It ain't easy but it ain't hard weight loss program: episode 2

The second installment of the series, "It ain't easy but it ain't hard weight loss program."  The first installment can be found here.


So let's rewind.

I mentioned that I was feeling exhausted and spent from my second pregnancy in two years, and that I had already suspected the nutritional information distributed by the government was kinda weird or something.  It didn't line up.  But I suspected this long before I ever got pregnant.  How did I get off track?  What caused me to completely throw in the towel and listen to the FDA and USDA?  Well, in short, a nutritionist and an ever-ballooning body.

My body had already become stretched far enough past my liking with my first pregnancy, and I never touched back down to my pre-pregnancy weight before I was--yes--pregnant again.  By month 6.5 into pregnancy number two, I was larger than I had wanted to be.  Not overtly down on myself, but small inklings of doubt in my body and its ability to take care of itself.  So I won a free month of nutritional advice from an RD and thought this would be the chance I needed to learn what my body needed.  They even included weekly meetings to help with accountability.  She said she would help me not gain too much weight.  Well, they say you get what you pay for...

The nutritionist gave me a website and told me to enter in everything I eat.  I was obsessed with this website.  I would nitpick every single thing I ate, entering it into the website, making little recipes on the website, googleing the fast food places I went to and finding their nutritional information (best thing I learned from this is the tortilla at Chipotle is 280 calories, taking off of which makes a 900-cal meal into 600.  I didn't like that tortilla anyway...).  It was exhausting and took about 3 hours per day.  I found myself changing my diet based more on what was easiest to put into the computer than what my body needed.

The nutritionist came back and said to me, "you are eating too much fat."  She gave me the plan of 50% carbohydrate, 25% protein, 25% fat.  I was eating 30% and that was me eating everything "fat-free."  Wasn't avocado and nut fat okay? Then I had this weird idea that more protein equals more healthy so I would add protein powder to everything.  I had a goal of 150-180 grams of protein per day.  Whole grains were a must-have.  Whole grains and protein.  Some fruit and vegetables.  Then ice cream--or frozen yogurt for healthy twist.

 I became depressed.  I was obsessed with an obligation to a website.  My body was changing constantly and I felt like I had to control every calorie or else face permanent weight gain.  Two pounds per pregnancy. That's what the media had touted.  After six weeks on this plan and tracking my food, I went to my midwife. My weight had leveled off.  I had not gained a pound.  Wait a minute, I thought.  Aren't I supposed to gain weight?  Maybe this isn't useful for right now.  Maybe this is not healthy to my baby.  I stopped tracking my food and just started eating whatever.  It was still sugar and protein powders.  Some vegetables and whole grains.  Her advice was still ringing in my ears...