Weight a few months...

One more from the Wish List to give expectant parents some motivation.

I was a pretty normal early-thirties professional working long hours in The City when we had the wonderful news that we were expecting.

I say pretty normal, as I was two stone above my "university weight" and had to admit the sports and interests I often named were no more than sporadic, if not simply historic.  Waiting to be a parent needn't be just that: waiting.

My thought was that I'd want to be able to carry my kid for as long as possible as are growing up, so I would need to be more active.  And losing a bit of weight wouldn't hurt either, I thought.  In fact, surely if I could lose 7lbs before my boy arrived, I would be able to carry him 24/7(at first) because I would be used to carrying around that weight!  Going further, if I continued to lose about a pound every fortnight, I shouldn't feel any real strain of carrying my son for the whole of the first year!

Now that's easy to say isn't it?

But it is amazing what you can achieve if your motivation is strong enough and immoveable.
Mine was.
All of a sudden, pitta replaced thick white bloomers for lunch, fillings became generous slabs of turkey, chicken and beef with lashings of houmous or ketchup rather than shop-made fillings or cheese.
I would have a proper breakfast of porridge and banana rather than any fried alternatives.

But while all the above helped, I would say the following was most influential: I was more active day to day without it being manic, I mostly cut out pasta (except before a stamina exercise session), white bread and potatoes.  I mostly cut out alcohol - not too hard after the first few drinking sessions as a dad-to-be are severely "frowned upon".  And I weighed myself every day.

The last is probably contentious, but I feel it really does help to motivate.  Be consistent with timing - naked weight in morning before breakfast but after a visit to the bathroom is about as consistent as I could get!  (ok too much information)  And you will of course see your weight flicker upwards a pound or two occasionally - BUT AT LEAST YOU'LL WORK OUT WHY!!!

Ok, so all good in theory - how did it pan out for me?

Well when my wife was 6 months pregnant I came back from gorging myself on food on holiday and hit the scales at 13st 5lbs - a personal record.  By the birth I was down to 12st 4lbs.  The first 7lbs was fairly temporary binge weight, but I can still credit the remaining 8lbs as a result of a concerted effort.  My boy is now 11 months old and weighs 24lbs.  I weigh 11st 6lbs.  So as long as my strength hasn't diminished, I have muscle enough to carry him plus a 3lb surplus - that'll be his clothes and a very full nappy!

I do carry him a lot, though not excessively, and I'm glad he has been my motivation to succeed in a short-term goal that I'd failed at for the previous decade.

I hope some of you find this useful in achieving the same!

As an aside, he woke at about 4am every day this week and has not been going back to sleep - I dread to think how I would have coped with him in those early morning hours of desperation with an extra 2 stone tucked under my belt!