Breastfeeding: The New Weight Loss Diet

I've been following this blog hop for a few weeks over on Working Mama's blog and I thought I would jump in this week.  This week's topic is exercising while breastfeeding.  

With Turkey I attended a pregnancy work-out class; which was basically a bunch of preggo ladies dancing around and going for long walks.  I formed some friendships in that class and after our babies came we would meet at the mall and walk, walk and walk some more.  That's the thing about having winter babies; there aren't too many outside exercise options.  I eventually lost the weight from that pregnancy; but I had to work at it over the years.  Did breastfeeding help?  Some, but remember he was supplemented in the very early weeks because of his jaundice and was weaned around 9 months.

With Monkey I had "no time" (the good old "good mother adage") to exercise while expecting; but I was very trim to start with as he is a honeymoon baby and I was at my smallest in years for our wedding.  I had been calories counting and exercising regularly at that point.  OK, ok; I guess I can't say I didn't exercise when I was preggo with him; I did yoga before bed.  Monkey was another winter baby, being born 7 years and 15 days after Turkey, so the getting options were limited.  I did make a concession decision to watch what I ate; but more in terms of "how good for me is this" than anything else.  I certainly upped my calorie intake as well; as I learned around the 6 months mark that restricting calories would have a negative effect on my supply.  As you may not be aware, new breastfeeding mothers need upwards of an additional 500 calories a day (this amount lowers the further into your nursing career you get).  We did join the Y, but mostly for program discounts for the boys.  And despite all this, or lack thereof, the weight did fall off.  I was able to fit into my looser pre-baby jeans by 4 months postpartum and here I am a year plus after having Monkey and I can fit into some of my smaller tighter jeans.

I am pretty sure that without breastfeeding this would have been a lot harder to do; especially considering my lack of a solid exercise program.

** On a side note; I am just now fitting into my pre-baby shirts (that aren't t-shirts) as the Boobie Fairy was very generous to me.