Officially Dieting While Pregnant

This post is not supposed to be up yet. But I just had to write it down, before it goes off, unrecorded. It serves as good guidance for me later on, and as a reminder that I've been through this once and I cannot let myself go through it again. So here it is, in between my Mount Kinabalu updates.

Ok, it isn't all that bad. Here how it goes.

I knew I've been gaining weight. I cannot remember the last time the weight was 50kg on the scale. 50 can be considered my ideal weight, but I'll be darn happy if it reaches 49 ish. Due to this current frustration and desperation, I had checked when I first logged my weight into my pregnancy journal, it started off with 50kg. and it was still at 51.9 kg at about 2 months pregnant (This was right after the Ipoh International Run 2014). So I was really, started off with being slim. Didn't know what happened, but 3 half marathons after that (NMGRR, PJ Half, Nike We run KL) and a Mount Kinabalu climb, I have to admit that my weight is now 56 kg range, and will never get better. To make matters worst, I was still in the 51 - 52 range in January. It somehow got to 54 range mid Feb (yes after the Mount K), but it's 56 just a week after. In essence, I gained 3.5kg in 1 month and 1.5 kg in 1 week. All while still less than 5 months pregnant. How sad is that.

Ok let's do another comparison. In the last pregnancy, at the current stage, I should weigh 2 kg lesser than now. My current weight only equivalent to my weight when I was 7 months pregnant. Of course the weight sky rocketed after that then. But it was totally understandable. Later pregnancy would yields more weight as the baby do nothing but plumps up. Ok, weight aside, maybe it goes to the baby this time, or my water is more this time. My bump size also got to its all time high. The current size is equivalent to my size when I was 9 months pregnant. Full term size. And I'm not even 5 months yet. My size back then, at the current stage, was only the normal people's bum size. These are all very devastating facts.

So this week, I had an awakening. After seeing 56 number on the scale without budging. Monday was when I started to put the Myfitnesspal back on. Tuesday was when I started to really control what I consumed. I know, it's so uncalled for. Dieting while pregnant. As if running vigorously isn't enough, I want to put more torture to the baby by dieting now. But I think the above 2 paragraphs really say it all. I cannot remember how did it get so easy in my last pregnancy. Probably due to the fasting month that happened around the stage that I'm in now, so it somehow controlled everything. Nevertheless, all the techniques and method has to be put in use now.

Going back to how it happened. I thought it happened due to the constant carbo loading that I had to do for my constant halfies late last year and the supposed full marathon that didn't happen. I tried to blame that. But see above. I was still at 51 plus kg level in Jan. And that is way past the constant halfies period. So running, training and carbo loading is never the reason.

Over indulgence is. And enlarged tummy size due to that.

Carbo loading is fine, but there's always a limit to it. Once your race is done, and you have recovered well (speaking of which, I'm still finding the right balance to how much calory do you need to recover). What had happened to me was, my appetite and tummy size got ballooned up for two reasons: Nursing and Training

Nursing has, unfortunately over for now. So that leaves me less about 400-500 calory to indulge. As for training, there's a lot of non-training days lately. First there was taper for Nike We Run KL, then the recovery days, then the taper for the Mount Kinabalu, then the recovery (my legs hurt for 3 days remember). Then the holiday season. this happened for a good 3 weeks, and costed me 3 Kg.

And while in this searching for the answer for the sudden weight gain, while still running through pregnancy mode, I came across this, which really answered why have I gained as such through Weight Gain with Pregnant Running link here. It's really an eye opener. Again, simple rule and formula, calory in and calory out (just like what I have been explaining above, just that she gave a calculation to support it even further). And this statement just make me happy even more: Many athletes report gaining a lot of weight during the first trimester when most nonathletes gain less than 5 lbs. What a relief.

I should just be grateful that I notice it early now. I am now starting to watch all my calory intake, and start to refresh all my dieting knowledge. The big changes that I've made now are as such:

1. Starting to monitor each and every calory taken. Including the VCO that I take in the morning.
2. No more tosay for breakfast. I'm settling with Fitness cereal and Anlene.
3. No more kuih as a preparation for tea. Have bread instead. As much as possible, try to not eat it as well. 
4. No more uncontrolled munching. I can munch on nuts and cranberries and I never mind overdoing it, cause I thought it's healthy. But there's always a limit to everything. Now avoiding cranberry and nuts as much as I can until an extreme need arise. Even then, would try to limit it to a small handful only.
5. Controlled snacking. Everytime I feel like reaching for the snack, I would think first, am I really hungry? If I don't, I would put it back. To curb an unnecessary urge, I'll reach for water first. 
6. Coffee at least once in 2 days. To substitute with green tea hopefully later. But green tea has it disadvantages as well. But it does help with reducing the caffeine (green tea only has around 40 mg. You can even decaf your green tea on your own as well through here Do It Yourself Decaf).
7. Lots of vegetable for dinner with very minimal rice. A spoon or two. Maybe a handful if you still need another serving. I do give some discounts for myself on my workout days though.
8. Start to watch out the food preparation and what's the dish made of. I once gave a particular attention on this in my last pregnancy. But a colleague mentioned about Kevin Zahri, and I went on his program with the colleague, then bump into few of people's weight lost success story, I suddenly remember about this part of the weight loss tips. Avoid oily food, made with santan, go for anything soupy, roasted or baked instead. So my first step towards this was making a ikan kembung singgang for myself yesterday, and it was not all that bad.
9. Making sure that the carbo taken will not be empty carbo. Fruit has its carbo content as well. So the more reason that you need to reduce carbo from the normal sources.Once you have consumed fruits and vege, be rest assured that your carbo requirement is somewhat settled.
10. Before popping another food into the mount, try to think first. Has it been 3-4 hours since I last 

And to my surprise, as I measured myself this morning (about after only 3 days of closely monitoring my calory intake and thinking before I actually eat), the weight had got to its 55kg++ range. What a delight. At least I know that my effort been progressing, hope to progress further later. I haven't had a big pressure to control my weight for a long time now. And it has been quite depressing with the above facts. I'm lucky enough that I realise this early and managed to do the required changes in time.