weight gain during and loss after pregnancy

I had the worst morning sickness during my pregnancy. I was nauseated all day, everyday for several months. Our trip to Eastern Europe was a nightmare. My options were to get on bus everyday and drive on windy roads or stay in the cabin and smell all the nasty smells on the boat. A cruise is officially the worst place for someone with morning sickness.

The only thing that made me feel better was eating. I needed to run to the kitchen the second I woke up and eat and I had to keep eating to avoid any drops in blood sugar. The food that made me the least sick was anything spicy and anything carb loaded, with the latter being particularly bad for avoiding excessive weight gain. After several months of eating lots and lots of ice cream and scones and pasta and bread my weight started climbing fast.

When morning sickness was over, I had another issue that made it hard to keep my weight gain on track. I had severe pain in my pelvis and couldnt move around much. Exercise was out of the question. This was probably caused by my weight gain in the beginning of my pregnancy.


Here I am at the beginning of my pregnancy at a flyball tournament. I had to stop at 7-11 and get food to keep the nausea away!

When I was admitted to the hospital, I was 60 lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight. After giving birth, when I got home and weighed myself I had lost about 15 lbs. I was pretty overwhelmed by how much weight I had to lose. Its been a great experience (only a dietitian would say that about having to lose weight) and I think it will help me as a dietitian. 45 lbs to lose is a pretty daunting task. With breastfeeding, following a whole foods/low carb diet and exercising I have managed to lose all but 10 lbs in 5 months. Im still working on it. Its really true that the last 10 lbs is the hardest, but Im determined to keep at it.