Guest Blogger: Britney Munday Talks Losing the Baby Weight

Hi ladies! I have a special guest blogger named Britney Munday on the blog today. She is a hot mama and I actually found her on Pinterest when looking through transformation photos one day and I thought "WOW! I have GOT to feature this incredible woman." She had a baby several months ago and has documented her changes all throughout the way. Check out her story, her weightloss tips,-and her stunning PROGRESS! This will be sure to motivate you all.

"Before I was pregnant I was very health conscious and in shape… but once I became pregnant all of that changed. I worried about getting my heart rate too high while working out and hurting the baby, I worried about not gaining enough weight, I worried about not eating enough calories.. all of that turned out to be a recipe for A LOT of weight gain. Seventy pounds to be exact. I started out at 130 pounds and made it to 200 pounds (on the dot) the day before my delivery.

Honestly, I don’t regret it completely. I had always been fairly in shape, I never knew what it felt like to be overweight. I never knew how hard it was for people to actually lose a significant amount of weight. So in a way, I’m glad I went through this journey so I could better empathize with people and show people one very important thing—you can lose the weight. It can be done, and it can be done without the assistance of weight watchers, south beach diet, atkins, diet pills, surgery, etc…

You just need to know this one secret to losing the weight… You ready for it?? K here it is: There is no secret. That is the secret! All it takes is motivation; you are the only one who can change your weight. You hold the keys to your success.

Here are some tips I have found useful in my journey of weight loss (54 pounds down, 16 to go!)

·         Eat clean

o   Honestly, the less processed the better. If a caveman would have eaten it, you’re on the right track. One of my favorite programs that guides you through eating clean is certified personal trainer Jamie Eason’s 12-week live fit trainer. It can be accessed at http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-eason-livefit-trainer.html and outlines a meal plan for you AS WELL AS a fitness plan. A lot of those bikini competitors follow this program (or one similar to it) and the best part about it? It’s FREE. I love it because it shows beginers how to clean up their nutrition and it’s very sustainable. You’re not left with cravings or feeling hungry.

o   You’ve hear it before, abs are made in the kitchen. You can do crunches until you’re blue in the face, but if your diet isn’t clean you won’t be seeing those abs anytime soon!

·         Exercise

o   When I first had my baby I was SO out of shape. No really, going on a walk made me get a side ache and lose my breath. It’s so crazy to think about how far I’ve come, from getting out of breath from a walk around the block to today (I just ran 8 miles!).

o   The trick is to slowly increase your exercise intensity, start by pushing your kids around the block in a stroller. Then increase your miles each time, at one point I was walking at  about 6 miles a day.  Walking is HUGE for losing weight because at the right intensity it keeps your heart rate in the fat burning zone.

·         Weight Lifting

o   Now before you skip over this bullet point, listen to me. I know if you haven’t lifted weights before it’s probably because you’re intimidated. All of those levers and pulleys, what are those even for any way? Not to mention all of the seasoned weight lifters who are just staring at you as you try and figure out the equipment. I was in your shoes too! I know how it feels. It’s embarrassing in the beginning but it’s totally worth it!

o   I love Jamie Eason’s program (I’m not paid to say this I promise haha) because it’s excellent for beginning weightlifters. Before her program I rarely lifted weights, now I love it! It taught me how to use all of the equipment and feel a lot more comfortable in the weight section with all of the guys.

o   Lifting weights can be one of the most rewarding things you can do for your body. I always loved ceramics in high school; there was always something so intriguing about being able to manipulate the clay into whatever you wanted. Now I think of my muscles as the clay and weight lifting as the tool to change my muscles into whatever I want. You’ve never had nice calves and always wanted them? You want to wear short sleeved tops without being self-conscious about your arms? You want a nice butt to put in your jeans? It can be done. You can sculpt your muscles to look however you want, all with weights.

·         Cheat day

o   I swear by the cheat day. You will end up binging if you don't give yourself that one day to look forward to. To be honest, once I get to the cheat day I forget what it was I wanted to eat so bad, and I end up eating healthy anyway! My cheat day is every Saturday and let me tell you this, I look forward to that cheat day like it’s Christmas.

·         Don’t drink your calories

o   We've all heard it before, "Don't drink your calories" and there's a reason for it! I would so much rather eat some nice cheesy spinach artichoke dip then drink soda, juice, sport drinks, etc… during the week. So that's what I do! If you want orange juice, actually eat the orange. If you want apple juice, eat the apple. It has valuable fiber anyway! And if you must drink that soda, save it for your cheat day! Make it a treat you look forward to.

·         Don’t eat after 7 PM

o    I try and make my last meal before 7 PM and I don't put anything in my mouth (besides water) until breakfast.  Often food that is eaten late at night just ends up turning straight into fat.

·         Don’t s skip Breakfast

o   Breakfast kickstarts your metabolism and should be one of the first things you do in the morning (within 30 minutes of waking up). Skipping breakfast doesn’t do you any favors, in fact it can send your body into starvation mode and make your body think that it needs to hold onto any food it gets. You don’t want that.

If you’re trying to lose weight, just know that it can be done. You are in charge of your weight loss; you are responsible for your weight loss. Don’t waste any more time fantasizing about your dream body, make the lifestyle changes to get it NOW!

I’m absolutely flattered that Sia contacted me to write a guest post. She is a rockstar and a perfect example of how to have a fit and healthy pregnancy.  If you’d like to follow my progress head over to britneymunday.com. Thanks Sia!"

Healthy Valentines Snack Idea!

Dip strawberries in Greek yogurt and freeze. Healthy snack, extra protein.

Run Your Best 5k

Postpartum Photo Update

As promised..

Still some swelling left, but that's expected. Lost most of the 30lbs I've gained during my beautiful pregnancy. Going to enjoy the next few weeks and allow myself time to recover and time to enjoy my new family.

Thank you all for the congrats and well wishes! We are going home today!

A Perfect Birth

Hi there!! I am so happy to announce the arrival of our son Greyson James Cooper. He was born on 02/04/14 at 5:27pm. He weighed 8lbs 7oz and measured at 22 and 1/4 inches. His story is a great one and even though things didn't go according to my birth plan, it was the best possible birth for him and I wouldn't have changed a thing.

I went into labor on my due date on 02/03 and actually had a doctors appointment earlier that day. We did an NST (non stress test) just to see how he was doing since it was his due date and he was SUPER ACTIVE-trying to kick the monitors off and such, just wouldn't stay still. I had a cervical check done and I was barely dilated to a full 2cm. Earlier that day, I ran around 3 miles at the gym to help get things going. After my appointment, I headed back to the gym and since I had no energy for another run, I figured I would walk 1.5 miles to kill time while my husband was still at work. 

We went home and I made dinner. I noticed I had been having some super regular Braxton Hicks contractions-nothing painful, just very very noticeable. My husband and I settled into bed around 7:30pm that night (my husband wakes up around 4am for work) and that's when I started feeling it. My Braxton Hicks contractions were getting painful. BUT, this was no oddity as this had happened to me a couple of times the week prior and I toughed it out and went to bed previously. We have had so many false alarms and I wasn't sure what to expect when it came to real and false labor because it would all seem so real. Guess that's a typical first time mom thing!

The contractions got worse as Iaid in bed. They got so bad, I cried out in pain and gripped the bed sheets. This was new. So to debunk these contractions as being real, I got up and moved around. It eased them but not completely. Then like clockwork, 5 minutes later, they were back. They got so intense, I was doubled over in my bathroom as I timed them and I started crying. I had never felt contractions THIS bad. 

I didn't want to wake my husband up for a false alarm to drive 40 minutes to our hospital when he had to wake up so early and part of me still wasn't convinced THIS was the real thing. Denial is funny isn't it? Two hours later, I knew in my heart: it was time to GO and NOW.

Luckily, everything was packed up since it was my due date (something I recommend everyone do!). Pack ahead of time and it'll save your life! We headed to the hospital around 9:30pm, got there at 10:00pm. I was put immediately into triage and they had to make sure I was in labor before being admitted. On the way to the hospital, my contractions became 2-3 minutes apart and more and more painful. When we got checked, I was a good 3cm at 10:00pm. They hooked me up to the monitor and called my doctor and sure enough, this was the real thing. I was obviously in labor and a heavily progressing one at that.

I was admitted and placed directly into a room. By this time, the contractions were now 20 seconds apart and I could get no relief which was very odd. I could not recover from one contraction to the next. They say to "take one contraction at a time" but literally there was NO time in between them for me to recover. They were brutal. I had a decision to make. Pain relief or not. My whole entire pregnancy I was against the thought of NOT having a natural birth. Natural birth is something I wanted to give Greyson so badly. At this point, I knew if I did not get relief, I would live to HATE this labor and delivery experience and I did not want that memory. But before I made a decison, I wanted to know facts. 

Apparently, I had a lot of misconceptions about epidurals. I had heard such horrible things, but to my surprise, they do not affect baby at all. The IV pain meds are what cross over to and affect baby because it's systemic while epidurals are local. When I learned this, I was more open to getting one. I was still so torn and had my worries. What if it slowed my labor or interfered? What if I couldn't feel myself pushing? These were thoughts I had and why I aimed for natural labor. I started crying because I felt so guilty. But after having such brutal contractions without relief or a way to control them, I opted for the epidural. I not only was given an epidural, but the nurse also gave me a spinal combo due to the severity of the pain. I had lots of backlabor  because he was still facing the front of me. 

Around 12:30am, I was then dilated to 5cm and was given the medication. I felt the relief right away and I felt like a new person. As much as I had hoped and prayed for a natural drug free experience, this was definitely what I needed to do. And as labor went on and things became difficult, my decison had become clearer and clearer.

Around 6:30am, after getting much needed rest, my doctor Jennifer Esses (who is amazing!) had arrived and checked me. I was dilated to a good 8cm and was so happy that getting an epidural did not affect my progress. My water still had not broken at this time so she broke it for me. Time went on and a couple of hours later, I went to 9cm of dilation. It was almost showtime! Or so we thought... 

Around 9ish, I started to feel a "bearing down" feeling that's associated with the urge to push during birth. Along with it was a terrible cervical pain that not even my epidural could fix. I was checked again and was about at 9.5cm dilation. We decided to attempt pushing and discovered that a "flap" of my cervix was inverted inward, keeping my son's head from passing through. It was almost as if it were holding him in. We tried to push and nothing happened-instead, this actually caused my cervix to swell which was not a good thing. We decided to change my position frequently and wait it out till I was completely dilated.

I ended up staying at about 9.5cm or so for about 6-7 hours. To make things more difficult, my epidural wore off on my left side so I felt contractions in my belly and back on that side, along with the cervical swelling pain & bearing down discomfort. They ended up giving me Pitocin to speed things up.

I felt like giving up. I felt so defeated, this was not the birth I had pictured. My doctor noticed the swelling and that nothing was really progressing along. This was one big baby! We also noticed he was facing the front and not the back like an ideal vaginal birth should.The idea that a cesarean section might be the only option became our main focus. A C-section was the absolute last thing I wanted so we decided to give it a few hours. During this time, I did everything I could. I got on my hands and knees and rocked him and swayed him. I prayed and I prayed that he would turn around and get into position. I prayed that the cervical  swelling would stop.

At 4pm, my doctor came in to check me one last time before discussing our last resort option of the cesarean section. I was so scared but I figured nothing had changed. But when she checked, he had turned every so slightly to the side! This gave us a chance we needed to push him out! So we got ready and began to push.

Pushing lasted an hour and a half roughly. We started at 4:00 and I birthed him at 5:27. I was so weak from being in labor for 22 hours without food and without drink. I was so weak from the pain I still experienced from my epidural essentially not working on one side of my body. I was so weak from lack of sleep. But I had a job to do. I was going to take this chance that God had given me and push him out with all of my might. Though it took a little longer than I had expected, I did it. I honestly couldn't have imagined going through my 22 hour labor without an epidural-I no longer feel guilty for getting one. 

The moment I first saw him, I couldn't believe it. My doctor laid Greyson on my chest and he stopped crying immediately and looked up at me. Grady started crying. I started crying. This was our son. 

When they weighed him, Grady and I were both stunned! 8lbs and 7oz was more than we had bet on. No wonder I almost couldn't push him through my cervix. And he was so long at 22.25 inches-he will be tall like his 6ft 3in daddy. I am so blessed to announce this healthy baby of mine. He is absolutely perfect in every way.

Recovering has not been too bad at all. I did have a first degree tear which makes things uncomfortable, but certainly bearable. My lower extremities (legs, feet, pelvic region) swelled a whole lot during labor, but are slowly improving. I haven't really given one thought to my postpartum body or how ill bounce back. Most of the 30lbs I've gained is virtually gone naturally. Right now my main concern is breast feeding my son and making him strong! Cuddling with him has been the best. I look forward to enjoying this time with my new little family and I can't wait to get back to some light walking within a few weeks. I will certainly put my jogging stroller to good use.

I might not be on the blog as much as I enjoy my first few weeks at home with my son, but I will be on when I can.

We appreciate all of the well wishes and the congrats! Thank you all.

Xoxo.

To read how I lost my postpartum weight in one week,

click here!