Dear Heather,
I’m stuck in the mud. Seriously stuck. I’ve been working out for about a year. I started on a regular regimen of cardio just like you suggested (I’ve been reading your blog since last April, I got interested during that challenge you were hosting, but I couldn’t keep up back then). I walk 60 minutes every day of the week. I started out small, just doing it 20 minutes a day, four days a week, but I’ve built it up over time. I walk, rain or shine and the only days I miss my walk is if there is snow and ice on the ground. I have a 21 month old baby and she loves our walks as much as I do. I lost about 24 pounds over that first six months, I lost it and it stayed off, but now I have another 15 pounds to lose to reach my ideal weight (about five pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight) and it won’t come off. I’ve tried walking more, but I seem to be stuck in the mud. I love my walks and I don’t want to give them up, but I really want to lose the rest of this weight. Can you help?
Stuck in the Mud
Dear Stuck in the Mud,
Let me begin by congratulating you on having maintained a regular fitness program for so many months. The truth is that’s a major achievement whether you’ve lost all the weight you wanted to or not. I want to ask you a few questions and I’ll give you what advice I can. The first question I want to ask you is how many dress sizes have you lost? For example, after I was pregnant with my daughter, I shot up to a size 22, but after regular workouts, I dropped to a 16, but I’d only lost about 15 pounds. I’m currently working on making that 16 a 12, but I’m actually pretty content at 16 as long as I’m in good shape.
The second question I want to ask you is what are your specific measurements for success? If you are basing it solely on the scale, that may be a mistake. You may have trimmed and toned your overall physique and reduced a number of inches overall, but because you’ve built up and maintained the muscles in your legs, back, buttocks and core – that extra 15 or at least part of it could be muscle weight and not fat.
Finally, my last question is how do you feel? Do you feel successful and that you look good? You obviously enjoy your daily walks and get a real mood boost out of them or you wouldn’t continue them as you have. If you eliminate the fifteen pound goal, how do you feel about your overall progress right now? If you are feeling positive across the board, then I wouldn’t worry too much about that extra fifteen pounds.
You can add some daily weight training to your regular routine, you can check those out in our weight training category. Remember, weight training does not always require the use of physical weights, but rather you can use the resistance of your own body such as doing lunges, crunches and more. You may also want to change the route you are walking, adding more challenges to it such as hills and uneven ground and steps (though if you’re pushing a stroller, the steps may not be something your interested in).
You could check out stroller mom groups in your area or even give stroller skating a try – all of these are possibilities that could help you improve on your desire to lose that excess weight, but I’d challenge you to identify whether you really need to lose it or if you are just hung up on that number on the scale. Good luck to you and please don’t hesitate to let me know how you are doing.
For more great questions and answers, check out our previous Dear Heathers.
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