Home » Blogs » meeshel's blog

talk about weight and body image

Hi mamas... I have been a lurker lately for lots of reasons not important to this post. However, one of the things that I have been working hard on is to get my body back in shape... and I'm ready to talk about it with someone and I don't really want to talk about it with IRL friends, so I figured it was time to post...

I had put on an extra 20 - 30 pounds with my 3rd child (born 2.5yrs ago) that never came off and I was ok with it - not jumping for joy but comfortable enough with it. I looked at my old clothes often to decide if I should just get rid of them or save them so that I don't have to buy a new wardrobe again for *when* I lose that weight. My partner loved my roundness, my butt, my curves, but i wasn't completely convinced.

I frequent the shape of a mother site (http://theshapeofamother.com/blog/), but it usually just frustrates me cause there are a lot teenagers who get pregnant and post about how unhappy they are with their 130lb bodies after giving birth. I'm not trying to talk down on these girls because they really don't know any different (and I was one too - with a baby and a skinny body!) but they should be looking at the other posts on that site and realizing that bodies change a lot sometimes - and some women are lucky just to be able to accept how much they have changed. But this is a different vent for a different day.
Anyhow, one day I was looking at that site and a mama posted about how she was really inspired to change her body and she started doing pilates - she posted her results after 3 months... and lets just say that my interest in getting back in shape was peeked. I thought I'd try again.

So, I am doing something that I have never in my life done before - I'm counting calories. I feel weird about it, but goddamnit, it works. I found this site that I can log my calories into and do searches for info on food that doesn't have a nutritional panel. With my new phone (ooh lala), I have an app right on it that does the same thing the site does, so i can stay on top of it anytime, until i get the hang of knowing how many calories things are. I have also started doing a really simple 5 - 10 minute pilate routine a few times a week. It feels like nothing, but it helps! Lastly, I am taking 3 - 4 hikes a week (a minimum of 10 - 15 minutes, but I strap my 30lb kid to my back for the extra workout).

It's working and I am feeling like I finally have some control over my body again. I care less about my size and more about feeling comfortable in my body. I like knowing that I have some control.

And today marks the first time that I can fit into my pre-3rd pregnancy pants again!! Ok, only a few of them but they count!

Thanks for reading if you made it to here - I really needed to post something positive.
I'll post pics of the kids soon - they are all getting so big (sniff, sniff)...

__________________

Check out my daily photo journal:
http://ocim.livejournal.com/

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

way to go!

i know the hardest thing for me always has been getting started.
i personally tend to be like a rock rolling downhill. whatever path i start on is where i'll end up..
so i mean to say- this is a great path for you! the beginning is the hardest part.

__________________

there's no government like NO government!
~hildare

  • By hildare at 07/06/2009 - 1:17pm
  • Login or register to post comments

I haven't read the other

I haven't read the other comments posted, cause I'm running out the door, but I wanted to tell you that I think it's great you're doing this. And you've motivated me to keep on with my workouts, which have slacked over the last few weeks. So thanks! My weight with our third, kept on me a little but I wasn't bothered enough by it to change, for the first 2 years. But for me, now, it's more of a health issue. Losing just 5-10% of your body weight can really push a lot of disease out of the picture.
Keep up the good work mama!

__________________

"Life may not be the party we hoped for but while we're here we might as well dance".- Maya Angelou

  • By loveislikewoe at 07/05/2009 - 5:24pm
  • Login or register to post comments

hey, love!

meeshel got me posting about fitness here again Smile

__________________

eco & biz
Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  • By Mercury at 07/05/2009 - 6:20pm
  • Login or register to post comments

Yay!

it is a good to feel in control of your body and health. Smile

Pilates is no joke! it will make you leaner really quick. I also swear by elliptical machines and running, both really amp up your metabolism. I broke one my toes a couple of weeks ago so can't run and I really feel the difference, bleh. but dragging myself around on crutches and clomping around in this boot thing they put on it actually made me lose 5 pounds last week, hysterical!

I can't do the calorie counting thing but I do go by portion sizes. Once I got that a portion of anything is generally the size of your palm, that really cut down on my overeating because I couldn't trick myself into believing that a portion of potato chips was really a big bowl LOL.

The teen mamas are probably just in shock and how rapidly they changed. If you're a 15, 16 year old, you've only had your woman body for what, like 3-4 years, if that? You just got your boobs and only been bleeding for a minute, you know I mean? So to jump from like 115 pounds or whatever to 130 is a big shock, and most don't realize they would have probably rounded up to that or whatever height appropriate weight as their body matured by their early 20s anyway, baby or no baby. When I had my daughter (pregnant at 16, 17 when she was born) I went from like 110 to 130, but as I'm 5'6 110 is too skinny for my height, while 130 is perfect and what my body would have matured to by my early 20s anyway.

Sites I like:
http://mapmyrun.com
http://fitday.com
http://sparkpeople.com
my fitness blog:
http://supplemama.com

__________________

eco & biz
Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  • By Mercury at 07/03/2009 - 12:41pm
  • Login or register to post comments

thanks Mercury!

I remembered that you are into being fit, thanks for the sites.

I understand about the young body thing. A part of my frustration is the lack of self confidence among young people. I think with the overload of media images of skinny stars and junk food, as well as the rate of obesity rising so quickly over the past decade, it's not very encouraging for self confidence. And the clothes that they make for young girls and juniors are not accommodating at all for anyone bigger than like a 12 or 14. I see it in my own 9 yo daughter, and she has this naturally skinny and fit body. It drives me nuts and she's rarely exposed to any of those things.
I guess this is really another discussion altogether...

__________________

Check out my daily photo journal:
http://ocim.livejournal.com/

  • By meeshel at 07/03/2009 - 11:47pm
  • Login or register to post comments

right, right

I think the fashion industry and the diet industry have both joined forces with the FDA in an evil plot to make billions and billions of dollars off of inducing obesity in the citizens of America. Thus, once you're fat, if they don't get your money off the diet end, they'll get you off the medicine end when get sick from obesity-related diseases like diabetes and hypertension and heart disease, etc. The FDA is a joke! the crap they allow on the market as 'food' that is just going to blow you up, and the way they allow these drug companies to push drugs to the public, it's obscene. and the fashion industry! The clothes for women are designed nowadays to reveal and squish and distort and are very unflattering to the female body, so no matter how thin you are the clothes fit poorly. LOL don't get me started.

oh! and the education industry is in on it too! For the longest I couldn't figure out why there are so many obese kids nowadays, did you know that in many school systems in addition to having pop and candy machines in the schools (on top of the corn syrup-laden and sodium-rich food they offer) they have cut out or drastically reduced PE? and recess? that is just crazy...kids need to run around, seriously. But if you make them fat as kids, that increases the chances they'll stay fat as adults and get sicker that much quicker. ha ha I got started, heeeeeeeee!

__________________

eco & biz
Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  • By Mercury at 07/04/2009 - 2:08pm
  • Login or register to post comments

preach it sister!

preach it sister!

__________________

there's no government like NO government!
~hildare

  • By hildare at 07/06/2009 - 1:15pm
  • Login or register to post comments

yup

my boss put on this eye opening presentation about the state of the economy that included the data about how much obesity has risen over the past decade or so. It's amazing. I'm going to try and get the info from him to pass on - but it showed coloring coding for how obese each state in america has gotten each year. It started with the highest rate being 10% in just a few states (data started in the 80s I think), and ended with data from 2006 and almost EVERY STATE was maxed out at the highest rate - 25%! Some were higher!

I was thinking about the fitness mamas blog you used to do - maybe you could start it up again? I'm ready!!

__________________

Check out my daily photo journal:
http://ocim.livejournal.com/

  • By meeshel at 07/04/2009 - 2:57pm
  • Login or register to post comments

ok coolness

it really is a big help talking to other folks striving for fitness Smile

__________________

eco & biz
Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  • By Mercury at 07/04/2009 - 4:26pm
  • Login or register to post comments

control is good!

I've not really been on either, but i thought i'd post because i'm struggling with getting back too. With Lief, my youngest 13months old now, I still have 37lbs more to lose. I've lost 25 so far - YAY - but it's a journey.
Counting calories works. its a way to figure out portions and what you really want/need in your day. I've been walking at home. its dvds that you walk along to. i find that i cant always get out the the three kids, and this guarentees that i get it in.
you're a very smart mama. being fit is good for you and you do have the ability to be in control of it. I see people every day at work (massage therapist in a chiro office) who arent in control of it, and trust me, it makes a huge difference in how we age.
you're doing good mama.

  • By sweetdumpling at 07/02/2009 - 3:41pm
  • Login or register to post comments

thanks

I really thought that running around after 3 kids would help me lose weight, but it all just sat there. I eat healthy foods, but that wasn't good enough either. I had to do something, if for no other reason than to feed my control issues.

I work at a co-op and see some really strong, healthy older people come through there and I think about how they got that way. But some of them are obsessive about it - I don't want to be like that. I like food too much! That's why the calorie counting helps - i can essentially eat whatever I want, I just have to pay attention. Why did I not know about this before?

Thanks for posting!

__________________

Check out my daily photo journal:
http://ocim.livejournal.com/

  • By meeshel at 07/03/2009 - 4:06am
  • Login or register to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.