New moms everywhere have always been comforted by the knowledge that nursing mothers burn more calories, which helps take off the weight gained during pregnancy. Well, now that I am in that category of people I've been wondering how true that really is. So I did a little experiment: I put my GoWearFit armband on and for the past five days have compared my sedentary calorie burn to my burn on rest days before I was pregnant. On average, I'm burning about 2,100 calories just sitting around on the couch watching daytime television. On my rest days of Thursdays and Sundays this time last year, I burned about 2,000 calories a day. So, technically I am burning more but nowhere near the 500 calories I've read about! But hey, I'll take it. Calories are calories!
A few of you have jumped on my 10-pounds-gone-by-New Years bandwagon and to you I say, "climb aboard!" I expect my weight loss will be mostly related to those whopping 100 extra calories I am burning each day, since I am not going to be lowering my calorie intake for a while or adding lots of exercise. Nope, I still have three weeks to go before I can start working out again, and since nursing my baby is priority one, I won't be dieting for a while either. But as I have said over and over, wellness is 80% nutrition, and so much can be done for greater health just based on what and how you eat. I've started making some healthier swaps already and eating more vegetables, which I couldn't stand when I was pregnant. I already feel so much better and have way more energy. Yay!
I was also smart enough to buy some non-maternity clothes in larger sizes before the baby was born, knowing that I would want to wear something normal but would instantly get depressed if I tried to squeeze into my old stuff. And let me just say now that I would like to retroactively kick myself for all the times I thought I was fat because these days I am feeling amazing about my body and how much it has transformed in the past two weeks but it is still WAYYYYYY too big for my pre-pregnancy clothes. So yeah, a little perspective there. :)
Speaking of perspective and body image, the biggest thing I am doing for my wellness this week is channeling positive energy. Read here about the valuable impact that I healthy body image can make on your weight loss and how you can start creating one today. :)
It's a wonderful day to get out there and get healthy!
No comments:
Post a Comment