You may ask as some of my friends and acquaintances ask/tell me: You are a Dietitian and a Certified Diabetes Educator so why don't you just lose weight, you of all people should know how. So I will elaborate more on my story as some of you may have already read our about us section, but in this blog I will go more into the gory details. After having my first son over 10 years ago when I was 31, I "bounced back" as the cliche goes very easily. Within 6 months I was back to my pre-pregnancy shape. I ate healthy and exercised regularly mainly walking around downtown Chicago with my baby in the his stroller and did 20 minutes of strength HIIT intervals in my one bedroom apt. when my son was napping (Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred to be exact) a couple times a week. I was also nursing my son. As my brother said, if Andrea doesn't know how to lose weight after having a baby who does? Baby number two took a little more effort to lose the weight though I had gained more almost 40 lbs with him and only 33 lbs with my first. I was also nursing and exercising more, so I would say before a year I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight still nursing my son until he was two years old! Then 4 years later at 39, I got pregnant with my daughter, I actually had even more nausea with her. I didn't mention I had it progressively worse with each pregnancy and eating every 1-2 hours, mainly carbs, was the only way to prevent throwing up and feeling terrible. So with this pregnancy I gained 45 pounds and I probably exercised the most out of all of them. A week before my 40th birthday I received the best early birthday present one can get: a healthy baby girl. So I nursed her as I did my other two kids and she wasn't gaining nearly enough weight. I had to supplement her since I found out I wasn't producing enough milk which happens sometimes at 40, but I continued to give her both. I found the weight loss to be much slower. I couldn't fit into a lot of my post pregnancy clothing I had worn after my previous child. My stomach which usually was the first place for me to lose the weight ( I was a gymnast in high school and luckily had maintained a strong core) was not shrinking down as I expected it too. I wore the bamboo wrap I did with my second son, but nothing was really helping. The weight loss was so slow despite exercising and eating healthy. I googled: does inadequate milk supply effect weight loss and I found out that it may slow down your metabolism to try and provide a greater milk supply which happens to some women even with adequate supply. That was a little comforting, but I wasn't planning to stop nursing just to lose weight especially if that wasn't necessarily my situation.
Well now I was in a bit of a bind I was 3 months postpartum and I had my sister n' laws wedding to go to soon. At this point I had expected to lose more weight than I had and I couldn't fit into any dresses that I liked. My friend, Luisa, who was pregnant with me had already lost all her weight; she wore her shapewear every day for at least 8 hours after having her son. She gave me her best selling shapewear from Columbia to wear under my dress. It took me some time to get it on, like seriously 15 minutes, but it was worth it. I had transformed my muffin top to a beautiful hour glass. I don't think I even had that type of shape before I was pregnant. I was able to put on my wrap dress and I got so my many compliments at that wedding. I will attach a pic here. Too bad I don't have a before and after as I didn't know I would become Luisa's partner at the time. I really enjoyed the confidence boost I felt at the wedding and continued to wear my South Beach bodysuit when I would go out. My weight loss remained slow despite my continued dedication to exercise and eating healthy. Luisa introduced me to other styles such as her waist trainer and hollywood long shorts. I loved all the different styles and and wanted to introduce this amazing brand to America. We started working together and we even created the NYC mid thigh high waist shorts which became my ultimate favorite style. Jholui Shapewear was so comfortable to wear because it was lined in cotton and designed so uniquely to fit your body. I always loved natural fibers and actually almost never buy synthetic fabrics. You could throw it in the wash which I did after wearing it a couple time. It didn't stretch out in between washings and it didn't shrink or fall apart in the washing machine. How many new moms really have time for hand washing anyway.
Wearing Jholui Shapewear made me feel like myself again and helped me to fit into most of my clothing. This feeling is priceless for me especially as a Dietitian. Wearing my shapewear gave me motivation to continue working on getting back to my prepregnancy weight. My daughter is 19 months and and still have 8 lbs to go. I will get there or close to it. My body has changed a little so even when I get back to my original weight; I will still wear my shapewear to define my waist and tone my hips and thighs. Not many people ever feel they have a perfect body and we don't need to have a perfect body to be happy. But I love having the option to feel more confident in a matter of minutes and I want other women to have that option too!!!