by Karen Kelly
When my husband and I brought our newborn son home in May, I did not expect to have the weight gain challenges many pregnant women deal with post-partum. Yes, I knew I would experience sleep deprivation, schedule issues, childcare challenges, and other major lifestyle changes. Yet one baby bullet I thought I would dodge was weight gain. That’s because B.W. is adopted. So if I had not put on any weight waiting for our son to be born, so why would I pack on any pounds afterwards?
In fact, I had recently spent a year getting back into shape, and losing 60 pounds in the process. It’s a story I chronicled in the July 2007 issue of Natural Health magazine. My personal trainer at my Brooklyn YMCA, Malcolm Milton, had spent many months teaching me the proper way to use weights and helping me develop a weight training routine that was efficient and challenging. All that hard work! There was no way I was going to let it go down the tubes just because I had a new little person to take care of.
Wrong! I did not set foot in the gym from May to December of 2007. I spent close to eight months getting used to the joys of having a child, spending precious time with him, and working out a new work schedule. Since I am a freelance writer, the term “maternity leave” has no meaning. I was back at my desk, working against a deadline, the day after landing at LaGuardia with our precious cargo.
It was just too hard to find a way to fit in working and fitness and a baby into the day. Days turned to weeks, and weeks to months. I stepped on the scale in November and was shocked to see that I had put back on almost 20 pounds of the 60 I had worked so hard to lose. It’s not hard to see why – writing is sedentary and taking care or a baby is tiring, but it is not a calorie-burning workout by any stretch of the imagination. I was clearly eating a little more too – exhaustion often leads to extra eating, at least it does in my case. And that extra 300-400 calories a day just sits on your hips, thighs and upper arms when you are not working it off on the elliptical.
A week before Christmas I decided it was time to get back to the gym and back to Malcolm for a month of intensive twice weekly workouts, plus daily solo aerobic workouts. The time is right, and it’s now or never: B.W. has been sleeping through the night for a few months now, we have a reliable babysitter, and I had gotten into new groove with my work schedule. Malcolm reassured me that 18 pounds was not a disaster, and that in a few months I would be back to where I was in May, and in 6 months I would be down to my goal weight.
So the story really starts here…January 1st, my first “new” session with Malcolm, and renewed nutritional diligence. I started the day the way we always start the first day of every New Year – with Nova, cream cheese and a bagel. No – I did not deprive myself of this annual pleasure. I had half a bagel, a couple of thin slices of Nova and some “light” Philadelphia cream cheese, plus a grapefruit and coffee with skim milk. Then it was off to Malcolm for an hour session. What a GREAT way to start 2008!
We’re off to an open house later, and I will avoid the cheese and the pigs in blankets. Surely there will be some raw veggies and dip, nuts, and fruit I can munch on. The idea about party food is, as with most good things in life, moderation. If moderation is too difficult, then avoidance it is. Eat a little of what you can control, and don’t eat what you know you can’t. Since I’ll be showing off B.W., my ability to stuff my face with appetizers will be limited by the fact that I’ll be carrying around 21 pounds of fun. See, there is a diet advantage to having, or at least, carrying, a baby.
Please come with me on my journey – I’ll share recipes, healthy eating secrets, nutritional troubleshooting, and, I hope, some inspiration.
For more about Karen Kelly, visit her site at
It’s February and I’m still putting off going back to the gym. I’m telling myself it’s because I’m avoiding contagion and want to wait until after cold and flu season has wound down, but a little voice in the back of my mind keeps whispering that I might get a nice Valentine’s Day Gift of chocolate candy from baby and DH and I would hate to not be able to enjoy it!
I wish that DH would shop for some clothes, books or even an exercise DVD, but he usually takes the easy way out and runs to the store at the last minute to pick up a card and heart shaped box of candy. I don’t expect this year to be any different. Gotta love these last minute shoppers!
Good luck on sticking to your workout and avoiding the goodies at the parties on your schedule. Those pigs in a blanket are as hard for me to resist as chocolate sometimes.