My weight loss journey post Lima's birth

When I found out that I was expecting a baby, I stopped going to the gym immediately. There was no reason for me to quit the gym, I was in good health. I was just lazy and being pregnant seemed like the perfect excuse. I planned to do home workouts and take walks but that never happened. Needless to say, I picked up a lot of weight, +/-30kg during the pregnancy.

After I gave birth, I was determined to work on my body so that I can fit into my clothes again. I was motivated by 2 things:

1) I didn’t have money to buy new clothes,

2) I had some really nice items I hadn’t worn and wanted to fit into them.

I was not one of the lucky moms that report that the weight “fell off”, I had to put in some work.

I’ve made a few pointers on how I managed to lose the weight. I understand that some of these might not work for everyone but I’m going to share what worked for me.

Drink lots of water. I was reading many articles on Pinterest relating to weight-loss. One of the common theme was drinking a lot of water. Getting a water bottle really helped because I could measure my water intake and keep track of the days where I didn’t drink as much.

Water helped me eat less. I tried to remember to drink before my meals (I didn’t always remember) and I can say that I ate less on the days I remembered. I tried to drink at least 3 litres a day but I didn’t always reach my target.

Diet. I know what you’re thinking, there’s a lot of negativity around crash dieting and all the research that has been done makes sense, but hear me out. I went on a diet (happy to share the exact one I went on) for 10 days. The reason I decided to go on a diet was solely to get my stomach to shrink. Obviously with a shrunken stomach, eating less is much easier. It worked for me, after that I could eat less food without feeling completely miserable.

No junk food. I included snacks here. We generally don’t buy snacks because I have zero discipline. I mean, if a big packet of chips is open, best believe that it will be consumed and finished on the same day. None of that, take a bit a day and keep chips for a few days. So having snacks in the cupboard doesn’t work for me. If you also have discipline issues, maybe try not buying them at all.

Takeaways were also a big one, cutting them out completely was hard so I would create challenges for myself and keep track of how long I can go without eating any takeaways. You would have picked up by now that I love ‘challenges’.

No sugar. This is still very challenging for me but I like it because it makes me conscious of what I eat. I really enjoy baked goodies, biscuits, croissants and muffins are at the top of my list. I had to let them go. Coffee, I can never have without sugar so I had to give that up too. I would set challenges where I would go for 3 weeks with no sugar, sometimes 1 week but I used this to keep track of the times I was off sugar. In addition to weight loss, not having any sugar makes me feel lighter on my feet and I seem to have more energy.

Regular exercise. I exercised 3-4 times a week at first and gradually increased the frequency and the intensity of the exercises. When I got back to the gym I worked out alone. I would search Pinterest for workouts. It’s really helpful and you search for exactly what you want to workout and they have workouts for beginners right up to advanced levels. I would, for example search ‘full body workout for women’ and options would pop up. I would then browse and select one that is suited for my fitness level. I also watched what other people were doing at the gym and take the workouts I like (can do) and do them the next day, don’t judge. Fine, you can judge if you want, it works.

There are other things I did such as ‘ukubopha isisu’ but I will write about that on a different post.

I would love to hear some of your weight loss journeys and the nuggets that helped you stay focused on your goal, what you struggled with or are still struggling with..maybe we can find a way to help one another.

Until next time....

️ Gcobisa M