I am a 26 year old mother of one, my amazing son, Patrick. Despite remaining very active during my pregnancy, and not gaining any weight until the third trimester, I still managed to pack on 40 lbs in the last six weeks. I’ve included a picture of a hike to the top of a local waterfall at 33 weeks, over 4 miles round trip. We still do not have an explanation for the weight gain, but it happened. After 25 hours of natural labor, my son was born via c-section because his head was turned, and he was rather stuck. He was born 6/9/05 at 36 weeks, 6lbs, 11oz. He is the joy of my life, even though he’s screaming at me right now for typing this, and I don’t know what I would do without him!
My weight loss was good at first, I quickly lost 25 lbs, but then stalled, and actually gained 10-15 of that back and floated between 195-197. I’ve been taking Merida since June 23rd as all other attempts to loose weight have failed, and I’m now down to 178, getting closer to my prepregnancy weight of 170. I plan to try to loose more though, and get back to 135 if possible. I will be back with more pictures when I’ve reached my goal! Between the beginning of a new school year (I teach juniors at a local high school), and chasing around my very active toddler, I think my journey won’t be too terribly long, though I know it won’t be easy.
I applaud your efforts with this site, as they have encouraged me to be proud of my badges of honor rather than ashamed!
I recently had trouble losing weight. In fact while working out 6 days a week and eating a 1200 calorie a day diet I was gaining weight! It turns out that my adrenal gland was screwed up. You can ask your doctor to check your cortisol levels with a saliva test. I think you can order then online yourself. I found relief through doc perscribed vitamin suppliments and following the eating plan In “The Schwarzbein Principle” Good luck, I think you look beautiful but i know how much extra weight can impact your quality of life