It’s #motivationmonday and today I want to take you back to the time that my mindset started to change. In 2015 our little boys were born a few weeks earlier than planned and I can honestly say that my pregnancy was the first time in my life that I was totally focussed on good nutrition.
I’d previously had another pregnancy and during my booking-in appointment with my midwife she told me that I’d already put on 14 lbs. I remember feeling embarrassed and I started to worry about how much weight I would put on throughout the pregnancy. Unfortunately that pregnancy wasn’t successful and I decided to think long and hard about my diet and nutrition.
When I discovered that I was expecting twins I was really worried about the amount of weight I could/would put on. The strain on my body could be quite hard and with pre-existing back problems from childhood I was all the more determined to keeps things under control. My body was busy growing two little boys so I was determined to provide my body with the best nutrition I could. As my pregnancy progressed and the boys took up more room I had to ensure I had good quality nutrients rather than quantity of food. Out went diet drinks, I restricted myself to only 1-2 decaffeinated teas or coffees a day, drank lots of water, ate lots of vegetables and some fruit. I was fortunate that I craved fruit and vegetables instead of chocolates, crisps and general crap that I had in previous pregnancies. The thing I really missed was a runny egg. At the time it wasn’t advisable for pregnant women to consume them, but that advice has now changed and eggs with the Lion mark have been deemed safe for pregnant women to eat.
30 weeks into my pregnancy I started to notice that I couldn’t feel twin 2 (Leonardo) moving as much and I went in for monitoring. I spent the next 4 weeks in and out of hospital for regular checks until my consultant advised that twin 2’s placenta wasn’t working as it should and they would deliver them at just over 34 weeks. At this point panic sets in. The boys were almost here but they were going to be early and there were going to be 2 specialist teams looking after us in the operating theatre. We had been fully briefed at what to expect and we were prepared for the boys to be whisked off, but when they arrived they were in good voice, they were pretty good weights and both doctors deemed them healthy enough not to need any intervention.
My body did the best job it could to bring 2 healthy boys into this world and towards the end the strain on my back was tremendous. I only put on 27lbs during my pregnancy and I was surprised that I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight in just over 3 months. It was just a shame that I went back to being over 15st. I wasn’t thinking about diet and exercise at that point and if I’m honest I kept putting off making a decision on how I was going to address my weight issues. Having a twin pregnancy in your 40’s puts you at risk for lots of things and I was really lucky not to experience them, gestational diabetes for example. But being back at the 15 stone mark, the list of things you’re at risk of is extremely worrying especially when your family is so young.
I’d been overweight throughout my adulthood and there are points at which I lost weight and then regained it. Towards the end of my pregnancy I made a promise to my body that I would take better care of it, but it needed to safely deliver my healthy sons as they were my most precious cargo. After the children’s 1st birthday I had to start getting serious about doing something about my weight problems. The children were starting to walk and I was overweight and terribly unfit. I didn’t want my children to see me on a constant diet and more importantly I wanted to lead by example. I didn’t want to be a fat mum at the school gates and I didn’t want my weight to hold me back from taking the children out and doing fun stuff.
The children are rapidly approaching their 3rd birthday and I still have progress to make to further reduce my chances of getting the nasty illnesses and conditions. You always read stories about people’s weight loss success because they finally found their motivation and were able to get in the right mindset. Fitting into nicer clothes or doing it for myself was never enough of a motivational kick up the backside, but along came these 2 beautiful little boys and there’s nothing I want more than to be around for as long as possible to referee their squabbles or take them to the local Snowdome for some fun before Christmas.
The reason I want to share this with you today is because today marks 16 years of being with an amazing man who makes me and our children stupidly happy. They say nothing prepares you for parenthood and they’re absolutely right. When you write a blog it’s hard to associate a picture with it especially if the blog is personal in nature. So the pictures were easy to choose. One picture is our very last picture as a family of 2 as we’re about to go down to theatre for our children to be born. The other picture is my reason for doing all of this, Benjamin and Leonardo.
Making a lifestyle change and making it permanent is so hard. Life sometimes get in the way and it’s really easy to slip back into old habits and forget why you decided to make the change to start with. A change of this nature isn’t something you can achieve overnight and people are so hard on themselves when they ‘fall off the wagon’. It takes work but with the right mindset you can achieve absolutely anything, you just need the right trigger and for me that is my children.
On days when you’re struggling to find the motivation to get your gym kit on or are reaching for the takeaway menu, take a moment to reflect on your reasons for change and don’t let the old you hold the new you back!
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