Unhealthily overweight: Chapter 1: The history

It's not secret I've gained weight since I had Elijah. Where as I understand it's perfectly natural to have trouble loosing the baby weight, and even gain a bit of weight after wards that's not the case here. Elijah is almost a year already and I am unhealthily overweight.

I am short. 5 foot 1/8th an inch kind of short. So what may seem like not much weight to you, is a lot to me. Take my body mass index into account and you will understand. A body mass index is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to both adult men and women. If you have a BMI of 18.5 or less you are underweight, 18.5-24.9 is normal, 25.29.9 is overweight, and 30 and up is considered obesity. According to a BMI calculator, at my current weight, 172lbs I have a bmi of 33.6. I am considered obese.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not REALLY that upset over it. So I don't need sympathy comments telling me, 'Oh honey, you are not fat.' I am fat. You have not seen me naked. But honestly I wouldn't even care if it wasn't for these 3 reasons:

1. MY BODY HURTS! wow! My back, my legs, any part that jiggles when I try to chase Elijah around the house. And my health in general.
2. Did all my clothes shrink? When even the maternity clothes are too small, I think it may be time to consider I am a bit overweight.
3. Dave. I know he loves me for who I am, but I think after seeing me give birth the least I can do is work out from time to time. And wouldn't it be nice to surprise him one day with a thin, toned, body instead of the floppy bag of potatoes, wearing a Freddy Kruger mask, I am carrying around now?

I wasn't always overweight, just about 8 years now. It all seemed to start too when my gynecologist put me onto Depo-Provera shot to control a period problem. Let me give you a break down of my weigh battle to make it easier to understand.

As a child there were times I wouldn't eat. I would eat less and less. My family would gently remind me and sometimes force me to eat something. I was never technically diagnosed with an eating disorder, but I have what I like to call the 'forget to eat' disorder. I don't not eat on purpose. I just sort of don't remember to do it. There are times my stomach will shrink and I will eat something small and get full so quick. Then there are times I seem like a bottomless pit. My weight in years:

• In College 2002 - 120lbs (started the Depo)
• Started Dating Dave 2004 - 135lbs
• The longer I was on the depo, the bigger I got, exercising, eating well, nothing helped. Stopped the Depo. 2005 - 152lbs
• Realized I needed a change. Started Exercising more and more, eating even healthier, and reducing portions, eating smaller meals more times a day. 167lbs -2006
• Finally after 2 years of work reached goal weight of 125lbs... December of 2007

Yup. that's right. I worked 2 years to get my weight to my goal and got pregnant 2 months later. It was good because of health problems I knew prior if I was ever able to conceive I would be bed ridden. So the healthier I was, the better. Of course I wasn't planning on conceiving... but everything happens for a reason.

During my pregnancy I started out the first trimester by loosing even more weight. Not on purpose though considering for the first time in my whole life I wasn't forgetting to eat. I was eating 4+ meals a day. But I had the 24hr morning sickness. I would sit in bed with cold ginger ale and ginger snap cookies all day and let people bring me the regular food. It was nice, but only lasted so long. (We moved!)

During my second trimester I was sick but steadily gaining weight. I first felt Elijah kick at about 14 weeks and soon learned his 'hungry' kick. He also had a kick for foods he liked and foods he didn't. Or maybe it was just my imagination.

__
Stay tuned for tomorrow night's Chapter 2 of Unhealthily Overweight.
Thanks for reading!