I know many of you who have been following my blog for a while realize how difficult my weight struggle has been over the years and especially over the past year since I had my daughter, Natalie.  So at my doctor’s appointment last week, I expressed my weight concerns with him.  I told him that I was still carrying 10 extra pounds around since Natalie’s birth and with the way I gain weight during pregnancy, I’m going to be the size of a house again in no time.  I mean, my metabolism is so shot that if I consume more than 1200 calories a day, I gain weight…and I mean I gain pounds a week.  Needless to say, I’m slightly stressed out about eating enough to fuel my growing baby’s needs, my body’s needs, and the fact that I’m still in the process of weaning Natalie so making milk requires caloric intake as well.  But again, as I stated, whenever I eat anything more than green leaves, I gain weight at record speed.  Ok…so back to the conversation with the doctor….

As I was expressing my concern about my excess weight I really just expected him to say not to worry about it while I’m pregnant.  I assumed he would recommend that I stick to a healthy diet and worry about the extra pounds once you give birth…or something to that effect.  I truly just expected him to ease my concerns and tell it was ok that I was going to turn into Dom Delawise again, but apparently, that was not the case.  He actually told me that a pregnant woman can lose up to 20% of her body weight within the first 20 weeks of pregnancy before it’s any kind of risk to the fetus.  He then proceeds to tell me, in a very politically correct manner, that he is not suggesting that I diet, but if I did lose 5-10lbs, that would be fine with him!

SERIOUSLY??? FINE WITH HIM IF I LOOSE 5-10LBS…..

So does this mean that I now actually have to worry about dieting during pregnancy?  He even  continued on with telling me that all I need to do is cut out carbs from my diet and I’ll lose weight.   He acknowledged that carbs are all I will be craving “like crazy” being pregnant, so it may be difficult to do.  But anytime I crave a carb I should just “reach for a cashew instead” and I’ll lose some weight!  And he wrapped up the visit by telling me not to beat myself up too much about any weight gain I have during these first few months since water retention is the real culprit for that if it does happen.

Again…SERIOUSLY???

I walked out of the office feeling like I was just blindsided by a flippen bus.  So I went home and did what any apparently over-weight, soon to be dieting, pregnant woman would do….I grabbed the nearest loaf of bread I could find and downed about 4 pieces of toast!  I chased that with several servings of FULL FAT chips and walked out of the kitchen trying to mentally prepare myself for jump-starting my new “cashew diet” tomorrow!

Well, that appointment was nearly a week ago and I have yet to buy any cashews.  I’m really just angry with myself for even mentioning my concerns to the doctor because now I really feel like the pressure is on to lose some weight.  Had I just shut my mouth, he certainly wouldn’t have brought it up or offered up such gracious “helpful hints”.

I know that I shouldn’t stress about this but hey…stressing is what I do best.  And I really will never forget the moment when I was 9 months pregnant with Natalie and a mom from school came up to me…actually stopped me in my tracks…to tell me that she was so happy that I’m a “real woman”.  She proceeded to explain that she can’t stand these women that don’t gain weight anywhere but a tiny bump in their belly when their pregnant.  She was thrilled to see that like her, I gained weight ‘EVERYWHERE”!  Yes…she actually had the audacity…or stupidity…to say this 3 inches from my 9-month pregnant face!  She was right…I do gain weight EVERYWHERE and I gain alot of it…and I also envy and dagger stare at the little twits that gain 15lbs and loose it before they leave the hospital….but to actually say it my face…WOW!  I walked around the rest of the day with a bag of cheese puffs in one hand and a tissue in the other from the uncontrollable sobbing!  So as you can imagine…some of my preganncy weight gain fears are at least a little bit substantiated.

So here we are again….extra weight from the last baby….well actually…the last 5 babies

A doctor who wouldn’t “object” to me losing weight while pregnant

And an overly hormonal pregnant woman bouncing between overdosing on salads and CASHEWS!

Good times…good times!!  ;o)