Are you struggling with losing baby weight? Weight loss is an INCREDIBLY sensitive topic for women. And having babies tends to complicate the already sensitive topic. I am not here to judge or condemn you – I simply want to share what has worked for me in hopes that it might help other moms, too. Take all advice with a grain of salt and do what’s right for you. That said, I think that all moms of any race, shape, size or age will find this advice to be timeless and simple. (Including those who aren’t even moms yet!)

And yes, that is my beautiful baby #4 above, whom we affectionately call “Boomba”.

First, a little bit of my own weighty story (har har)…

My four very littles – “Soopoman”, “MaNoodles”, “Little Bit”, and “Boomba”

I had four little ones all. in. a. row. My first two are 18 months apart, #3 came 17 months later, and babies #3 and 4 were 21 months apart. When I got pregnant with #4, I gave up on the idea of “staying in shape”. I thought, “Well, many moms I meet have a hard time losing baby weight. Maybe I’ll just have to accept that I’ll never lose the weight and get my figure back…”

Have you been there? Are you “there” right now?!

I want to offer hope. And I’m not afraid to, either, so confident am I that these “methods” will work for you (barring any outside factors that affect weight gain, such as a medication or health condition).

The first half of my pregnancy with Boomba (#4) was terrible. I mean truly, painfully, stinky terrible. I was lucky to have a healthy baby and to be somewhat capable of continuing on with life as normal while pregnant. But that was an incredible accomplishment for me! I had a painful umbilical hernia that ended up requiring corrective surgery while I was pregnant – 15 weeks and 6 days, to be exact. You can imagine the fear I felt preparing to have abdominal surgery while my extremely tiny baby was just inches away from the scalpel.

On top of that, I was very unhealthy. I ate terribly, mainly because I was ALWAYS. HUNGRY. Know the feeling? I could literally stuff myself full at an all-you-can-eat buffet, and by the time we got the kids in the car and returned home, I would be hungry enough to faint. I’m not joking, y’all. It was incredibly frustrating! So, I started focusing on higher fat, calorie and protein foods and skipping the fruits, veggies and such. I thought I was doing myself a favor. I gained tons of weight but felt like I was starving myself and my baby!

I felt weak and tired all day long, even after a full nights’ rest. Everyday chores felt like climbing a mountain. I couldn’t care for myself or my three other young children, let alone my husband or my house. I became extremely depressed, cried multiple times a day, despaired that I could ever feel strong again.

It came to a point where we decided we must put our oldest two (then 4 and 2) into daycare to get me some help. I would still have my littlest girl (then 1), but at least it would be less responsibility. Even with the extra help, I was fed up beyond words. I prayed desperately to the Lord to show me what was going on with my body so that I could get better.

And He DID! Through a truly inspirational movie called “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead“. (That’s how I felt – though it may seem an exaggeration). In the documentary, Joe Cross is a real, average guy suffering from obesity and a wide variety of illnesses. Joe decides it’s time to see if his body really has the power to heal itself, while committing to a healthier and more balanced lifestyle.  He travels across America, eating nothing but whole, juiced raw fruits and veggies. By the end of the film he had lost the weight, weaned off of all his medications, and is now a much healthier, active, vibrant man!

As soon as the movie ended, I knew what I had to do. I was going to change my diet drastically and I knew, deep down, that it was exactly what the Doctor ordered. Look out world, Stacey’s on her way back.

That very day I made a goal of eating 10 servings of fruits and veggies. Right away, I felt nothing short of amazing. And completely amazed that the answer to all my health and energy issues had been so simple all along! I made super smoothies and would stay full and satisfied for hours – a complete 180 from where I had been up to this point (remember, stuffing myself like a Thanksgiving turkey and still feeling hungry?!)

Day by day I ate my fruits and veggies, and I regained my life. Literally. I was once again able to manage, so much so that we actually took the older kids back out of daycare! I felt a deep, moving gratitude to the Lord for meeting me in my hour of need.

So, what does this have to do with losing baby weight?! Everything!

Because I kept my new eating habits after I gave birth to Boomba, too. And lo and behold, my baby weight seemed to literally melt off day by day. This was not what I had experienced with my other three! I was eating gluten, dairy, soy, alcohol free (and minimized refined sugars) and felt great.

And you can, too. It’s really, really simple, because all of these tips are common sense that we just need to be reminded of.

1. Focus on the fruits and veggies. They are nothing short of nature’s medicine. They provide raw energy and every vitamin that your body desperately needs – and you never have to feel guilty about eating a huge bowl of steamed carrots (yes, even with butter I highly recommend watching the documentary, as well as reading Daniel 1:12-16. These two resources might provide you the motivation you’ve been looking for.

2. Find an enjoyable way to exercise. For me, this means power walking on a treadmill for 20-30 minutes, three times a week. Yes, I really do enjoy it! When you enjoy your exercise, you’ll do it more often, and your energy, figure, focus, and mood will all benefit greatly.

3. Know when your body is burning fat, and work with it! Did you know that your body burns fat when you are hungry? That’s right, your metabolism is at its highest spike during the day when your tummy is begging you for food. So, how do we use this to our advantage? Don’t eat when you’re not physically hungry – whatever you eat won’t get burned, and will wind up on your thighs. Eat when you’re hungry – but balance this with not waiting too long to eat. If you starve yourself, you’ll either 1) overeat, or 2) slow your body’s metabolism because you’ve made it think that there is not enough food available. Eat when you’re hungry. Period.

4. Everything in moderation. We don’t have to give up our favorite coffee dessert drink or candy bar or whatever it is that you love too much to imagine letting go of. But we do have to exercise caution and self-control. Reward yourself and have that cookie – just not the whole jar.

5. Know your body. What foods is your body telling you that it doesn’t like? (You know, that headache you get every time you drink a Diet Coke? Or a tummy ache and gas from that glass of milk?) What amount of sleep do you need each night? How long can you wait in the morning without eating breakfast before you get dizzy and weak, or suffer later in the day for not eating enough to keep up your energy?  Am I feeling hungry because I am actually needing to eat (needing calories) or do I just need to boost my blood sugar (through, say, watered down orange juice or a handful of berries?) Our bodies were made to be incredibly smart at communicating with us. Give yours a listen.

Don’t give up the fight. Give it time and give yourself grace, but let us always push ourselves to be the best “us” we can be in every way (certainly not just in form!)

Stacey Joy

The post 5 Steps to Losing Baby Weight appeared first on Why Be Merely Human.

My poor children have more than their fair share of food sensitivities. Chalk it up to bad genetics or whatever you’d like. The fact remains – and my daughter Emma by far suffers the most of any of us. Twice in her short life has her stomach problems forced us to reduce her to eating only chicken, rice, and red bell peppers. Even then she struggled with tummy aches, anger issues, attention and focus problems, and terrible sleep.

We searched high and low for answers. Tested for parasites. Tested for allergies. Performed an endoscopy. Tried countless supplements and herbal remedies and dietary changes… everything short of paying hundreds of dollars on a controversial blood sensitivity test. Until…

We were blessed to meet dear friends who have had similar struggles in their own family, and they were the first to mention a food rotation plan.

Desperate for a change and for my daughter’s health, I implemented a food rotation for my family almost right away. I was very intimidated (trying new things are hard for lots of people!) and thought I just couldn’t possibly keep up with all my current responsibilities plus recording what every single person in my household was eating every day!

Thankfully, that was not at all the case! I have found the food rotation plan to be nothing but a blessing to our family. It has brought healing, stability, and structure to our lives in the oddest and amazing ways. It is incredibly straightforward and simplifies my meal planning and grocery shopping greatly!

So, just the basics here – a food rotation plan is based on the physical fact that our bodies will not react to certain food sensitivities or “triggers” if these triggers are only consumed every four days or less. If you eat, say, eggs every day for breakfast, you could develop a sensitivity to eggs due to the over-exposure. So, many people have now tried a food rotation plan where certain foods and categories of foods are assigned to each day to minimize the chances of developing sensitivities.

But here’s the biggest, perhaps most unknown benefit of a food rotation plan – it can undo your food sensitivities! (I’m not talking food allergies here – just sensitivities.) My daughter has a much broader range of foods she is able to eat since we’ve given her gut a chance to heal on the food rotation diet. It blesses my mother’s heart greatly to see her eating so healthily again, and living life happily – as every child should.

A food rotation plan can benefit anyone from any background struggling with any ailment. It is gentle on the digestive system and forces you to focus on natural foods. And that’s something we all could use!

How To Use A Food Rotation Plan

Well, that’s easy as 1, 2, 3!

1. Print out my Food Rotation Chart. Start by modifying the chart to fit your family’s current dietary restrictions – for us, that meant taking out all wheat, dairy and soy right off the chart to keep things simple.

2. Don’t be afraid to have superbly simple meals for a while. That’s right – I said superbly simple! This may have been the most difficult transition for me. I grew up with good home-cooked food and I’m accustomed to thinking that a meal should take at least 45-60 minutes to prepare. But the food rotation plan makes it impossible to have something like, say, an Italian lasagna for dinner, since it simply has too many overlapping ingredients. Enjoy the simplicity of a dinner of grilled salmon and zucchini squash with a side of your daily grains. Give your taste buds time to acclimate to the lower sodium, fat, and calorie dinners (your waistline will also thank you), and you will find that meal planning and grocery shopping becomes oh-so-simple.

3. Reference the Rotation multiple times a day until it’s second nature. Use it to give you ideas for every meal and every snack, and soon, you won’t even have to refer to the sheet! Give it time and give yourself grace. The results will be worth every ounce of effort.

Consider only using the food rotation when eating at home (not when we eating out at a restaurant or a friends’ house). It is meant to be a guideline, not a stressor!

And, if you are eating gluten, dairy and soy free like us (or would like to try it out), then your breakfast rotation can be as simple as this:

• Day 1
  • Turkey bacon or sausages
  • Steamed broccoli
  • Eggs any way you’d like
  • Side of raspberries/strawberries

• Day 2
  • Sauteed ham with spinach leaves, and/or
  • A bowl of oatmeal with kiwis/mangoes/pineapple

• Day 3
  • We use our favorite dairy/gluten free bread, warm it up on the griddle, and add almond butter and any kind of jam for a quick and easy breakfast treat
  • A fresh banana/pomegranate

• Day 4
  • Beef breakfast patties/sausages
  • Breakfast potatoes topped with sauteed bell peppers and fresh avocado slices
  • Side of blueberries

I also highly suggest making daily smoothies as a breakfast, lunch or snack option. My whole family loves this smoothie recipe – and it’s an easy way to sneak in what they need!

• Stacey’s Favorite Super Smoothie
  • Frozen mango chunks (or any fruit based on the food rotation)
  • 2 heaping Tablespoons Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
  • Powdered probiotics (or make your own probiotics using this recipe here)
  • A few scoops of almond butter (great source of protein and healthy fats)
  • A splash of vanilla extract
  • A little bit of your sweetener of choice (we use 2 T of dextrose powder)
  • Enough liquid to cover the solid ingredients (we use almond milk, orange juice, or even water)
    • Blend until smooth and enjoy.

(Mommy tip: Even my littlest one enjoys this smoothie recipe at only a year old – I made her a special “smoothie bottle” by cutting a slightly larger hole in the top of her bottle’s nipple to allow the smoothie to flow through. Voilà! Mess free smoothie enjoyment for even the baby!)

My best to you and your families in your own journey to healthy living

Stacey

P.S. – If (once) you’re committed to the food rotation, I highly recommend organizing your pantry, fridge and freezer according to the days on the rotation, so that each day it’s very clear as to what to use for meals and snacks. It’s not as difficult or complicated as it might look – it does take just a little bit of getting used to!

Here’s a picture of my “pantry” (I keep it out on my countertop), organized by food rotation days:

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