coats that were too tight around my arms, but now fit. Yay!

One size down in my new jeans named after Harper! Yay!

MARCH’S WEIGHT LOSS TOTAL

Although, the scale says I have only lost 1.6kg this month, my measuring tape says otherwise, with a MUCH more positive attitude. I am 9.5cm down in total around my body for March.

TOTAL CM LOST AS OF 4 JANUARY TO 4 MARCH:

March has been a great month of movement as I have started an aerobics fitness class twice a week, followed by a bums and tums class straight afterwards. These classes burn an average of 850 calories twice a week, which KILLS me, being 1hr and 15min total, but it is so worth it and is a fun way to do cardio.

My daily goal at the moment is to burn 500 calories worth of exercise a day. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are weight training focused exercise days and Tuesday and Thursday are aerobics classes cardio.

I am going to start encouraging myself to be a little less lenient when it comes to weekend wine, as it is Robbie’s birthday next month and I’d like to wear something feminine and flowy and hopefully in a size smaller.

4th January (left) vs 4th April (right)

I’m looking forward to the next month of this journey, and hopefully a smaller Mycaila will be writing to you from behind the computer screen next month!

Keep those bottoms moving, heart rates up and calories down!

Until next time,

Mycaila – Jade

 

FITNESS UPDATE: MY POSTPARTUM WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY FEBRUARY 2018

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This month’s journey has been an interesting few weeks of trial and error, making space for room to grow (well not literally – we’re trying to shrink in size LOL).

I’ve been on this journey for EIGHT short WEEKS!  When I realised how long I have been on this journey, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad, thinking that I should have lost at least a minimum of 8kg this far. I had a pity party moment, sulked, might’ve eaten a Cadbury’s crème Egg (or I might not have), and read back over my progress chart to try and figure out where I have gone wrong.

And besides for the Cadbury’s Crème Egg, I realised that I hadn’t really gone wrong anywhere! I’m not going to pretend as though I’m a Positive Percy 25/7 (25 (not 24/7) because wannabe over achiever).

Thank heavens for the progress chart, because that ended my pity party very quickly. Although I have had a month of crazy toy – toying with my weight on the scale, my measurements have really fly kicked through what I thought were feelings of disappointment of thinking that I could do better. Only losing 1.6kg this month can send one into a state of such thought, especially after losing almost 5kg the month before.

January 4th 2018 to the left and March 4th 2018 to the right.

So, what’s going on? Why is the scale playing with my feelings like this?

First things first, anyone who is on a weight loss journey should know that the scale is NOT a true reflection of how your body has changed for MANY reasons – especially if you’re a lady, but more of that for another day.

I have always used the scale to measure my “success”, but have also let the number that reflects back at me control how I feel when it’s not what I want to see. For this reason, I have made a big decision going forward, which is to DITCH THE SCALE and my weekly weigh in and only go by measurements.

I’m doing this because for the last month of hopping on and off the scale every week, with minimal results and fluctuations more disastrous than the stock market, I have been second guessing my progress, feeling somewhat demotivated. I will be doing a casual weigh in once a month to keep myself in check and relying mostly on the progress of my monthly measurements results.

THIS MONTHS UPDATE

Although I have only lost 1.6kg, I have also lost a total of 13cm – which backs my decision even more to ditch the scale.

This brings my total weight loss over the last 8 weeks to 5.8kg with a total of 29.5cm lost all over. My measurements have gone done the most around my “mum pouch”. I have lost 11cm around that area so far, which makes my little heart very happy as this is a VERY difficult area to lose from and a total of 6.5cm around my waist.

January 4th 2018 to the left and March 4th 2018 to the right.

Throughout this month, I have also tried to put my fear aside of exercising my abdominals after my C section – and I have managed to do an abs session at least twice a week now. I can feel that this area is getting stronger, slowly but surely. Abs have always been one of my favourite exercises to do, which is now becoming more of a reality again since having Harps – and I AM SO FRIKKEN EXCITED!

January 4th 2018 to the left and March 4th 2018 to the right – Not the best look, but small victories count!

So, if you are on this journey too, and you feel like you are taking one step forward, and … you guessed it – 2 steps back, then try and find the denominator as to why this is. Mine was the scale which was tugging at my heart strings ever so viciously, but I’m hoping that this new strategy going forward will help change the mind-set to get where I (you) want to be.

Until next time,

Mycaila – Jade

xxx

 

FITNESS UPDATE: MY POSTPARTUM WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY JANUARY 2018

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It’s been an entire month since kicking my bottom into gear and getting stuck into my postpartum weight loss journey. I have started this journey at the heaviest that I have EVER been and feeling like a rather large sack of potatoes, weighing in at 107.8kg after Harper was born in August 2017. Yikes!

With all the fluid retention, baby, and everything else that goes along with pregnancy gone, my weight dropped down to 99.8kg, leaving me feeling very frumpy and wobbly with a bit of extra cushioning.

I’m a girl who used to frolic about in crop tops and high wasted jeans, but I’ve since traded that for leggings and baggy cover ups, which I keep reminding myself is only TEMPORARY, until I get to where I want to be.

At the start of this journey, I reminded myself that I have done this before. I have been in this exact place of wanting to lose 30kg, and that I will get myself to where I want to be AGAIN, but this time with a bit more patience.

I was completely aware that I had put on weight while I was pregnant, but at the same time, I was also in denial because I didn’t want to ACCEPT what needed to be done to get myself to where I WANT TO BE. The thought of being super healthy and exercising all the time for the next year just seemed exhausting and difficult to do with a baby. Talk about an EXCUSE of note!

This, my friends was an example of my demotivated attitude, BEFORE I had even tried to get myself going. This is also an example of previously setting myself goals and unrealistic expectations to reach before I was pregnant which I failed at a few times. Setting these unrealistic goals and failing at them created a dark space towards my attitude for what I wanted to achieve because I associated my weight loss aspirations with failure and not being able to achieve this. Not the healthies mind-set, now was it?

I try and add my 10kg sandbag to one of my cardio sessions a week.

So, I decided to take a different approach. I started looking back at pictures of when I was in my best shape, and compared it to where I was at my heaviest. Comparing pictures of MYSELF and not someone else’s body really got me motivated, knowing that I have once been in the shape that I want to be in, with my OWN BODY, and not looking for inspiration from a fitness icons body, who might have a completely different figure to my body shape.

With my motivation now back in a place where it was about 3 years ago, I decided to give my postpartum journey a go – because I was ready!

I have started this journey with a positive outlook. Having a baby is a HUGE thing! Especially to our bodies, which REALISTICLLY isn’t going to leave you at your pre-baby weight a month after giving birth. My approach has become a lot gentler and balanced compared to my pre-baby fitness regime and so far, I am loving it!

How have I managed to keep myself going on this journey for the last month, you might wonder?

Well, I have allowed myself a little more room to breathe, and I have traded strictness for balance. Not only does it allow flexibility, but not having that huge target over my head of wanting to reach an unrealistic goal doesn’t put as much pressure on myself. Yay to realistic goals!

As for exercise, I am not diving into a hectic fitness schedule. Not because I don’t want to, but because I LITERALLY have no core strength after my C section. Boohoo! For the last month, I have focused on uphill cardio 4 times a week to try and strengthen my core. I normally try and get between 20 – 40 minutes of cardio in 4 times a week. This is normally broken up into 2 sessions a day as Harps can sometimes get restless watching me walk on a treadmill – I mean, I don’t blame her!

I was able to add weights to my arm exercises for the first time after 3 weeks of upper body strength straining! these are 5kg weights.

Combined with that, I am doing 2 to 3 sessions of bodyweight training a week of 30/40 min. These are basic and simple movements, nothing fancy. I am not doing any direct core exercises yet. I am still trying to figure out where to begin with that. My legs were killing me after my first few sessions, which made me realise how unfit I am. These simple exercises which are my best achievements now, were once my warm up. This motivates me to get myself back to where I once was.

Being a newbie in the land of mumming, I’m learning that patience is key to wanting to achieve my weight loss goal and that I don’t have the freedom that I once had to exercise whenever my heart desires. My exercising schedule has to fit in with Harpers, which can sometimes be a little tricky. I am grateful to be able to exercise at home, and to be able to just put harps on her play mat or bouncy chair in front of me while I get all sweaty.

I was also able to add 5kg weights to one of my leg workouts last month!

 

JANUARY’S WEIGHT LOSS TOTAL

 I weigh myself every Saturday morning in order to eliminate the temptation of wanting to eat take out on a Friday (because let’s face it, that’s what we love weekends for). I know that there are so many pros and cons to weighing yourself, but I will be doing this until I have dropped around 20kg. After that, when I start looking into rebuilding my muscle mass, I’ll be going by measurements only.

This month, I have lost a total of 4.85kg, and I am super proud of myself. It’s been difficult, but I have been consistent. I have had bad days, but those put together with the good ones have got me this far.

I took measurements at the beginning of January and again in Feb to compare my results. I was in for quite a surprise when I realised just how many cm I’d lost in total.

Left – 02 January 2018 Right – 06 February 2018 A very SMALL difference in progress, which I am happy with!

The main difference was my postpartum pouch that hangs under my belly button -lovely visual, I know. This pouch has gone down -7 cm in a month, -3cm on my butt, and -5.5cm on my waist.

Left – 02 January 2018 Right – 06 February 2018 A very SMALL difference in progress, which I am happy with!

The purpose of this monthly weight loss blog series is not to be sassy with a “Look at me, I lost weight. I’m so fabulous” attitude, but it is to hopefully motivate some of you to also hop on this goal reaching wavelength and join me with pushing through workouts that you thought you couldn’t do, to feel yourself get stronger with each workout, to control your meals and learn how to indulge in smaller portions and to just smash one goal at a time.

I am super excited to compare my results at the end of Feb and to see where I’ll be.

Here’s to reaching our goals one day at a time!

Stay tuned for monthly weight loss updates at the end of each month.

Until next time,

Mycaila-Jade

XXX