My weight loss journey(s), part I

I thought I would share my story about how I got to where I am now with my body in the hope that it might help someone else and give ideas generally on the topic. As we are all different there is no one rule that applies to all, but I will try to open up why I think my actions have applied to my body. I am not a doctor and my observations are only about my body and how it seems to “work”.

I have gone through some sort of weight loss project after each pregnancy, but the older I got the harder it became. I have also read a bit on how sports and nutrition affect human body mainly because I wanted to understand more of the consequences of my actions. It has helped me to understand better why my body reacts the way it does. This all has required a really close looks into myself listening to my body very carefully and paying attention to all changes in every level.

It is not only what you put in your mouth that affects the body, but many outside factors and also normal physiological things that you cannot change, but need to work with. But let’s get to the story and start from the beginning.

Before children

Me 22 years ago

I was always skinny. Too skinny. I grew 12 cm in just a few months during my teenage years and gained hardly any weight. In addition to that I have skinny genes. My weight back then in my 20’s was 62 kilos. For my height (179 cm) that is not enough I understand that now.

I ate normal, exercised a bit mainly running and team sports. No weight lifting so no muscles either. It did not matter how much I ate, I still didn’t seem to gain any weight so came to conclusion that this is the way I am and no point worrying about it too much.

If you have checked About me page you know that I have four children. Each pregnancy I have gained about 24 to 26 kilos. I ate fairly healthy and weight gain was welcome during the first few pregnancies and possibly nature’s way to ensure that there is enough meat on my bones to breast feed the baby.

Anyway second pregnancy started around me weighing 67 kilos which is still around the low end for my height. Again gained 24 kilos of which over 10 kilos was left to hospital during child birth. Being younger (31 years) I lost the remaining kilos weight fairly easily without any special effort and was around 70 kilos when I got pregnant the third time.

My 40th after 4th child 6 years ago

Now being already 35 years old there was a clear shift and it was harder to loose the weight and during pregnancy I seemed to gain weight easier too. I was at 75 kilos when I got pregnant fourth time when I was 39 years.

If there was a change at 35 then at 40 there was a clear drop. Pregnancy was harder and again weight just kept accumulating. I did long walks trying to keep active, but still I gained again 24 kilos! When I went to give birth to my youngest in Australia they said the weight restriction to the pool was 100 kilos. My weight was 99 and at this time I left only 10 kilos lighter from the hospital and I did not loose the weight anymore as easily as I did when I was younger.

After children

Being over 80 kilos (closer to 90!!) was a bit of a shock to me as a number and seeing photos of me at my 40th birthday about 6 months after giving birth to my fourth child kind of woke me up. I was determined to “do something about it” and joined a “12 week challenge” at a local gym. I thought that doing more exercise and eating a bit healthier would do the trick and it did to some extent and got myself to around 82 kilos.

Me few months ago

Time passed and I didn’t stress too much about it as for my height it was not too bad, a bit at the top range, but still within normal BMI limits. It did though bother me at times and I did not feel quite like myself having been slimmer all my life previously, but didn’t have strength or resilience to do anything about it. I think it just was not the time yet.

Three years ago I managed to squeeze my weight with plenty of running and a bit healthier eating to 77 kilos, but gained all that back in less than a year during a more difficult time in my life (divorce) so was back at 82 kilos. Again did not stress about it too much as there were so many things going on in my life at that time that were more important than weight.

Then 1,5 years ago I decided again to “do something about it” and this time it would be for good. My weight was still around that 82 kilos and I did run regularly, but also ate completely wrong so the balance was incorrect. I totally got tired of the way I felt, the way I looked and it just was not me anymore. I felt like I have to really do something now.

Children were also older so I was able to concentrate more on my own well-being and more importantly my current husband supported me. This meant a lot to me and allowed me to take time to myself with good conscience.

Now 1,5 years and 15 kilos later I feel like me again. I feel more confident in my body and think that this is the me I lost some time ago.

How did I get here? I will share that story in My weight loss jouney(s) part II blog post in the coming days.

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