Life after baby weight.

I am busy editing Madyson's baptism video so it will be up tomorrow!!

Today-I am sharing (by request) my journey of clean eating.

Over the past few years my weight has been a battle. Before the miscarriage I was 120-after the miscarriage I was 145-then I dropped down to 115 -then I got pregnant, and Todd's mom died, and I get sick, and Todd lost his job, and life fell  apart and I found myself weighing in at 165 lbs. I have never been overweight-and for some people 165lbs is a great weight. But I am 5'2 tall. I am small framed. My little heart doesn't work well and when it has to work extra hard-i have to take medicine for it. So when Amelia was born I made a commitment to myself. I would do a strict clean eating diet until I was at 120lbs. Then I would maintain my eating but live by the 80/20 rule.

So let's get started-here I am right before Amelia was born. 

I look "pregnant" to the untrained eye-but   I was all over big. My arms had doubled-my legs had doubled-my face was fuller. My blood work was off-my energy level was shot.

I pintersted "clean eating" and here is where I began.

This was my first shopping list-minus tuna,salmon, and cottage cheese ((I can't do those my tummy doesn't handle it well))

I stocked my grocery cart (buggy) with kale, spinach, dark leaf lettuce, tons of avacados, celery, carrots....picture walking through the produce department and loading up on almost everything.

Produce goes way beyond salads-that was my first lesson I had to learn the hard way. After spending a week eating salads for breakfast, lunch, and dinner I took it back to Pinterest to figure out what to do with all this clean food i just purchased-I liked a bunch of pins (and I have now put them on a board for you and learned how to cook with all this.) 

{{I know what you are thinking-my kids would not eat that}}

Well-mine do-at times and at times they look at me like I am crazy. So if you come to my pantry you will find easy Mac, jambalaya mix, princess soup, and a few other "kid staples" that they are allowed. 

 The first month it was hard. I adore Oreos and cheesecake and ice cream and kit Kats and all that. But I knew that I also adore my 3 girls and my husband and if I want to be healthy for them-I had to do this for myself. 

After 2 Weeks I had a waist line again. But the rest of me still needed to deflat.

I kept it up-and once I got to 130 lbs -I began to allow myself to indulge 20% of the time-while staying focused 80%.

At 6 months post delivery-I was at my goal weight of 120lbs. 

I went from wearing large/xL clothes to a size 2. The only exercising I have done in 6 months is strolling with my girls around the neighborhood-and nursing. Now we all know how many calories nursing burns-so by clean eating I had to make sure I was taking in my daily amount PLUS enough to maintain a milk supply for miss Amelia. I am proud to announce that she is in the 99% for weight-so this did not effect her in anyway. 

What do I eat? 

Check out my Pinterest board for some ideas but a normal day would include:

Breakfast: oatmeal with fruit and honey

Avacado (sliced) with a boiled egg (sliced)

Snack: peanut butter and banana wrapped in a wheat flat out wrap.

Lunch:2 quesadillas (8 triangles) with black beans, shredded chicken, low fat cheese, 1/2 avacado and spinach.

Snack: fruit bowl or carrot/pepper/celery and Greek yogurt ranch dip

Dinner: grilled/baked chicken or turkey breast-sweet potato, broccoli, wild rice

Dessert: dark chocolate 

Snack: smoothie or low fat cheese & crackers or some sort of fruit.

On my indulging days I would eat a cheeseburger-French fries-Oreos-cheesecake....

Now that I am allowing myself treats I will have one of the mentioned above each day-i just make sure I get my veggies in!! 

 

*****i am by no means a doctor and before beginning any diet or life style change always consult your doctor.*****