Does this baby make me look fat?

Pictures from before and after pregnancy

Let me just start out by saying that I had been on a weight gaining trend for about 4 months before I got pregnant, nothing major, just a few pounds that I could have easily lost. As soon as I found out I was expecting all hell seemed to break loose. For some reason I got it in my head that since this is the first and only time I am planning on being pregnant (more on that later) I would go all out and eat whatever and whenever I wanted. As you can tell this is going to lead me down a very bad road. By the time I was about 15 weeks along I had already gained quite a few pounds, due mostly to what I would like to call “2nd breakfast”. I would wake up in the morning, usually eat the biggest bowl of cereal ever seen, and then two to three hours later eat again, usually a pop tart or some other disgusting sugar filled food. All through this pregnancy my OB never once said, “Hey Sarah, why don’t you lay off the food for a little while, you fatty”, I really think that might have helped, or I would have eaten her, either way someone should have said something.

I forget how far along I was but my husband went with me to one of my checkups and of course they had to check my weight, as they did with every appointment. He chose this day to stand right next to me and look at the scale, something I have never been comfortable with. This is where he coined the term “triple-deuce”, of course referring to my weight. After I cried for 30 minutes in the parking lot of the hospital and told him what a horrible husband he was, I got over it and laughed along with him. If only I had known that “triple-deuce” would soon be a distant memory, yes that’s right, I was still gaining what seemed like a pound a day. To get me through without becoming clinically depressed I kept thinking, “oh it’s not a problem, I’ll just work out after I give birth”, if only I had thought about the little problem of actually having a BABY to take care of night and day!

After wonderful Mason Scott was born on January 4th, 2009 I was what dr.’s like to refer to as morbidly obese, and still nothing was said to me about getting my weight down or starting a healthy eating program, way to drop the ball Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton. In the first few months I pretty much never left the house, embarrassed because I was the size of a Mack Truck. Around March or April I began to walk occasionally, very occasionally, and when I could get away I would head to the gym. This was slowly taking off the weight and by May I am happy to report that I was far away from the “triple-deuce” label that had started to haunt me, but I still had a long way to go.

In August of 2009 I joined 24 Hour Fitness and I believe it is the best decision I ever could have made in regards to my health. They have a wonderful childcare center, great hours, and good equipment. Now through the last year of hard work, some dieting (no more 2nd breakfasts for me!), and determination I have lost 95 pounds and over 13% body fat. If just one person can benefit from my experience it was worth it, although I would never go through it again!