Pro-Sports

While at PL’s house last weekend to celebrate JV’s birthday, the usual topic of weightloss, diets and exercise came up.  It turns out PL, J and PL’s colleague E had a little wager going - who can lose 10kgs within a certain deadline (I can’t recall when the dealine was but I think they have until Chinese New Year).  Each person had to put in $100 each and the person who loses the most weight will pick up the pot.  If anyone fails to lose 10kgs by the deadline, that person has to pay up another $100. 

It sounds like a good incentive to me.  In fact, I wanted the hubby to participate as well but he “claims” he didn’t feel right taking money from his friends because he was sure to win.  Yeah, right…

What surprised me was that E once lost half his weight in three months!  He was about 140+kg and he went down to 70+kg.  Apparently all he ate each day was a fruit - talk about massive starvation.  It’s a wonder that he had the energy to get through the day…

Anyway, we came to the conclusion that there is only one full-proof way to lose weight and it’s called “starvation”.  Indeed, my brother’s friend MF, who is a weightloss junkie, concurs.  MF, who has tried just about every diet plan and weightloss device on the market, revealed his secret to my brother after finally managing to lose his nine-months pregnant barrel:  “Well, Kenny, it’s all about starvation.”

If you are dead serious about losing weight and you want to do it the healthy way then here are seven steps on how you should go about it (your weight has to be stable before your can do steps 3 and 4, otherwise, see notes below):

1. Go buy yourself a calorie counter.
2. At the start of the week, weight yourself and record it.  Take measurements of your waist, arm, thigh and whatever area you’re trying to trim down and record them.
3. Over the course of the first week, record in a food journal everything you ate and the rough proportions.
4. Use your calorie counter to calculate the number of calories you consumed during that week and divide by seven to get an average daily consumption.
5. Minus 510cal from your average daily consumption - that’s how many calories you’re allowed to eat each day.
6. Plan your meals around your calorie allocation for the day and off you go.  Remember, if you break your diet, don’t beat yourself up - just start over the next day.
7. Weigh and measure yourself at the end of every week to monitor your progress (do not do this more frequently than once a week, although you can do it less frequently if you can’t be bothered).  The weight is just a general guideline, while the measurements help you see what you’re losing - remember if you’re exercising at the same time, you’ll be building muscle mass and muscle weighs more than fat.  What you will notice is that although your weight may not be decreasing or in some cases increases, your measurements should be decreasing.

Here are 7 more tips that will help you get the best out of your weighloss program:

1. Your diet should be one that you can stick to and continue even after you have lost your desired amount of weight.  Any diet that you can’t continue indefinitely is not a suitable diet plan.
2. You should lose about 1/2 to 1kg a week.  Trying to lose too much too quickly causes rebound weight gain when you get off your diet.
3. Don’t eat anything after 8pm or 2 hours before bedtime.
4. Reverse your meals so that breakfast is your largest meal and dinner is your smallest.
5. Try to get in 20 minutes of exercise, three to four times a week.  Exercise will help you maintain your basal metabolic rate - the minimum amount of energy it takes to keep your body functioning.  When you lose weight, your BMR normally drops.  Exercise helps build muscle mass which helps to increase your BMR and hopefully counter the BMR drop resulting from your weightloss.  This also helps reduce rebound weight gain after getting off your diet.
6. Incorporate exercise into your daily routine - walk whenever you can, and take the stairs whenever possible.
7. Try not to lose more than 10kgs in any one dietary program.  If your ultimate goal is to lost 15kgs, then work at losing 10kgs first.  Once you are sure you can maintain your new weight, work on losing the next 5kgs.

I followed this plan when I was in University and I went from 60kgs to 48kgs (which was actually a little low for my height). 

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Friday past, I made it to another mother and baby Pilates class at Fitfor2.  Well, it’s not so much for baby as it is for Mummy.  Mother and baby classes are great because the music isn’t ear-shattering and you can bring along your baby and let him lie, crawl or play with the other babies while you get in an hour of exercise.  Since it is attended by other mothers, you are free to attend to your baby, nurse him or rock him during class as and when you need to.  The only down side is that baby can interrupt your session if he happens to be in a rather clingy mood.

So far, I’ve been to two Pilates classes in the span of two weeks and managed to get in at least half an hour exercise before Gavin starts disturbing the other babies or crawling all over me.  It’s a little hard trying to balance when your baby is trying to pull up to standing using you as his aid.   

Oh well, I figure half an hour once a week is better than nothing.  It also gives Gavin the opportunity to be out of the house, to meet new babies and for Mummy to make new friends.  When he’s a little more independent, I’ll start taking the fitness regime more seriously again.  For now, I’ll just take it easy and enjoy whatever comes my way.

Despite the interruptions, I’m still finding the Pilates class a pretty good workout - especially for my abs which are in need of serious working out.  When I first went to see the doctor for my six week postpartum follow-up and complained about my orange peel belly, he did say some abdominal exercises would help.  My abs are probably the only area currently that gives way to the fact that I’ve had a baby.  How I wish I were like the other mother I saw on Friday’s class - her baby is only two months old and she’s already back to her pre-pregnant shape!  At least, she looks like she’s never had a baby in her life.

If you want to have a baby and keep your body, the secret is to have a baby while you’re still young enough for your body to recover quickly.  Well, this information’s probably a little too late coming to me, but it could still be useful to you if you are still light-years away from turning the big three zero.

If this news is too late for you, too, then consider picking up Pilates.  It has the following benefits for aging Mummies:

• the primary benefit of Pilates is to counter back pains that can develop from carrying baby around.  Pilates is an exercise that was invented by Joseph Pilates who created this series of exercises to improve physical health through breathing and core muscle strengthening.  By focussing on the core postural muscles which support the spine, Pilates helps to align the spine and prevent back pain. 
• helps with your posture which will only deteriorate as you carry baby more often - not only will you hunch more carrying baby around, but you’ll also develop a tendency to jut one hip out to the side that your toddler likes to sit on.
• helps with the sagging underarms - well, this is probably pretty useful regardless of whether you’ve had a baby or not.
• helps with the flabby abs that have been stretched out of shape after five months of carrying a watermelon around.
• if you’re attending classes specifically for Mums returning to exercise, then it’s also a great way to meet new friends (for both you and baby).

If you are returning to exercise again after pregnancy, make sure your instructor is qualified so she can check to make sure your abdominal muscles have recovered sufficiently for you to do crunches again.  Some mothers have a separation of their abdominal muscles which take longer to recover postpartum.  It is important that you do not jump into abdominal exercises too quickly postpartum because the stress can increase the separation.  Make sure you have the okay from a qualified specialist (your doctor or a fitness instructor) before starting on an ab workout.

The only abdominal workout you can do postpartum is a breathing exercise where you breathe in to expand your stomach and then tighten your abdominal muscles as you exhale.

Below: Gavin at a play date with friends we made at Fitfor2.

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I’ve started working out again - well, if you can call it working out since I only do it once every other week.  I’ve been alternating between the fitball and pilates class at Fitfor2.  I seem to be in bad shape.  I don’t remember feeling so achy after either class when I was pregnant and one would think I would have been in worse shape lugging around some 10-20kgs extra.

After Friday’s Pilates class, my abs were aching on Saturday, even though I didn’t even complete the full abdominal workout thanks to Gavin who decided to crawl all over me.  That’s one of the pros and the cons of attending class at Fitfor2 - I get to bring my son into class with me, but he also gets to distract me from exercising while we’re at it.

My cardio also appears to be completely shot as I discovered when I decided to use the rowing machine at my parents’ house while we were in Melbourne.  After fowing only one kilometer, my heart rate went through the roof.  I felt so nauseous I had to sit down to recover.  Perhaps I should have slowed it down a little and gone for a leisurely row down the Yarra instead of attempting a dragon boat race.

I guess weight training with Gavin and carrying him around the shopping mall isn’t enough. Although it would be interesting to go to the gym and check out what sort of weights I can lift or trying out a few routes at the climbing gym to see how I fair now that I’ve been minding a ten kilogram baby for ten months.  If I really want to work on the fitness, I can also work out from home in between classes since I have a fitball and my own exercise mat.  I used to have one of those pilates stretch bands, too, but heck if I know where it is now. 

Sigh… it’s a tough call.  I have so many things I want to do and so little time to do them.  Looking after a baby takes up a lot of my day - especially now that he’s moving into toddlerhood, getting more mobile and determined to have things his own way.  If it isn’t physically strenuous, it’s mentally exhausting.  I almost look forward to his afternoon naps so I can nap as well!

A lot of people (who have never looked after a baby - or have somehow forgotten what it is like) seem to have this idea that I should be so free.  After all, I have a maid that does the housework, so what could I possibly be doing all day that keeps me so busy?  Well, let me set things straight.  Firstly, although I have a maid and am grateful for her, I still do all the things related to my baby - bathing, feeding, playing and watching over him.  I also do all his food preparation.

This is a typical example of one of our days:

9:30 - wake up and play (sometimes Gavin will play on his own for a bit but mostly I need to be around.  Now that he’s mobile and getting into all sorts of trouble when I’m not looking, I need to be looking or keep him in his playpen - which he is fast starting to resent.)
10:30 - prepare breakfast (for Gavin and me) and eat.
11:00 - bath time (since Gavin makes such a mess at breastfast, and he splashes a lot of water at bath time, I’ll need one, too).
11:30 - Head out for a bit of shopping, to Fitfor2 for exercise, have lunch and do whatever else that needs to be done.
1:30 - Get back home for afternoon nap.  If we’re lucky, he’ll sleep for 2 hours.  Half of that time, I’ll be next to him because he’ll wake up if he’s alone on the bed.
3:30 - Wake up and play until dinner time. While he’s being entertained by Ah Kong and Ah Mah, I’ll be preparing his food. 
6:30 - Dinner time with the rest of the family.
7:30 - Bath time and winding down.
8:30 - Bed time (depending on Gavin it can take anywhere between 10 minutes and an hour to get him to sleep).  While he sleeps, I might do a bit of reading, play sudoku, check my emails, or blog a bit before going to bed - it all depends on whether Gavin will sleep without me next to him.
Anywhere between 4:00-6:00 - Gavin wakes up to poop (recently), or play in his cot for half an hour to an hour while Mummy sleeps.  Then he’ll go back to sleep.

And that is a typical day in a life with Gavin.  Although it isn’t a particularly hectic day, most of the time I’m pretty much tied up with Gavin.  So long as the activities I do involve him, we’re okay.  Until Gavin learns to play by himself and sleep on his own, I’ll have to postpone any “Mummy only” activities.

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