I got some good advice from the book The Girlfriends' Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood. One of which was that I would feel and think I looked skinny long before I truly am.
Prior to starting this weight-loss challenge I had lost 54 pounds of the 71 gained during my pregnancy. Since starting the WLC I have lost 9 pounds, so I am still 8 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, which was already 20 pounds over my ideal weight; yet I'm still walking around feeling like hot stuff. The way I'm strutting around, it's safe to say I have a new appreciation for how I used to look.
I've always been a very...very modest person. Of course RD has seen me in all my glory, but I'm not one to walk around the house naked...um, no. Pre-pregnancy RD was giving me grief one day about being so modest. He said to me, "You know...someday you're going to realize how good you look now and wish that you'd walked around naked when you had the chance. It will take you getting pregnant and gaining weight, getting older and having things sag to realize how good you look right now. Right now will be your 'remember when'. Take advantage of it!"
I rolled my eyes at him and went on about my business, but deep down I knew there was some truth to it. What scared me at that time though was thinking, "I don't like my body now...but this could be as good as it gets!" I shuddered at the thought.
And he was right. It took getting pregnant and gaining weight to appreciate the body I had then, but not only that body, but my new one as well. I have a whole new appreciation for how I look. Getting stretched and pulled and growing to the size of a small Buick has made me finally realize how beautiful my body is. No I'm not a perfect size six, and yes I do have a whole new appreciation of control-top underwear, and I still cringe a bit when looking at my profile in the mirror - but I'm finally comfortable in my skin.
I was wondering how being 8 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight I can now comfortably wear size medium tops when before I wore large. It's not that I'm miraculously smaller at this higher weight, but I spent too many years wearing these ridiculously baggy clothes in an effort to hide all my imperfections. Ironically, those baggy clothes just made me look bigger anyway.
Don't get me wrong, I still care what I look like; I'm not denying that, but I'm going to stop being so hard on myself.
I don't look so bad afterall. :)
