What can I do?

[Mikafan]

My DD is 10 months old and I was asked yesterday at work by someone I don't know when my baby was due I'm a size 18 at the moment and before DD was a 16. I have 2 DS's of 16 and 8 and work full-time (40 hours a week). I am still BF my DD - expressing 4 times a day and she feeds from me in the morning before I go to work.

For breakfast I have a bowl of porridge, mid morning I have a piece of fruit i.e. 2 plums or 2 satsumas.
For lunch I have a sandwich with protein of some sort i.e. chicken/bacon/smoked salmon with watercress/rocket/cucumber and a diet yoghurt. Afternoon snack would be an orange. Dinner consists of a ready meal with a lot of vegetables.

Despite this I'm not losing weight and I don't know why. Does anyone have help for me/suggestions on what I can do? This is really starting to get me down now.

Thanks.

Is no one able to help/ give me some advice?????

How rude of them! I had that when my second was 6m old.

I don't really know what to suggest, off-hand, but you certainly shouldn;t go on a harsh calorie-cutting regime. Weightwatchers have diet plans for btreastfeeders. Could you perhaps change the readymeal for something home-cooked? Even a plain jacket potato with the salad.

One of the problems is that we don't have a hob at home, its broken, only an oven and microwave. I don't have the time to go out to a slimming club to be honest. By the time I get home at 5.30, cook the dinner and spend time with the children (especially DD) I'm too knackered to go anywhere. I have just this week returned to running which I used to do before I was pregnant but I'm having to take it really easy as I'm getting knee pain (probably the excess weight).

Total hassle without a hob.

Jacket potatoes are really lovely in the microwave if you put them in a covered dish to keep the steam in, and let them sit for 5-10mins to finish cooking themselves after the microwave stops. You can also make scrambled eggs in the microwave. You can get rice steamers for the microwave. There must be more, too, that I haven't discovered yet.

I'm not a microwave queen, far from it! But we got ours when our gas oven proved to be unreliabe - the flame kept going out and filling the house with gas. I can't cope with 3 LOs without the ability to leave something in the oven on timer. Eg on ballet nights we always have microwave jacket potatoes. While the baby naps (if he naps) I prepare whatever filling we're going to have, and leave the potatoes programmed inthe microwave: instant supper the minute we walk in the door.

What about making a batch of stews during the week and freezing smallish portions so that you can defrost in the microwave?

Home-cooked food is generally nutrionally superior to ready stuff.

BTW, if your knees are giving you gyp, check your shoes. I developed terrible knee pain when ds1 was a few months old, and it turned out that my arches had collapsed due to the pg hormones, and were putting strain on my knees. A few sessions of phsiotherapy and orthotics in my shoes more-or-less sorted it out. But I have to wear orthotics all the time now.

Thanks PrettyCandles. My knees haven't been hurting generally, it was only when I started trying to run again about 3 months ago it started. I stopped the running for those 3 months and they've got better so I'm running again but taking things very very slowly.