This article is sort of psycho. I am a size 0/2. But come on let's be real.... I'm not going to be a skinny minny during pregnancy. The fucking media (stupid celebrity bitches) make it seem like every pregnant woman is a stick with a bump. "Perhaps at no time and in no place in history have so many women been under so much pressure to stay thin and gorgeous while simultaneously producing a human life." There will be zero dieting during pregnancy. I don't want a malnourished child. I need to increase my calories by about 250 calories/day (calcium rich like milk/yogurt and extra fruits/veggies). I don't generally eat unhealthy so during pregnancy you can bet that everything going into my mouth will be good for my baby. I will continue to do moderate exercise (walk/swim/pre-natal yoga/pre-natal Pilates).But this shit is psycho:
On New York’s UrbanBaby, a popular Website where women share and kvetch about everything from baby names to real estate to the intricacies of sonograms, “weight polls” regularly erupt:
13 weeks, 4 lbs
24 weeks, 20 lbs!
13 weeks, 0 pounds (Okay, I might have gained a pound or two in the very beginning but that’s at most. Should I be concerned?)
Check with your doctor but probably fine.
. . .13 weeks, 12 lbs! I feel like a hippo compared to you!
25 weeks, 24 lbs! (No wait. Did the math wrong. 22 lbs. Wow. I feel better.)
Occasionally, a naysayer will interrupt the endless flow: “148 weeks, three thousand pounds. Just f--kin’ eat, gain weight, get fat if you want, have a healthy baby, lose the weight if you want, get on with your life!!!” But libertines are quickly put in their place—“It sounds like somebody is unhappy about the weight she has gained”—and the expectant mothers happily return to plugging in their weeks and weight, weeks and weight.
I'll be the first person to admit that I am obsessed with my size. Yeah I eat healthy and work out (generally 3 days a week at the gym and one day on the weekend hiking). My doctor thinks my weight is just fine. I calorie-count -- but I do get enough calories and do not skip meals. But let me real with all of you -- I don't do it just for my health, I mainly do all of this shizz to look good and the health is just an added benefit. Why lie about the truth?
This is coming from a weight conscious crazy chick -- the women described in this article are insane. I promise you when I am pregnant and eating healthy and doing moderate exercise, I will not freak out as my weight increases. Uhm hello, the baby comes first???
10 comments:
I think the hardest part about being pregnant has been letting go of the weight gain panic. Even though I know it's for a good reason, and I belief it will go away, it's still hard some mornings to see those numbers on the scale climb. I'm 29 weeks and gained 27 lbs. That's about what I thought I'd gain for the whole pregnancy- and I have 11 weeks to go!
I talked to my midwife about it at my appointment yesterday and she said that women who are thin before becoming pregnant often gain more than the 25-35 lbs- and should do so! You really don't have a lot of control over it. I eat well and have kept up exercising and still the scale climbs 2 lbs/week. Apparently the baby just wants some extra padding :)
But there is a Lot of pressure to be that cute pregnant girl with stick arms/legs and big belly- I honestly don't look much different (when I'm being rational about my appearance), but any extra flab freaks me out. Those celebrity pictures aren't helping!
Uhh who are these women? Yikes, even if you don't want to add excess weight during pregnancy, whatever happened to munching on veggies instead of brownies? Plus, I hope these mothers know (and I learned this in class) that when you're preggie, your baby feeds off you. Your calcium is his/her calcium and if that means not leaving you with any, then so be it. That's the whole point of weight gain. You give what you can to the baby and then you have to have some for your own health too.
LL: I can only imagine how hard it is to let go of the weight gain panic! This pressure gets on my fucking nerves! You eat healthy and exercise... with a reasonable amount of time after birth, there is zero doubt that you will be looking healthy and fab. I think a lot of these celebrity-types take extreme measures to take weight off after pregnancy. It's not natural to lose weight so quickly.... maybe for some people I suppose.
Esah: Word. Baby needs calcium and nutrients. Malnourished isn't good for a growing fetus.. or mom-to-be.
yikes - that's crazy! I admit though that I'm very scared about the weight gain with pregnany. I've seen a lot of friends go from size 0 to huge, and then not really lose the weight afterwards. It annoys me that I'm working hard to get a flat stomach now and it's all going to be given up when i'm pregnant! I'm sure I'll be less selfish when I actually have a baby in me, but for now it's still one of the many things that freaks me out about pregnancy =)
I applaud your honesty. I only eat healthy so I could continue to wear cute size 0 clothes, otherwise it would be Oreos, Chips Ahoy, french fries and cocktails every single day.
When I was pregnant I only gained 25 pounds which is the most they say you should gain because you don't want to have a hard time losing the weight once the baby is out (well that actually depends on your weight and my doctor did not want me gaining too much). I gained the majority of my weight in the last trimester and it was really baby weight. I was very conscious of weight because I am over weight so I tried to get well but in the last two or three months I could not get enough of pizza and ice-cream!
My brother and his fiancee are expecting their first child. She's one of those enviously teeny-weeny, petite little things. And all the weight she's gained is only around her belly.
At nearly 7 months and only 124 pounds (which the doctor assures her is healthy--that's a full 30 pounds more than she weighs normally, even soaking wet), she looks like she swallowed a beach ball. It's adorable, but she knows she's the exception to the rule.
I've never known any real pregnant woman to look like that. I honestly didn't think it could happen! Go figure.
My 4'10" mom weighed all of 110 lbs with me and most people couldn't even tell she was with child so anything is possible :)
this is an interesting issue to wrestle with... i'm 5'1" and a size 12-- very curvy. (some of you will remember an earlier post about breast size and implants!). i worked hard (HARD) to lose some of the extra pounds (6-7x week plus a pretty strict diet) but once i got pregnant, seemed like that whole thing was supposed to go out the window.
it's really hard for me not to freak out about gaining weight and/or not being able to lose the extra poundage within a certian amount of time. it's definitely fueled by celebrity pictures of post partum, totally buff moms, but also by everything i've ever been told/trained to think about weight gain/loss.
various relatives (all older, desi women) have encouraged me to revel in my pregnancy and not worry about weight gain. and yet i think-- that was their generation, their time. when women were kind of expected to be plump after marriage. i, on the other hand, would like to be at my ideal weight/size just ONCE in my life, and i'm not ready to let pregnancy derail that goal, just delay it for a while...
K-n-K: That's definitely hard. I feel the same way as you. I was scared to work out when I got pregnant. I didn't want a miscarriage (ha ha not that it mattered). I was also sick everyday. Morning sickness all day long. It was miserable. I was losing weight by not being able to hold down food and it freaked me out.
For me, since we're trying this cycle, I am working out like a crazy person. I want to be me mega toned. Luckily I've reached my ideal size. I know that as soon as I get those 2 positive lines it'll be moderate exercise for me.
I'd recommend being on a strict diet. One of my friends was very careful about what she ate and walked and didn't gain anymore than like 24 lbs. She was healthy but her OBGYN made recommendations on good healthy substitutes.
Congrats again:)
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