The Scale Monologues

Nervously, yet naively laughing in the face of the maternity nurse as she wrote 35 in big red ink on the top of my folder at my first appointment during my third pregnancy has now come to bite me in the butt. Big time.

Okay, enough already, I get it. I am not the once invincible athlete I thought I was, no weight gain stubborn enough for me to shed off and shed off quickly, yeah right.

With each of my pregnancies, I gained weight faster than you could blink, 45 lbs plus with each baby, but within a year, all the weight as gone, most of it gone within just a couple months. So with this third pregnancy, when I gained 10lbs the minute I looked at the test stick for confirmation, and another forty pounds nine months following, I still thought, sure it'll be tough, but no problem. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

This baby and this pregnancy has done it's damage.

I have fat in places I didn't know it existed, and stretch marks in places I didn't know it stretched. I recently went to Old Navy and stepped into the dressing room to try some items on, maybe that was my first mistake, and just about had a breakdown. As I was looking in the mirror, a full frontal standing under bright commercial lights, a never if you are just 6 months out after having baby number three, I jumped, gasped and quickly looked behind me hoping there was some semi-fat version of myself standing behind me playing tricks. I can't imagine this was what Sir Mix-A-lot was talking about when he declared he liked big butts.

And then I turned sideways, thought it would be better if I stood up straight, backed up, did a circle and looked from behind. UGH! This was not happening to me, I'm a finely tuned athlete. I had abs of steel, a rock hard behind and toned muscles. Or at least that's what I had before baby number three, now my body was just a shadow of what I looked liked pregnant.

Will someone please tell my butt, thighs and midsection that there is no longer a baby on board! Time to deflate!

Granted I have lost 36 lbs, but I've got 20 stubborn more lbs to go that I refuse to carry into 2011. Twenty pounds that I refuse to carry into October, as this is the month that my High School State Championship Swim Team is being inducted in to the North Penn High School Sports Hall of Fame and there is nothing like walking into your old High School, 17 years later and the same amount heavier.

Not going to happen.

So as I trade, pancakes for eggs whites, sandwiches for salads, pretzels for peanuts and nice chocolate deserts for small, very small cups of sugar free jello, I grunt and sweat and jump. I remember the number on the scale that morning and I push harder. I refuse to be a victim to this extra weight and these extra inches weighing me down. And I feel a little bit like Bridget Jones, only if she were a married stay at home mom, after her third pregnancy, minus the cigarettes and the alcohol.

Today at 5'9" *cough* okay, 5'8 1/2": 168lbs

Goal by my birthday July 31st: 159lbs.

Goal by October 148.

Tipping the Scales.

I remember going to my first appointment after finding out I was pregnant with our 3rd baby, I was ecstatic. As I sat down with the maternity nurse, she went through the usual questions, questions I had been asked before, so I felt like a pro.

And then she got to age, "35", she said.

"No, I'm only 34", I corrected her. "Yes, but you will be 35 at the time of birth", she said as she wrote 35 in large red ink at the top of my folder.

Was that necessary?

Then she continued, " 35 is considered Advanced Maternal Age".
What? I thought to myself, I'm in my prime!

Then we procceededto the scales, "154" she responded. At 5'9 I didn't think that was bad, I had about 5 lbs extra but not bad, or so I thought. And then she commented, "You are 7 lbs more than when you got conceived with your other children".
What? I know this but, you have to tell me? It's not like I'm overweight. And as that festered inside of me like a bomb ready to go off, just to add gas to the flames, she proceeded to take my blood pressure.

"Oh and your blood pressure is a little elevated. Not bad but unusual of you, an athlete."
Excuse me, I should have said to her, you just told me I was old and fat...what do you expect!

Now, after having that 3rd baby, I thought I was in my prime for.....I get it.

That 3rd baby baby weight is a bitch to lose, excuse the frankness.
But that's where, at least for me, being 35 has come into effect.

Attention given to women like the Octomom, who claims she didn't have plastic surgery...yeah right, and Heidi Klum don't make it any better. Neither does all the press about celebrities over the age of 35, even over the age of 40 having babies, multiple babies and dropping the weight right after the baby pops out.
Not that I'd expect that to happen to me, but come on.

Maybe it's a habit I acquired from being an athlete, but I pride myself on being fit and tone.I love working out and nothing better to fuel that then a weight loss challenge, but I've never met cellulite so stubborn.

2 months after I had the baby, my daughter asked me if there was another baby in my belly.

3 months after I had the baby, I swear I still looked 3 months pregnant and had cellulite in places I didn't even know it existed.

And to make it worse, last month the school nurse at George's school asked me when I was due!! Seriously! I know maybe the shirt, a striped empire waist shirt, probably didn't do much for a post baby pouch, but still.

So now, 5 months post-partum, the weight is starting to budge and my stomach and hips are finally communicating with the rest of my body, that the pregnancy is over!

With the hlep of my husband, I've just accepted to love the size I am now. And keep jumping, running, and exercising and some day, hopefully by October, (I have an event I have to go to that I refuse to take extra poundage to!) I'll be back to my pre-pregnancy size.

Besides, what do they say, "9 months to put it on, 9 months to take it off".
It must have been a man to say that....easier said than done