Does this sound reasonable re pregnancy and post partum?

[EvelynParker]

Hi all,

I wanted to share my plan of losing weight with you all so people can share tips and tricks with me and explain why something might not work etc as I'm doing this off my own back kinda thing with no prior knowledge.

Bit of background I have BPD and a symptom of that is binge eating and then last year I put 5 stone on from having a new baby and my dad passing away so spent a lot of time comfort bingeing and staying in bed.

At 17st and 5'7 (last time I weighed) I would like to lose weight, my midwife has advised me it's not recommended to actively lose weight in pregnancy and I also have pelvic girdle which makes walking hard so this is my plan up until November and wanted to know if it's realistic.

Firstly I have a food addiction and get take aways way too much, don't even want to say how many but it's very costly and very unhealthy so the first thing I've done is say no more take aways, DH and I can go out once a month to a restaurant with no calorie limit for that day but that's it - that way it's something to look forward to and means we're not spending a lot of money of food I don't even like a lot of the time and then spend the whole night feeling guilty.

So step 1 - no take aways.
Step 2 - no snacking, I'll only be having breakfast, dinner and tea - if I struggle then I can eat little but often but I was finding I was skipping meals all day and then binging at night which obviously isn't good for myself or baby.
Step 3 - Making sure I get my five a day fruit and veg.
Step 4 - Cutting out fizzy drinks (or at least swapping to diet for a bit before cutting them out).

Then when baby's born and hopefully I'm making the right choices when it comes to food. I need to give myself a little bit of recovery time as I'm having a c section so about a week or two after (if I recover well) I'm going to try and walk at least twenty minutes a day slowly building it up to an hour and then once I'm six weeks recovered I'm going to go swimming and start at the gym with some cardio and I'm hoping to lose 4-6 stone in 7-10 months from November.

Is it too unrealistic? Realistic? Anything else I can do?

Thank you for reading this, I'm finally taking action and just don't want to mess up.

Anyone??

Well done for deciding to take action OP. That’s the hardest bit.

There’s a lot of good stuff in your plan, but here are a couple of thoughts:

Make sure you don’t cut your calories too much. Your energy requirements at your current weight will be high and eating too little will just make it more likely that you’ll binge. I think your plan to cut out all snacks may be a little ambitious for that reason and you may find it easier to rethink what a snack looks like rather than cut them out completely. For example, instead of having crisps as a snack, have some rice cakes with a bit of cheese or hummus. You could calorie control your snacks (e.g. 2 snacks of 200 calories max), but try to choose something that is not too processed and gives you a bit of protein and/ or fibre. That will help control cravings.

I think your exercise plan is a little ambitious, especially so soon after the baby is born. Weightloss mainly comes down to diet, so I suggest taking things a little bit easier than what you’ve got planned. A daily walk of 30 minutes is more than enough in those first few months.

When it comes to your goals, 4 stone in 10 months sounds perfectly doable to me and you may well end up losing more than that. As you’re going to be doing this for a while, just make sure that whatever you do is sustainable long term.

Good luck OP! By the way have you discussed your plan with your midwife?

Thank you for your reply, that makes more sense about making it sustainable and being realistic.

I haven't spoken to my midwife yet but I will on my next appointment hopefully it'll be okay, I think I'm gonna go swimming while pregnant too hopefully that'll help with the pelvic girdle.

I definitely think swimming now is a brilliant idea

I am similar to you and have a 12 week old now. During pregnancy I wrote down a health plan and have it up on my cupboard door and read it lots.

Categories it includes are:

current health issues
potential health issues if I stay the same size
reasons to get and stay healthy (not fat/size related, I’m looking more holistically)
daily vitamins (I used the boots quiz)
meals and snacks I know are satisfying and healthy
exercise I’m aiming for (I also have a big playlist on YouTube of 10-20 min workouts I can do around the baby)
Tactics for staying on track eg:

• other activities to explore - boredom eating is a big thing for me and I am overall looking to ADD to my life rather than deprive myself of stuff


• things I learnt in therapy


• long list of self care things

Might help you? I’ve found it so useful to really focus on this plan.

I try and walk 5x a week - baby in carrier/leave the baby with DH/walking workouts on YouTube. And I’ve also been doing Carifit and kettlebells.

This is my third and final baby so motivated to crack it this time and move on with my life. I’ve recently had a scan and a biopsy for outstanding health complaints, I’m getting on top of my health and tying up loose ends! I am with you in solidarity!! You can do it.

Oh and I have a ‘benefits of losing weight’ category too eg ‘good example to children, feel better in myself, more energy, X Y Z symptoms will improve’.

I exercised pretty much every day in my first pregnancy and weighed less after delivery than I did at booking, definitely definitely try and swim if you can!! So good for you.

Also I’ve had 2 sections and recovery was far easier than vaginal, it will be fine! You should be able to start walking for exercise pretty soon after (2 weeks?)