Is your weight an issue for you?

Personally I am not into scales as such, I prefer to go by how I look and feel and how clothes fit.

I wouldn’t say I have ever been 100% comfortable in my own skin, and since starting my parenting journey 9 years ago that has been a constant pressure.

I don’t think anyone can prepare you for the changes your body goes through in pregnancy and during breastfeeding. My body has now done that four times and each time been affected in a slightly different way.

Some of you might be reading this and smugly thinking that you snapped back into your skinny jeans the week after birth. Congratulations! That is really great news for you but not the situation for lots of mums, so be grateful for your body and take good care of it. Most likely, there is some other aspect of motherhood you have struggled with at some point, so let’s be kind to each other and not judge in the school yard or at baby group. It sounds harsh, but i have both witnessed others giving this out and been on the receiving end many times. It isn’t nice!

I have always exercised and am not overindulgent, yet I have to work hard to maintain a healthy size, let alone one I feel comfortable with.

My body has always hung onto baby weight during breastfeeding which has always further delayed any weight loss after my births.

I haven’t given up on reaching that point where I can say I am happy with my size, far from it. I just accept that it is not going to happen overnight.

Increasing my exercise will form a large part of this and I will be running my 15th marathon in June of this year, 9 months after my fourth baby. Given my severe lack of time, I wouldn’t say my training for this should be followed as how you should approach a marathon, but I am determined to finish it with or without the perfect training plan. Increasing the amount of exercise I do requires a severe amount of creative thinking, although I am disappointed to tell you it is not possible to do hip hop abs whilst wearing baby in a sling!

I am also a big fan of detox teas so once I stop breastfeeding I will also be using these.

Something else I am thinking about trying is Bio-Chromium which can help regulate your blood sugar levels and stop cravings for sweet things. Now, as much as I am not a cake or sweet eater, hot chocolate and the odd coca cola helps me get through the day, so I would like to see if this would stop me feeling like I ‘needed’ that.

How do you maintain a healthy weight?