It's best to begin at the beginning.

I'm 32 weeks pregnant tomorrow and I'm definitely at the point where I'm ready to have this baby. This is my personal journal, mostly to hold myself accountable and to keep track and look back on where I've been. I'm a 34 year old, soon-to-be first time mom, who is looking to get healthy and lose some weight after I have my baby boy, who is due Jan 29th. Due to having placenta previa, I am having a planned C section which we are figuring will be happening around Jan 14th though, but we have yet to actually schedule the procedure date. I will be honest with you, when I first heard I had to have a C section I was quite bummed. I had this image in my mind that I would be this earth-mother, hippy pregnant woman who would have a natural birth and experience some sort of mystical birthing experience, but after coming to terms with the idea that a C section was in my future I have come to relax about it and just accept it. So far this pregnancy has been a fairly good one (besides the placenta previa) and I've only had small, normal complaints like hip pain, being gassy and bloated, waking up to pee every few hours as I sleep, not being able to get comfortable in most positions, getting out of breath easily, and just recently I'm getting some acid reflux. I'm realizing I need to eat smaller portions now to avoid that "food stuck in my throat" feeling since my stomach is probably all pushed up into my upper chest... but I am trying to look at this as learning/health tool. I'm hoping that over these last 6 weeks of pregnancy I will learn to eat smaller portions and it will become a habit that I stick with even after the baby is born, as it's probably just a healthier way to eat in general anyway. Maybe I can put this baby discomfort to some use huh?

So about me. I've been overweight my whole life.. from somewhat chubby to downright fat... you know that moment when you look at an old picture of yourself and you say "OMG, was I really THAT fat back then?!? Why didn't anyone say anything?!". Yeah, that's happened to me. The smallest I've been in recent years was about a year and a half ago when I managed to get my weight down to about 184 pounds... then I got pregnant in December 2009 and gained weight... figuring "hey, I'm pregnant!". Shortly after in February 2010 I had a miscarriage though which only led to more weight gain since I was feeling depressed and sorry for myself.. and I ballooned up to about 200 pounds. Well, my husband and I realized that if we did want to have kids, we didn't have time to waste so April 2010 we were back at trying to get pregnant and miraculously by May I had a bun in the oven. Which brings us to now.. I'm 32 weeks pregnant tomorrow and my weight is hovering at about 235. I know, scary. I can't believe I'm actually typing these numbers right now and am going to publish them for the world to see, but what good would it do me not to face reality? Besides, when I get to my goal weight I know I'm going to feel so good and will be able to laugh in the face of that number, muahahha! I'm hoping in the next 6 weeks that I only gain possibly 5-10 more pounds... I REALLY do not want to go over the 250 mark with this baby!

So... back to me.. geeze, how is it that everything always goes back to this baby? Um, yeah... so I've always been chubby but funny thing is I'm SERIOUSLY interested in all things health and nutrition. I have a theory though that most fat people already KNOW what is healthy, they just don't USE the information they have. That's at least how I am sometimes. So I feel I'm pretty well educated on how to eat healthy.... maybe even more so than your average dieter. Back in 2007 I started to really get into raw foods and eating a whole food/vegan diet. I researched a ton, bought a lot of raw food books, and tried to jump into the deep end and eat a 100% raw food diet. Guess what? It didn't work. I think I got maybe a week into eating 100% raw before my husband came home one day to me crying saying "I want to eat real food!" (he'll never let me forget that moment). Now I know that, as you've probably heard, "everything in moderation". Raw food IS good and healthy and wonderful for you but most people will not be able to transition from a normal diet to a 100% raw food one overnight like I was trying to do.

My game plan for after this baby is born is to attempt to eat at least a 50% raw diet.. which may be a fruit smoothie in the morning, a big salad for lunch, or maybe I'll make a gourmet raw meal now and then, and then the other 50% of my diet will be whole foods with possibly some fish thrown into the mix. I'm going to also attempt to limit my bread and cheese... ah cheese... let's not start on that, it's going to be really hard for me to give up the cheese, but give it up I will try! Let's just put it this way, growing up I used to eat all the cheese in the house (still do on occasion) and my dad was constantly telling me to stop eating the cheese. Over the years though I have learned about cheese's nasty little secret like how it's seriously, physically addictive and one of the biggest cancer promoting foods you can eat!

Ok, so limit the cheese and bread, eat 50% raw and 50% whole foods (whole grains, steamed veggies, etc) with some occasional fish and seafood thrown in.

sound good? it does to me!

Then of course you throw in exercise into the mix (Zumba which I love, walking, pilates, whatever else I can do) and hopefully this will be my formula for a lifetime of health.

I will be blogging over the next 6 weeks periodically about the rest of the pregnancy and then once the baby is here and I am healed from the C section it's time to put this plan into action! And I don't want to hear any complaining or whining from myself.. right now I can barely walk 1/4 of a mile without getting out of breath (because of my big baby belly) so I am really looking forward to the day I can get in a good, hot, sweaty, hard core work out! yay!

So... until then... I'll keep cookin' this little baby boy in mah belly!