I just want to share my excitement somewhere because I don't feel ok talking with anyone except my husband about this yet.
I'm 31F, 5'5" and have a 5mo. I'm breastfeeding but I didn't start until a month or so in, was pumping full time before that. My heaviest was at the end of my pregnancy at about 230lbs. After she was born I hovered between 200 and 205lbs for months. I was so disappointed that the saying " you'll lose weight when you breastfeed" was a myth.
When I got pregnant I was at my max weight already, at about 195-200. We didn't eat particularly unhealthy but did order food in quite frequently (and ate out a lot before pandemic). When I met my husband was when I started those eating habits. I was about 150lbs when I met him 8 years ago. Prior to that I'd fluctuate between 140-150lbs as I would put effort into losing weight when I saw the weight creeping up. However after I met him it was a steady increase. The only time I lost any weight was during the few months I had a personal trainer because I was going to the gym regularly. Soon as I stopped with her the weight came back and kept going.
My other problem was that I deal with a mental heal issue called excoriation disorder. That's been an ongoing struggle for over 15 years. It means I pick my skin similar to trichotillomania with uncontrolled hair pulling. It's a form of OCD. It means I typically have multiple open cuts on my face that I hide with make up...but I hate wearing make up yo work out. So I'd work out on my good days, relapse and fall down again. Avoid the gym again. Eat to feel better.
I'm still working on healing myself from the childhood pain which originally sparked my disorder to develop. Still working on healing the negative thought patterns that constantly swirl through my mind. I pushed myself to at the very least have clearer skin for my wedding day since I wasn't able to put the effort into losing weight like most women do. I was successful for that! I wanted to be healthier for my daughter, I dont want her to see me picking and mimic me. I also want to be able to physically keep up with her when she's older and not be exhausted.
I always thought I'd be stuck with my weight issues until I fully addressed my mental health issues, but it seems just having made some progress there is helping. I feel worth the effort now at least.
This might shock you, but my weight loss seems to have nothing to do with any of that. My daughter has bad gas issues, and because I'm breastfeeding I have made diet changes to try to help her...which also helps me because she screams less and sleeps more. It's 100% only because of this that I stopped eating cheese and drinking cow milk after Christmas. Two weeks later I saw 198 on the scale and I was shocked. My only activity is a 30min - 1hr walk everyday (unless it's too cold or bad westher) and my husband and I made a pact to do some squats, push ups and crunches every night for one year as our new years resolutions. We have not yet broken that pact!
Stopping eating cheese and milk was huge for me. I knew I was addicted to cheese, I love it SO much. On bad days I would just order cheesy bread from Domino's and eat the whole thing as a snack. Anything I ordered from restaurants had cheese and sometimes I'd as for double cheese. I NEEDED it to feel satisfied.
Guess what? I don't! I'm amazed that I've been successful at not eating any, but if you heard how my daughter screamed from gas pain you'd probably drop anything to solve it too. It means when we order food now I don't end up having an extremely high calorie dish. I am sad to realize just how many menu items have cheese, but you can ask for no cheese. Sometimes that means it's not as good though because the chef was relying on the cheese for flavor...
I just cannot believe that this morning I was 193.6lbs. Sure, it's small progress...but I have been losing about a pound per week on average. So long as that happens I don't care about the quantity lost or how long it might take. I've literally never lost weight like this before, and with such minimal effort. I still eat a full breakfast of 2 eggs, 2 toast, one with peanut butter and fruit with my decaf tea with almond milk (doesn't taste like the tea I grew up with...it tastes like a new delicious nutty drink!). I still eat a full lunch...typically a cold cut sandwich just butter and cold cuts, a handful of plain chips, a bunch of veggies like carrots and cucumber, and one other food item I regularly switch up, sometimes it's even a cookie. Then a full dinner of something like a chicken breast or equivalent amount of another protein, rice or noodles or potatoes and a veggie side or salad. Sometimes a snack during the day and/or after dinner. I follow my hunger cues for snacks now.
Thing is, I was eating healthy like that before I got pregnant...but every meal would also have cheese. And I'd end up just wanting to eat all the time because my brain was stuck in an addiction mindset. I needed to free myself from the addiction before I could lose weight.
Edit: I also mostly stopped eating chocolate. It was another addiction that I snacked on fairly frequently. It wasn't a heavy indulgence but eating it would spark the same addiction waves in my brain as cheese would and affect my eating overall.
Now I'll forever be grateful for my daughter's screams...lol
Tldr: I've lost about 10lbs since Christmas...not due to major exercise changes, not due to breastfeeding, not due to healing my main mental health issue...but due to giving up my cheese addiction which allowed my healthy lifestyle efforts to work!
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