Running in Place: From Pregnancy Pounds to Weight Loss
Anyone who has spent even one hour with a child knows that at some point your needs take a back seat to your child's needs. Children can be so demanding, can't they? Babies need to be fed and changed. Toddlers need to have their questions answered over and over again. Elementary schoolers need to be chased down to do homework. Even tweens and teens while easy to entertain NEED to get to the mall RIGHT now even if it is 9 p.m. on a school night.
I find myself running or driving hither, thither, and yon much of the day. I am a mom on the run...in fact my first screenname was "Mom on the Run." I switched screennames once I realized that readers might think I was a marathon mom -- nothing could be further from the truth -- and I found out there was already a "Mom on the Run."
When my girls were tiny -- one was a toddler and one a newborn -- I would run from whatever room I was in to get to the phone...by the second ring. And, yes, I did vault over furniture to get the phone. No way would a child of mine be woken by the phone! Naptime = worktime!
I am thankful that no photos or videos are available as a record of my faux gymnastic moves. I do not even want to visualize my "post-pregnancy-times-two" self running...let alone jumping over furniture. Let's not even discuss what I was dressed in. Baggy, mismatched socks. Saggy, maternity pants. After two pregnancies, my maternity duds were my clothes. I replaced a couple of pairs of pants due to tears in the knee...not from high kicking over the chaise lounge, but from crawling on the floor chasing after a kid. And, let's not forget the stretched in all the wrong places maternity shirt. Yes, I did once wear a spit-up stained shirt out with a scarf camouflaging the stain.
Thankfully by the time I was pregnant with my son I was (a) no longer wearing maternity clothes and (b) maternity clothes were actually stylish and not flowing muu muus, denim overall dresses, or dark pants with enormous white(!) elasticated panels at the waist.
Speaking of moms on the run, have you read See Mom Run: Side-Splitting Essays from the World's Most Harried Moms
It's astounding to me that with all the running, chasing, and tearing around I did when my older girls were little; I lost very little weight. Of course, my diet back them probably had something to do with it. I would eat my own meal and then "help" my children finish their meal. My first child ate less than a bird. Her portions were so microscopic that there was plenty left on her plate for me to devour. Of course, food eaten from someone else's plate is calorie free, right??
My pregnancy diet was not helped by a complete absence of morning sickness. In the first trimester when most were unable to eat...I had no such problem. My avoidance of diet sodas during pregnancy was admirable except that I chowed down on fruit juices and milk shakes.
With my third pregnancy, I gained the same amount of pregnancy poundage...again thanks to no morning sickness. The difference was that after my son's birth I joined a neighborhood walking group. Pushing a stroller up and down hills, with a big-for-his-age toddler -- my son wore 2T at around 12 months -- is quite the workout. Oh and did I mention that once my son hit 3, he registered his complete disgust with the whole being in the stroller gig by putting his feet on the wheels off the stroller. I would push and feel the burn...literally in my arms, legs, and lungs as I pushed the stroller with all my might and main. At the point of complete collapse I noticed my son's little tootsies on the stroller wheels. I might have said something snarky to him except I was unable to breath at the time. Needless to say our walking days were over.
My downward spiral back to my old sedentary ways might have continued if not for swimming. No, not for me, but my very active middle daughter. She started swimming twice a week. A health club membership reduced the cost of her swim team membership, so it was hello treadmill and elliptical and bye bye sloth-like ways. Swimming is not for the faint-of-heart...practices twice, thrice, or more per week plus all-day meets.
My daughter is now in her third year on the swim team, and I am slowly but surely seeing some definite signs of weight loss. My progress to weight loss is sweet indeed since I am losing weight from almost 14 years ago. Yikes...that I have an almost 14-year-old AND that I'm still trying to lose pregnancy pounds.
I was given a copy of See Mom Run
