Weight Issues

Let's be honest here, ladies. Contrary to what the super-model-mom's may tell us, the weight gain from your pregnancy does not magically disappear the moment you leave the hospital. It is a process of no longer giving in to each hormonal craving anymore. It's about disipline and hard work and some sort of cardio. Really it's about having control over your body again. Sigh.

I saw myself in the mirror the other day and it wasn't the prettiest sight, and that I believe was the day I snapped myself out of my own indulgent midnight cravings and self created denial. The baby weight has to come off.

Looking in the mirror can be somewhat of a frightening experience a couple of months after nine months of pregnancy, the stress of a long labor and the anxiety of being a brand new mom. Thinking back to the past twelve months.... I ate because of my raging hormones, I ate out of sadness, bordom, anxiety. I ate during the moments I would laugh one minute and cry the next, all while holding onto a Taco Bell burrito in one hand and a Reese's cup in the other. I ate the occassional snickers bar or M & M's fix, and more often than I should have. Now I can say it. I was a pregnant woman who just ate too damn much.

A month ago I began the losing weight process while staring at pictures of Heidi Klum, Gisele Bundchen and that Kardashian sister. All who also endured nine months of pregnancy just like me, but now there a size 4 again, and I'm....not. I now realize this is not a great start to my weight loss. Tearing out pictures of their perfect physique is not a realistic goal for the average mother.

I'm not nieve to the fact that the difference between me and supermodels is my career doesn't depend on me fitting into my skinny jeans again and looking flawless six weeks after giving birth. They have a full time trainer, nutritialist, stylist. I don't. I have bad hair days and poor lighting and they don't. So when it comes down to it, I am rational. Until that new US Weekly comes out and I am reminded all over again, that I must, must lose the baby weight.

Something though is different now, now that I'm a mother.

It's not just about fitting into those skinny jeans or being able to resist that red velvet cupcake anymore. The biggest difference now that I am a mom is that being healthy is no longer an option. Why? Because my son's health depends on it.

I realize that as my son grows up he won't care about his mother looking like a supermodel but rather a mother who can run with him in the park, a mother who can play basketball with him when his father is at work, a mother who will help him be the best he can be athletically, mentally and physically. For me, it's no longer about having a perfect body but by demonstrating to him that respecting yourself starts with respecting your body.

No longer does getting my body in shape come with a reason of vanity. Now it's on a deeper level. It's teaching my growing son that to have a healthy life starts with the first person he sees in the morning, his mother, and the example that she sets for him.

Apple, anyone?