How I am shedding my postpartum weight (1)

I know people typically share their weight loss journey after they’ve achieved their goals, but I’m inspired to share mine now while I’m still working towards my target weight. I hope as you read you will be inspired and we can both achieve our goals together.

To avoid a very lengthy write up, this is going to be the first part of a two part series, and in this part, I will be telling you a bit about my story and why I decided to lose weight.

I weighed about 150lbs before I had my first child, and because I was someone who couldn’t gain weight in the past, regardless of what I ate, I didn’t pay any attention to my diet or my weight after that baby. Plus there were issues going on in my life then that were such a bother to me, I was sad a lot 😭😔and I lost the desire to care for my body/looks (God alone kept me from depression). By the time I realized myself I weighed about 196lbs.

Fast forward to a certain night just before Shiloh 2019 (Shiloh is the annual convocation of the winners family), I asked the Holy Spirit what changes I needed to make so I could be up earlier in the day to pray. And He said to me as clear as day “Stop eating so much, reduce your portions”. And that was how it all started.

So, in actual fact, my weight loss journey started in December 2019, a few months before I got pregnant with my second child.

Looking back now, I’m glad I have a relationship with the HolySpirit because I don’t think anyone else could have said that to me without hurting my feelings, even if they had the best of intentions.

Between that day in December and before I got pregnant in February, I lost 10 pounds, just by reducing my portions. I didn’t do a single work out because I had no time to.

In my first trimester, I had severe nausea and vomiting, and my weight dropped to about 170lbs, but by my second trimester, it started picking up again, as it should, and on the morning of my c-section, I weighed 203lbs. Of course by this time, I had decided that I was going to actively work on my weight and my target was to get to 150lbs, which would be healthy for me.

Why did I decide to lose weight?

If you don’t have a clear personal reason for your weight loss plan, you will lose steam along the way. So I’m sharing mine with you and I hope that it would stir you to think deeply about your reasons for wanting to lose weight.

Weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. If you’re not properly motivated, you will fall out.

First, let me say the criticisms of others were not enough fuel for me to go on this journey. All they achieved was to hurt my feelings and make me feel less confident, less beautiful etc. (If you know you said something about my weight, your apologies will be accepted in the comments section 😂). I cannot count the number of pictures my husband had to delete because I didn’t feel good about how I looked in it (Babes, I’m sorry😉). Now I wish I had kept them to really show my journey 😂.

Therefore, if you’re reading this and you have no issues with your weight, please be kind to others. Sometimes, there are underlying emotional or psychological reasons why people are unable to keep their weight down. Comments such as “you have gotten so big”, “you look chubbier or fatter” etc should be kept to yourself. If your opinion wasn’t sought, don’t offer it.

People who have gained weight know that they have, so there is no need for you to state the obvious. If you really want to help, just be kind as they go through their process, eventually they may open up to you about their struggle (if they consider it a struggle) and then you can offer meaningful advice if you have any. Also, if you’re in close proximity, you can offer joint work out sessions, if you’re someone who is actively keeping fit.

Now to my reasons:

My first personal reason for going on this weight loss journey was the fact that the Holy Spirit inspired it. Immediately I started reducing my portions as He instructed I felt so much lighter, my short sleep was sweeter, I woke up earlier, prayed better etc. And I just knew I had to keep up with this. It was that period I realized food can be a weight, even on your spiritual life.

My second personal reason was to live healthy. I want to be healthy and being overweight or obese just causes too much health complications that I’m aware of (take note, being underweight or malnourished has its own myriad of health problems too).

As with every aspect of our lives, God has His role to play while we have ours. It is my responsibility to take care of this body, by eating healthy and regular exercise. I believe that is the major kind of care our body requires. So I chose and I am continually choosing my health over my appetite. It is not every health issue that requires prayer and fasting, some just need a few lifestyle changes.

My third personal reason was to build my self esteem. Yes, we live in this vain world whether we like it or not, and your physical outlook affects your self esteem and confidence in either a small way or a big way depending on who you are. I wanted to look my best self and feel good about myself. I didn’t hate myself when I was 196lbs but I knew I could be better and I wanted that.

Moreover, when I found myself asking my husband very frequently how much he loved me, and when I realized that I couldn’t easily receive or believe his compliments, I knew it had more to do with my self esteem than it had to do with him. So I needed to work on myself and losing weight was a part of that process.

So right after baby was born, I started this journey and in my next blog post, I’d tell you ALL the steps I took and that I’m still taking to get to my target weight. Click the follow button so you can be notified as soon as it drops. (If you don’t have an account on word press, you’d also need to go to your email to confirm follow).

P.S: If any part of this post resonated with you, let me know in the comments. Reading from you always puts a smile on my face. So pls don’t exit this page without saying something.

P.P.S: Courtship and marriage posts are still on the way, this was just on my mind to be shared at this time.