Lose Fat After Pregnancy
Post Pregnancy Weight Loss Client Sheds 38 Pounds of Fat
Post Pregnancy Weight Loss Client Loses 38 Pounds!
I have an incredible transformation to share today!! So many moms think they can't get back in great shape Post Pregnancy, but Suzanne proves that is absolutely possible!! This woman is an inspiration through and through, 5 weeks after the birth of her second baby Suzanne was at 180 pounds, her goal was not just to get back into pre pregnancy (160 pounds) but to get in even better shape than that. She had a LOT going on in life at that point, her husband was sent to Afghanistan, so she was taking care of the two kids, the house, pets and working full time. But she knew she had to get herself to a better place in order to perform all her roles in life as best she could. Over the course of her Hitch Fit Post Pregnancy Weight Loss Plan she shed 38 pounds of fat and is 20 pounds leaner than before she got pregnant in the first place!! Amazing job Suzanne!! You are an inspiration, for the moms out there of course, but also what you have done for yourself will translate over into healthier living for those two amazing kiddos!
Suzanne's Stats:
Starting weight: 180
Ending weight: 142
Starting body fat: 34.6%
Ending body fat: 21%
Suzanne's Story:
I had always been relatively fit. I was in the military after high-school and spent a fair amount of time at the gym after my discharge. When I went back to school, I was frequently at the gym and typically somewhere around 135lbs. After spending a semester in Italy, I got up to 160lbs and was horrified. I spent the next semester when I got back working out and managed to get back to my mid-130 weight range before the school year was out. Then came full-time work as a CPA, marriage, and all of a sudden my weight had crept up to a bit over 140lbs. After the New Year of 2009 I was starting to work-out again, only to discover that I was pregnant with our first baby. Because of my busy season (I'm an accountant) and a broken arm at the end of March, I didn't get to keep up with the workouts that I had planned and by the time I gave birth to our daughter in early October, the scales tipped out at over 200lbs… yikes! I don't even know where I ended up, I stopped looking once that 200 mark was breached. Because of the length and difficulties of that labor, I really wasn't able to get back to working out until the end of the year, and then.. again.. busy season. I thought that the weight would come off pretty easily, it had before. But this time, I was 31 years old, I had just had a baby, I was working full-time, I was nursing, and I was always starving. So after starting some workouts, I got down to 160lbs, but I could never seem to really break that number.
When our daughter was a little over 2, I got pregnant again. When I was still just finishing out my first trimester I saw a before and after picture of a friend of a friend.. holy wow! That mama has had 2 babies and after 12-16 weeks she looks freaking awesome! I knew that I wasn't going to mess around this time and that when this baby was born I was going to shed those pounds fast. I emailed Micah then just to let him know that I was coming. I tracked everyone else's progress for months, continued to work out with my mom's group and just hoped that the scale would be kind. Well, it wasn't. When I was half way through my pregnancy my husband left for Afghanistan. He wouldn't be back until right before the baby was born. Every week on the scale was terrible as I'd watch the number go up, all the time wondering what I'd done all week to make my weight increase so fast. And there it was, I hit 200lbs.. again. My husband made it make hours before my due date, and a week before our second daughter was born. Part of my massive weight gain became clear; I'd been growing an almost 10lb baby in my belly.
The countdown was on. Within 30 minutes of my daughter's birth my doula reminds me that I was already talking about when I could start working out again. I was SO ready to get rid of the fat me. When our 2nd baby girl was 4 weeks old, my husband left again to go back to Afghanistan and I was on my own with no husband, a full-time career, 2 babies, 3 cats and a home to take care of. Over the next few weeks I started slowly just doing a few mild things and counting till I got to 6 weeks. That's when I reached back out to Diana and Micah and said I was ready to get going. I had been so ready to start that I had already purchased my plan back in July. This was happening. In 4 months I would be a different person, the one that I would recognize from before I had my babies.
When I had my dad take those 'before' pictures I wanted to cry. I had gotten down to 180lbs by this point, but in looking at the pictures, I had to ask myself, was I really that overweight? I knew they wouldn't be that pretty and they would be motivation to be a stronger person for my girls, myself and my husband. I continued to go to my mom's workout, since I figured that anything I could get in, plus the mommy bonding time, would be good. I moved the elliptical machine out of the basement and put it in the living room, along with a workout bench and weights and moved the furniture so that I would have no excuses and that my equipment would be staring me in the face every single day. I'd do cardio in the morning, hoping that my girls wouldn't wake up before I'd gotten in some time on the elliptical. I'd get in whatever I could. Sometimes it was 15 minutes, sometimes I got in 30. Then off to take the 3 year old to school, then off to my mom's workout. I thought I'd be able to get in workouts while the baby was asleep, but that didn't happen. I did not birth sleepers, and the only naps she'd take were usually on me. So I'd be sitting in my workout clothes all day with no extra workout in. Then I'd wait till they went to bed and hope that I still had something left in the tank for myself.
In those first few weeks of my plan, I dealt with a baby with tummy issues that we had difficulty figuring out. I tried to eliminate foods from my diet and then had to go back to my list to see what I could substitute in its place. I pulled out the food scale every time I prepared a meal. I made all dinners for my parents during this time as my mom had broken both of her arms 2 weeks before my daughter's birth. A few weeks into the program, we had a death in the family.
I found that I'd have good days and not so good days. I'd have days where I stuck really well to plan, got my workouts in, and I'd have days where maybe the diet, or the workout, or both, didn't go so well. I tried to keep myself honest by having a written journal (and later I tracked this on my iPhone) where I'd write down everything I ate, every workout I did, the time, how many glasses of water I drank, how much cardio I did. In the front of the journal I had printed my full food and meal lists and I had printed out my week 1-4 workout schedule for easy reference. If one meal or day didn't go so well, I'd tell myself that I could and would do better. I knew that I had someone other than myself to be accountable to, and I wanted to be able to email Diana something good on Monday morning.
Five weeks into the program I went back to work. A few of my co-workers started a weight-loss challenge and I thought, too easy, I'm already doing this anyway. This will give me some spending money for new clothes when I'm all done. The weight on the scale was already down to 166lbs. I was not even 3 months post-partum and had only 6lbs of baby #2 weight left to burn. My goal was to get it done by Thanksgiving, and the Monday after the holiday, I weighed in at 160lbs.
I emailed Diana and sent her my progress pictures. She was so supportive. Even when I told her that I hadn't been perfect, she didn't dwell on that. She just said, ok, let's do better. 100%. Confirmation of my hard work from her was so important to me. I could see the results, but I had expected perfection in my mid-program pictures and was mildly disappointed, but of course I wasn't going to be there yet. Her words of encouragement at my progress were so important to me right then. I was so motivated by her email that I re-read it over and over again.
Next goal: pre-baby weight.
Now that I was back to work, my work outs had to get earlier. I was up at 5am to do 30 minutes of cardio, pump milk for the day, get cats fed, make breakfasts, get kids dressed, get lunches and the 6 bags I needed for the day ready (if I didn't have time to organize the night before), get myself dressed and get all 3 of us to our respective destinations. On days where I could, where I was in the office or where I could fit it in, I would also get on the elliptical at the gym in our building just to be able to get 30 minutes more in. Three days a week I still went to my mom's group. Nights where I didn't have my mom's workout and I could get the kids to sleep at a reasonable hour, I'd fit in the strength routines and/or more time on the elliptical, or with a workout video, or on the stair stepper I got for Christmas. My days were constant motion and I only sat down if I was also doing something else. I'd go to sleep around 10:30-11, about when the little one woke to eat; a reminder that the night would still include several wake-ups and that if I wanted a fighting chance of getting back up at 5am the next morning, I'd have to call it a night.
By a week or so after the holidays I had made it to pre-baby weight. And as I finished up the regular course of the program, I felt confident enough to take some boudoir photos to send to my husband for Valentine's Day. I am almost 20lbs lighter than when I got pregnant just over a year ago, and I'm in serious need of a shopping trip to find some pants that fit because I've gotten too small for even my older things. I walk around and tell people about how the last time I wore these pants was 4 years ago. I now have just 5lbs left to get to my wedding weight, and 9lbs to get to my "goal" weight.. that magic number in my head. Better yet, I know I can get there. I've already come so far. Since I hit my high, I've lost an estimated 70lbs, and almost 40lbs since starting this journey. It hasn't been easy, and I know that had life been a little less stressful, I could have done even better. I also know that if I can do it with the stresses that life has thrown my way over the last few months that anyone can do it.
Now on to complete the journey to goal weight.. and maybe beyond!
Suzanne's Program Choice – Post Pregnancy Weight Loss Plan – "I Want My Body Back"
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