Welcome to the Group

Welcome! We would love get to know you, so please tell us a little bit about yourself. You can choose any format you'd like, but most of us here share some or all of the following details:

1. History with weight loss:
2. History with Calorie Count:
3. Reason for joining this group:
4. Some interesting details about yourself, such as your job, your family, your pets and your interests:

And now just go ahead and make that first post!

Hi I'm Christin

I lost weight here on Calorie Count when it was just getting going back in 2005 - 2006.  I met a lot of wonderful people who really inspired and encouraged me and helped me when I went through a couple of really tough spots - a divorce from a cheating husband and later on a very debilitating illness.  Everyone was fantastic here and I did reach my goal weight early in 2006. 

As time went on I fell in love again with my current partner Nick who is the love of my life and we accidentaly got blessed with a little bundle of joy.  Neither of us wanted more kids at the time so it was not easy at first but we quickly came around and this past August welcomed Nathan into our lives.  He is our pride and joy and also the source of a new 24 lbs for me to take off again ;) lol.

We love being new parents and I want to be a good influence for both my sons by getting back into good strong eating and exercising habits.  My oldest son is starting to gain some weight now and I want to encourage him to be active with me!

I hope to get together with other moms who are also nursing and trying to maintain a hectic lifestyle and still find time for themselves for exercise etc. 

I hope together we can come up with strategies to help us out like maybe tips on how to make the most of your time like once a month cooking or other ways you manage to eat right and stay on track. Also figuring out how to count the calories while nursing! It's been difficult for me no matter what I do I seem to maintain or gain and not lose.  So goes the myth for me anyway that nursing makes you shrink faster ;) ha!

 

As for me I am a 34 year old mom of 2 boys 9 and 6 weeks.  I am self-employed I clean houses part time and I sell jewelry at flea markets and run a couple of websites.  I have 4 cats and a dog and none of them are making me very happy these days lol ;) but I'm sure we'll all get along again once they get used to the idea of another baby around. 

Hello ladies! My name is Hannah and I'm so excited to find this group! I'm 30 years old, and have two sons, a 5-year old and a 2 month old. I'm a grad student and working part-time from home, so I'm really busy.

I have about 10 pounds of baby weight left to lose. I'm finding that I'm hungry all the time with nursing (much more than when I was pregnant). Anyone else feel the same way?

Hi Hannah welcome

My little guy just turned 2 months yesterday.  I unfortunately have about 20 lbs to lose to get back to pre-pregnancy weight and I am finding it rather difficult because I do get hungry a lot but don't have all the time to work out like I did before baby 2.  My first "baby" is 9 years old now so I could have more time for myself before and that sure made it easier!

I can appreciate how busy you are! It's tough to be a student, work and care for two small kids - kudos to you!

Hi,

My name is Esther. I am 28yrs old and I have just had my first baby on Aug 21.  I absolutely love being a mother, which is very suprising since I am very career oriented.  I am a manger for a large retail chain and I am currently working on my MBA. I am dreading going back to work that first day and putting my baby girl in child care.    Oh well, we will survive!

 I have tried lots of different things for weight loss.  The programs that I have been most successful with are those where I have someone to help me to be accountable.  I am hoping that joining a group will help me find others that are having the simillar challenges as me and can help me stay faithful tom my fitness plan.   I joined calorie count a year ago to help track my calories for a diet program that I was participating in, but after I lost 31 lbs I found out that I was pregnant and had to stop.  Now that I have had my precious little bundle, I am trying to find something that I can do to lose the baby weight (20 lbs) and the other sixty that I was working on before, but I am finding it challenging to do with little baby.  I am open to anything the you all have found successful.  Also, what calorie range has worked for everyone?  I hope to hear from others soon.

 

Hi Esther,

When my first son was born 9 years ago I was an assistant GM for a hotel and I was career oriented too. Eventually I ended up giving it up because it was just too much for me with a baby and I hated my job :P lol

I started my own cleaning business eventually so that I could work around my kids and that worked out beautifully for us.  I know it's so hard to leave your baby.  I did it for awhile with Sean but I had the nanny from hell and that helped me make my choice to leave after awhile.

Hopefully you will find childcare that is good to your baby.  I know 99.9% of them probably are wonderful and you will get back in the swing of things again.  If you love your job you can certainly make room for both,  but I do feel for you.  Those first couple of weeks back are very difficult so hang in there.  Are you going to continue to BF after you go back to work? 

Fortunately I was able to keep it up because I can work and pump so hopefully that will happen for you too.  They say that nursing is supposed to help us lose that baby weight more quickly - I don't think that's holding true for me but I'm also in my mid 30's so that could be why also.  

Congrats on getting back on track and I hope we can all support each other here on weight loss goals and other issues as well. :)

Hi, I'm Angie. My son Rowan was born 14 months ago and I'm still breasfeeding him! I work a full time job, so it's just at night and weekends. He never took a pacifier and has been bottle-free for 1.5 months. He loves "nah-nah" time and sometimes it seems he will never want to give it up! My plan is to let him nurse to the age of two or he weans himself.

Before getting pregnant, I was already about 15 lbs overweight. I expected to be able to lose weight more easily because of breastfeeding. After Rowan was born, I got to my pre-pregnancy weight within a month! But since then, I have continuted to eat like I'm still pregnant!

I started back on Weight Watchers one week ago today and have support of a couple of co-workers to hold me responsible - but I thought this calorie counter might be a good tool to help keep me on track. Also, I've been considering using a supplement to help me lose the weight - but I'm just not sure! I don't want to pass anything harmful on to Rowan, but I'm also no longer his main food source! So do I or don't I use a supplement? If I do take one... are there any that might be safer than others?

I'm probably just anxious to get this weight of because all the planets have aligned and I'm finally motivated to do this! Any extra support is good. Also, I think I'll be a good resource for new moms on the breastfeeding thing. It's tough sometimes - but the benefits definitely outweigh the negatives!

Hi...my name is Claudia and I am the extremely proud momma of a four month-old named Jack.  He is so awesome, that I have a really hard time paying attention to anythin but him.  I have been back to work (teaching) since September and leave the little guy with Daddy-o while I am out.  He is exclusively breastfed (except for 3 ounces of formula during my second week back when things got a little dry - so to speak).  So, I lost the baby weight 1, 2, 3 over the summer, but am back on Calorie-Count because I was about 30 pounds overweight when I got pregnant.   I had never been a skinny-minny and have always been a proud eater and runner!  But since I met my hubby 6 years ago, we have comfortably settled into some tummy growing habits.  On top of that, I suffered from a herniated disc in my lower back which made running impossible. Finding time to excercise and get the healthy meals from my mind to the table is a challenge and I could use some real support.  

Hello Ladies.... my name is Cindy and I am a mother of 2 boys. Devon who just turned 9 years old in July and then we just had Chandler who is 12 weeks tomorrow. We waited to have another child, then I found out I had PCOS and we had trouble having our second child.

Any who....I gained 50 lbs with Chandler and now I am ready to get it off! It took me several years to get it off with Devon, and I don't want to go through that again this time. Since having Chandler I have lost about 23lbs, but most of that was from having him. So to start with I would like to loose 30lbs to get me back to where I was before I had him. Then I plan to go from there and loose more. I am trying to watch what I am eating, considering I am breast feeding. I am trying to walk everyday. I feel that in the past I had more success with walking and loosing weight. However, I know I need the support to do this!

I look forward to getting to know each one of you!

Wow what a cool coincidence! My son turned 9 in July and we just had a bub on August 4th he turned 11 weeks this week lol thats funny.  Sean is my oldest and he wasnt real hip to the idea of a new baby throughout my pregnancy but now that Nathan is here he loves him to death. 

How did your oldest one adjust?  Does your little guy just love his big brother? I know Natey cant get enough of his big brother he just stares at him in amazement all the time :)

Welcome to the group!

Christin

Hi Claudia!

I know its so hard to work when you want to be with your baby isnt it? Fortunately Daddy and I are also able to trade off and he can be here when I work and then when he teaches his martial arts classes in the evenings I can be home with the baby so it works out pretty well that way. 

I have to supplement with formula still when I work - my pump just doesnt cut it for me and I seem to always be a bit behind but my son nurses all night long so its hard to pump anything out when I have to leave in the mornings... hopefully I can get a system down where I can get him on exclusively breast milk that would be great. 

Good to see you and welcome to the group.  I hope you'll be back running again in no time! I know I had just started doing the couch to 5k program when I got pregnant and then had to stop... I am trying to work up the ambition to start again I would love to run. 

Best wishes

Christin

Hi Angie

sorry I didnt reply sooner! Congrats on still BF at 14 months that's really awesome!  How's the weight watchers going? I never did join a program but I thought about doing WW or maybe Curves.  I live in the country though and gas is expensive to get 17 miles one way to town so I keep procrastinating on it but I bet the support from others is great huh?

Keep up the good work!

Christin

Original Post by christins73:

Hi Angie

sorry I didnt reply sooner! Congrats on still BF at 14 months that's really awesome!  How's the weight watchers going? I never did join a program but I thought about doing WW or maybe Curves.  I live in the country though and gas is expensive to get 17 miles one way to town so I keep procrastinating on it but I bet the support from others is great huh?

Keep up the good work!

Christin

Thanks Christin! Honestly, I've found that for now, calorie counting is easier than WW! I was keeping track of both and it was too time consuming! I'm going to see how my weight loss goes by using only CalorieCount for now. So far I lost 5lbs. quickly and it's slowed way down. The support you get from WW definitely helps - but it also costs money! Add that, plus gas & time away from the family - thus my reasoning for trying CalorieCount first! If I need to, I'll start doing weight watchers again. I live close to WW and Curves... but I'm working full time, school part time and supermom by night so thank goodness for this free tool and forums for support!

Thanks again for the warm welcome!

Hi everyone,

I have been on Calorie Count for a while now, but never posted, just used it solely to count calories. I'm 23 years old, 5'9" and before pregnancy I had stayed between 160 - 170 pounds. I was 175 when I got pregnant and gained approx. 70 pounds. I'm down to about 220 now (which I attribute to breastfeeding). I am a member of a gym, but haven't gone since my little boy was born (5 months ago today ). I've decided that Nov. 1 is when I will kick start my weight loss. I haven't started a diet yet, but I have been tracking my calories for the past few days just so I have a reference point.

I think watching what I eat will be the easy part, it's getting to the gym that will be difficult. I'm an accountant doing mostly audits, which means I can be out of the office for 2-3 weeks at a time. The gym is right beside my office. So when I'm not in the office, it's hard to convince myself to drive out of my way to get there. Also, my mom watches my son during the day (she's an angel ). I drop him off around 7:30 in the mornings and go pick him up between 5:30 and 6:00 in the evenings. If I go to the gym after work, I won't be able to go pick him up until between 6:30 and 7:00. This bothers me for two reasons, one, I just want to go get him so bad =), and two, I worry that my mom will run out of milk. I know I need to pick up how often I pump, it's just tough to do as an auditor (when I'm at a client's office, I have to go sit in my truck to pump, thank goodness for tinted windows!).

My husband is a firefighter who could stand to lose a few (doctor said 20-30) pounds himself. But I don't think I'm going to be able to get him on board any time soon.

I joined this group so that I'll say to myself, "hey, if they can do it, so can I." I don't want to wait until I stop breastfeeding (when he's a year old) to start trying to lose the weight, but I want to do it right, for me and my son.

Hi, my name is Cyndi and I am 29 years old and 183 lbs. My son Ethan will be 6 weeks tomorrow. I gained 44 lbs with him and have 15 left to be at my pre-preg weight. I was on calorie counter before I got pregnant and it was easy to use and made me be accountable for what I ate. I lost weight fast after I had my son but have stalled out the past 3 weeks. I thought it was come off faster with the nursing but no such luck.  I go back to work in 2 weeks and hope that I makes it easier. It is hard to be at home and be able to eat all the time. Also, I need motivation to exercise.

Welcome Emily & Cindy

Glad to see you here.  I can understand how difficult it is to keep up with pumping and such.  Fortunately I work only part time outside of the home and that helps with being able to keep up with nursing him. My van has tinted windows too lol which has come in handy when I am doing markets on the weekends!

Cyndi I hear you on the breastfeeding and stalling out.  I am 34 and I did the same thing.  I dropped a lot really quickly and now I've stalled out with this last 20 and it isn't wanting to budge.  I've been watching my calories but I think its getting back into the exercise that is going to be what it takes for me too. 

Hi everyone!

My name is Bethany, I'm 28 and I have 2 girls.  One is 2 and the baby is 10 weeks.  I've gained weight throughout the years and then with my first I gained quite a bit and toppled the 200-lb mark.  It was about July of last year when I was at 235 and I finally reached my breaking point.  Something inside me changed and I began to be more motivated to work out.  I was working out daily, only 23 minutes on the elliptical because that's what I could fit in on my lunchbreak, but it was slowly taking the pounds off.  I made it to my low 200's when I found myself pregnant again.  The hormones made me lose all motivation to work out but luckily a few weeks after I had Sophia, the motivation came back stronger than ever.

I started on the Wii Fit on Oct. 19 and then started thinking about the possibility that I wasn't eating enough calories.  I had to go back to work since my husband is a student and I'm the moneybags and my milk supply started to dwindle, even with pumping on ALL my breaks and lunch.  So I realized I wasn't eating enough calories with my activity, albeit LIGHT activity, on the Wii.  So I found CC and started tracking and I think I was close to 400 calories below what I need to be.  On Oct. 19 when I started exercising again I was 236, and today I'm 225.  Pretty dramatic loss so far, and it's been steady.

This morning I also started a running program similar to couch to 5k.  I kinda made up my own for the morning because I have to figure out timing and how far I can go in the allotted time that I have... I have to be back before DH has to go to school otherwise the girls would be alone in the house.  So this morning I put on the ipod and between each song, I jogged for 60 steps.  I'll do this on Fridays and Sundays also.  I might walk on my off days or do strength training but I'm reading that on the days off you are supposed to rest.  Kinda hard for me, I don't like it when I go for a day without some sort of exercise... which is kinda weird for me to see myself type that, but it's the truth!

One thing that's been helpful with my pumping is that I go into daycare a bit early and I nurse the baby right when we get there, and then I put her down and she takes a nap (I work a later shift).  I also have a close enough daycare that I can pop over on my lunchbreak and nurse again.  And then, DH picks up the girls and sometimes he coordinates it with my last break of the day so he can bring them by here, giving me yet another time to nurse.  On a good day I only pump once, nursing all the rest of my breaks.  Also drinking Mother's Milk herbal tea seems to help, whether it's the tea itself or all the water I'm drinking because of it, I dunno.  With all this I'm able to keep my supply up enough to keep the baby going, but when I was just pumping all day it didn't take long for my supply to dwindle... I went from 5 oz per pumping to 1-1.5 oz (both sides put together) in a matter of 5 days.  So for those of you who want to keep the babies nursing as much as possible, if you can do a mid-day feeding it really helps and even just going in to daycare a bit early so you can do a last-minute nurse before you go seems to help.

OH, and it also helps me when I nurse & pump at the same time, if you can get the baby in football hold and pump on the other side, I get a lot of milk that way :)

I'm Marilyn Cox and I'm 28.  I have a 15 month old and an 8 week old.  I joined calorie count today in order to drop my baby weight.  I'm also in the process of getting my body back in shape for a marathon in May.  This grop is a perfect  fit because everyone's in the same boat.  I've always been fit but I find dropping the baby weight to be a challenge.

Hi!  I'm Vanexxa.  I have an 8 week old little girl, and a 13 year old teenage girl - nothing in between! I'm glad to 1.have found this website because it's soooo what I was looking for and I love all the tools, and 2. to have found this group. 

My weight has been cycling since I can remember.  After I had my first daughter the weight came off pretty quickly, but I wasn't eating very well despite the fact that I was nursing her full time.  I wasn't eating enough fresh foods or proteins.  But I was - ahem - young back then.  Now that I'm an old lady I have both more "wisdom" (is that what they call it - I thought it was just hitting your head against a brick wall enough times...)   and less ability to take off the fat!

But this time I'd like to do it the right way - with lots of fresh foods, and a diet that is mindful of the fact that I have a baby to feed. 

I also have more weight to lose.  Sadly (or perhaps happily, I don't know) enough, all of my pregnancy weight came off on it's own already.  Unfortunately, over the past few years I have put on a significant amount of weight (40 pounds) and THAT is what needs to come off right now!  Of course, as you all know, it's harder to find that balance if you're a nursing mom.

Well, I do have a question: I've always had trouble pumping - any suggestions to help with pumping let down?  I seem to only be able to get out 3 ounces after 45 min - 1 hour of pumping, but my little girl gets lots of milk, has gained lots of weight and is chubby as can be - I know she gets a WHOLE lot more than just 3 ounces!!! In fact, she still "drowns" in breastmilk if she feeds directly AFTER I've pumped forever!  It was the same with my first daughter, so I just gave up pumping, but I was home with her, whereas I have to go back to work soon with this one, so I neeeed to pump (she hates formula...)!

Any suggestions?  Thanks!

Hi Vanexxa

I hear you on the pumping thing.  I also have some distance between my two kids my oldest is 9 and this one is almost 4 months.   I am finding it harder this time as well to take off the baby weight - even with the good diet so now I am focusing less on calorie counting and more on exercise and strength training to get the muscle I need to burn the extra fat off. 

I don't have a lot of luck pumping either but fortunately I am self-employed and can work breastfeeding into my schedule fairly well.  I have heard that looking at a picture of your baby and focusing on your baby every time you pump can help with that let down.  Also hearing your baby cry if you let down when your baby cries try recording it and playing it on a loop until you let down enough to pump. 

Good Luck!

Good morning, everyone!  I "restarted" Calorie Count today.  I've done it off and on for the past couple of years.  I'm mom to 3 girls, ages 8, 5, and 1 month.  I didn't gain much weight during my pregnancy, so thank goodness I'm 8 pounds under my prepregnancy weight.  I really want to take advantage of this headstart, so here I am!  I want to lose this weight for good this time - I'm not going to give up!  I'd love for some of you to add me as a friend - I figure the more people I'm connected to on here, the more likely I am to stick with it! 

About me, let's see.  I stay at home and homeschool my older two girls.  It's been very busy with the new one, but we're all loving our time together!  I got up early this morning and walked about 2 miles with Leslie Sansone.  I'm hesitant to start out too strong  - I don't want to mess up my supply!  Any advice here?  How do I know how much I can exercise without affecting my milk negatively?

I'm really looking forward to getting to know you mommas, and helping each other through this!