The picture above is my corporate boot camp group last week doing our cheer at the end of class. You can see me there on the left side cheering along. I just thought I'd include this to show that the belly is still working hard :)
The title of my post describes what's been going on with me this last week. Starting last Wednesday (mid week 34), my body weight started to drop. I usually weigh myself every other day (and sometimes every day), and up until that point, I'd been holding steady at the same weight since November (yes, you can see the belly is pretty big, so obviously, the baby is growing).
But, last week, my weight dropped about 3 lbs and held like that for a few days. At first I thought it was great because I was losing body fat. But then, my brain didn't feel it was right. Plus, I'd been kicking my own butt teaching boot camps sometimes 3 times a day, and I was feeling pretty sore and tired. So, with that known, I cut back my intensity a bit. I still make my boot campers work hard, but I'm doing more coaching and less actual demonstrating. This combined with eating a bit more food on high activity days has brought my weight back to where it was previously. It still isn't getting any higher, but at least it's no longer dropping.
Perhaps some women would be ecstatic to lose weight while pregnant, but for me, since I've barely put on any weight (as I've said, I've only put on about 15lbs), I just didn't feel right about losing now that I only have about 5 weeks to go. Knowing that I've been able to maintain pretty much all of my activity throughout this pregnancy has left me with the confidence that I'll be back in the game in no time after I deliver. And that, combined with breastfeeding and a good diet, will help me mold my body back to where I want it to be.
I've heard that with breastfeeding that your body likes to hold onto a bit of body fat no matter what you do. And, for some women, breastfeeding can be so catabolic that they actually lose muscle. No matter what happens in my case, I'm not going to not breastfeed just because there's a slight chance that I'll hold onto a few pounds after I have the baby. Breast milk is best and I refuse to feed my child formula just to look a certain way. The baby will ween soon enough and I'll get my body back at that time, even if it takes a bit longer.
Like I've said, I have about 5 more weeks to go. However, I have a strong feeling that this baby is going to come earlier than my due date because I've been experiencing a lot of contraction-like activity and the wicked low back pain that happens when my uterus does its thing (and it's NO FUN at all!). I'll keep you all posted though. For now, I'm off to teach my second boot camp of the day and because I took a lot of rest yesterday, I'm actually going to do both classes myself too (and they're hard!).
Cheers to a great pregnancy!!
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