A couple of months ago we started running the MOTIVATING MUM SEGMENTS and they have proved to be extremely popular with mums entering to be the motivating mum and with the mums on our site reading the Motivating Mums blog posts – so everyone loves them – YAY! You can enter to become our motivating mum here too

So we have decided to bring a few more motivating mums on board to help everyone stay motivated so here is Eleanor Hannah who will be trying to reach her goal weight and motivating herself and you in her weekly blog posts and Facebook posts – welcome Eleanor – below is her first post – YOU CAN DO IT ELEANOR!!

Eleanor’s 20kg Weight Loss

Hi I’m Eleanor, I’m super excited to be one of the motivating mums for Lose Baby Weight in May it’s going to keep me focused on my weight loss goal, and I am excited about motivating others.

I am a mum of 4 Beautiful girls One is my step daughter who lives in NZ So we have a 1 yr old, an almost 3 yr old and a 8 year old my step daughter is 8 too

When I was younger I struggled with my weight although looking back now I had nothing to worry about, but I always felt chunky, I think it was due to having bigger boobs than all of my friends. After I had my first daughter and after I separated from her dad I got to a place that I was super happy with my body, fast forward 1yr or so to 2008 and I got married I felt awesome and strong.

We fell pregnant with our first child in 2009 I didn’t put on much weight and kept exercising throughout the pregnancy and lost any weight I put on not long after she was born, fast forward 6 months and my Hubby was diagnosed with cancer stage 2 in his lymph nodes in his stomach recurring from testicle cancer 4 years before,  the bottom of my world fell out.

Hubby endured 5 months approx of chemo, which was 5 full days at the hospital a week it was horrible watching him go through chemo, it was so hard trying to keep on going day to day, taking miss 5 to school and then taking miss 6 months to the hospital then after hubby had finished for the day miss 5 went to a very good friends and I took miss 6 months to work with me for as long as shed last then would head home and sort dinner.

Many of us have a habit of reaching for the treat cupboard in the evening, especially when we’re bored.

Mindless snacking is the problem – sitting in front of the television with a big bag of chips or a tub of ice cream, and more often than not, we’ll finish off the whole tub or packet instead of just taking a little bit of what we fancy.

Overeating can really cause problems when it comes to our weight – we think we’re making all the right choices, but overeating, even if you overeat “healthy” food can cause weight gain. But how do you learn to overcome overeating? There are two main techniques – being aware of your food, and distracting yourself.

Awareness Techniques

• Eat Slowly

When you’re eating, make it count by eating slowly. This makes you more aware of the food that you’re eating, but it also gives your body longer for the feelings of satisfaction to reach your brain. Wolfing food down means that you’re not aware of feeling full, which could mean that you tuck in again an hour later.

• Just Eat

Many of us multitask while we’re eating – watching television, reading a book, working on some papers. Multitasking while you’re eating means that your brain will forget the task at hand – and if you’re not aware of your food, you won’t be aware that you’re full. Just eat, savour your food and skip the television programme for after your meal.

• Choose a Smaller Plate

We’re often told as children to eat everything on our plate, and this mentality can continue into adulthood as we’re reluctant to waste food. Simply choosing a smaller plate and eating all of the food on your plate can trick your mind into thinking that you’re full, without you overeating.

• Appreciate Your Food

We don’t really take enough notice of the food that we’re eating – but if you appreciate your food, thinking about how the food looks, smells and tastes, savouring each mouthful, you’ll be much more aware of your food and how much of it you’re eating. Research has shown that you could take in fewer calories by using this technique at every meal.

• Choose Filling Foods

It’s very simple, but if you choose filling foods at each meal, you’ll be less likely to overeat at the next one or in the evening. Try not to choose calorie-dense foods, such as chocolate or cheese. Instead, opt for foods that contain plenty of fibre and protein as these will fill you up for fewer calories.

• Listen to Your Body

People often ignore the very obvious signals that their body sounds out when satisfied. To stop overeating, you really need to listen to your body. Chewing slowly, eating slowly and appreciating your food will help you to learn when you are full, and when you’re full, you can stop. Not being able to tell when you’re full makes it much more likely that you’ll overeat.

Distraction Techniques

Distraction techniques are very handy tips and tricks to employ when you’re finding yourself reaching for the biscuit tin in the evening, or when you want to polish off the children’s leftovers.

• Place Fruit First

If you can’t see the “bad” stuff – the chocolate bars, packets of crisps and the biscuits, you’ll be less likely to eat them. Put the bad stuff to the back of the cupboards or into containers that are opaque so that you can’t see it, then put the fruit first – have it in full view in clear plastic containers or in a fruit bowl. You’ll be much more likely to reach for a healthy, low calorie snack – helping to prevent overeating.

• Drink a Glass of Water

You might have thought you were hungry, but actually, you might just have been thirsty. Drink a glass of water and wait half an hour before eating – the glass of water might satisfy you more than you might think.

• Use Your Hands

If you want to eat, but you know that you’re already full and that you actually don’t need to eat anymore, distract yourself by using your hands. For example, painting your nails is a great trick – you can’t get stuck into a bag of crisps with wet nails. Plait your hair, rub in some hand cream or just get doodling.

• Brush Your Teeth

A great distraction technique when you’re feeling peckish or if you’ve got food cravings is simply to go to the bathroom and brush your teeth. This tricks your mind into thinking that you’ve eaten, but you’ll also get a sweet, fresh, minty flavour and minty fresh breath.

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One of the most common issues when it comes to weight gain and trying to lose pregnancy weight is the bad habits that we have.

Some of us might have a habit of snacking, while some of us might have a habit of eating when we feel certain emotions. In order for us to conquer our weight loss demons, it’s important to break those food habits that cause us to overeat – but it’s easier to break those habits than you might think.

All you need to do is replace those bad habits with good healthy eating habits and with time, you’ll find that the weight drops off – which is where the Lose Baby Weight plans can help.

Snacking

If you’re a serial snacker and regularly find yourself grazing on snacks throughout the day, rather than eating proper meals, you could be taking in more calories than you would do eating regular, healthy meals with a couple of healthy snacks in between.

Calories in chips, peanuts and biscuits are all fairly high and you’ll need to eat a large amount of these types of foods to feel full. If you graze all day on these types of foods, you’ll find it much harder to keep an eye on your calorie intake.

Losing weight is tough – we all know that it’s not easy and this is especially so after we have had a baby and are trying to lose pregnancy weight.

But often, we set ourselves up for failure when starting a weight loss plan by making common mistakes.

We are too hard on ourselves, we set goals that are not realistic and we also expect to lose weight fast – especially as there are so many fad diets that claim rapid weight loss in a week!.

To help you out, the Lose Baby Weight team have come up with the most common weight loss mistakes that people make when starting a new weight loss plan – and how to beat them – and if you take these on board when following the Lose Baby Weight plans you will lose your baby weight in a safe and healthy way.

Everyone loses pregnancy weight in a different way and we all have different body’s and metabolism.

But this doesn’t stop us becoming frustrated if our pregnancy weight loss is slower than the next person’s or if we go through a period where it doesn’t feel like we are losing weight at all.

So if you are currently feeling frustrated with your pregnancy weight loss here are some common reasons as to why the scales may not be moving and some positive action points to take too (plus see our Lose Baby Weight plans too that can help).

The scales doesn’t always tell the truth

As you begin doing exercise and light weight bearing exercise you will gain lean muscle tissue, a substance which weighs more and is denser than fat. So you may actually see the number on the scales increase. Even though the scale may not be moving, it doesn’t mean that you’re not getting smaller. Muscle is more dense than fat, so it takes up less space. You can be in a smaller pants size and not be any lighter on the scale – and this is why we advise to take measurements each week as well as weighing yourself.

Weight loss is tough at any age – but you may find it more and more difficult as you get older.

It’s not just a myth that it is more difficult to shed the kilos as we get older – research has shown that it is much more difficult to lose pregnancy weight as we age, especially in our 40s and beyond. But why?

Metabolism

Our metabolism naturally slows down as we get older, with recent research suggesting that it starts to slow down every year after the age of 25. Some figures suggest that our metabolism slows by up to 10% every decade, meaning that our metabolism speed could be almost halved by the time we reach our 60s.

Polycystic ovary syndrome, also known as PCOS, is a condition that affects many women across the world. ‘Poly’ literally means many, and this condition causes problems with the ovaries.

Although the name suggests that you will develop many cysts on the ovaries, these are not always present – usually, an individual with PCOS will have larger than average ovaries with a large number of small follicles on the surface of the ovary.

PCOS also causes women to be less fertile and can mean that women with the condition can go for many weeks without a period. It’s also common for women with PCOS to develop facial hair and body hair and for them to find it virtually impossible to shift extra weight and a lot of women with PCOS struggle with post pregnancy weight loss.

PCOS causes weight gain because the body has more difficulty using insulin. This difficulty using insulin causes insulin resistance, meaning that glucose and sugar can build up in the blood stream.

This build-up of insulin within the blood causes the body to produce more of a certain hormone, called androgen. A high level of androgen within the body causes hair growth, acne and weight gain – and because the hormone is a male hormone, it tends to cause weight gain around the stomach more than anywhere else. It’s the abundance of this hormone that makes it very difficult for women with PCOS to shift the extra weight

Written by Marion

One of the tips I have taken from reading so many other success stories on the lose baby weight post pregnancy weight loss plans and site, is to allow yourself rewards that are not food rewards.

Before starting on this journey, I would reward myself a little sweet treat if I had “been good”. Oh, who am I kidding even if I was bad… A chocolate bar or two, and possibly even a block would always end up on the supermarket conveyor belt.

The bar or a line or two would usually be consumed on the way home from the shops, out of sight from my little one ahead of me in the stroller, the other bar or rest of the block would be squirreled away into the butter compartment of the fridge in summer or back of the pantry in winter for a sneaky square when no one was in earshot of the crinkle of the wrapper.

Here are some great non-food rewards ideas of varying values to help you avoid going back to those days.

Hi Lose Baby Weight. I wanted to send in my pregnancy weight loss story after being on your Lose Baby Weight Plans and Healthy Mummy Smoothies.

I’m still not finished on this journey, but I’m almost there..

I’m Shae I’m 30 year old a mum of 4 children – 7 year old, 5 year old, 2.5 year old  & 7mths.

I never had to struggle with weight before I fell pregnant, I was 45kg at 22 years old & too skinny, but I was obsessed with weight, very unhealthy.

When I fell pregnant I gained a whopping 50kg, I was 95kg on the scales when I was in hospital, such a low point in my life, when I was also experiencing one of the best days of my life, my 1st daughter.

Since then I’ve fluctuated, stayed around the 83kg-89kg except in pregnancy I’d get to 95kg again.

Today Wendy Geihlich sent in her very honest story about how she has found herself and her weight where she is today. She said that she didn’t expect for it to be published as it was too long and not motivational. However I disagree and as soon as I read it I had to publish it.

Wendy’s story is one that you cannot help but keep reading and it is one that women all over the country will connect with. Pregnancy weight loss is not an easy task and for a lot of women it is a huge struggle – which is why at Lose Baby Weight we try and provide as much support as possible for all the hurdles women trying to lose pregnancy weight face.

I ask you to read Wendy’s story and help encourage her to feel positive, motivated and healthy and let’s all will her along and help her achieve her pregnancy weight loss goals.

Wendy – thank you for sharing and we are here to help you all the way!!