Looking for diet plan that allows for nursing

[gitapet]

I'm hoping someone here can help me find a diet plan, preferably online, that works with you if you are nursing. I'm providing 95-100% of my daughters food, depending on how the pumping goes. She's 4 mo old.

I've belonged to ediets in the past (with great success dropping from 197 to 157) but I dropped out when I got PG the first time. Between the kids I tried to sign back up and was told no thank you, we won't work with you when you are lactating. I snuck in the back door a couple weeks ago by joining through the Discovery Health Body Challenge (it was free and they didn't ask the regular screening Qs) but yesterday I emailed them asking to up my calories (they had put me at 1200 cal/day) and they canceled my membership.

So... I know how to cook healthy food, I know about portion sizes, but without a printed diet plan I tend to eat whatever my husband and I can manage to get on the table. Hamburger helper isn't healthy but you don't have to THINK about it or do any planning beyond thawing the meat. I need a plan which is either very cheap or free (My husband got laid off at the end of January and I'm getting laid off at the end of May).

Also, if anyone has any suggestion on how to make time for working out? I commute an hour or more each way every day (plus extra time to drop off and pick up the kids) and my kids (2yr4mo and 4mo old) are too young to do anything by themselves yet. My schedule tends to look like this: Get up at 6 am, feed Kate. Take a shower while my husband gets Ian changed and starts him on breakfast. Pack my pump parts that went through the dishwasher overnight while Ian is finishing Breakfast. (Per pediatrician he is underweight so breakfast is a long drawn out thing while we try to get him to eat). Try to get out the door by 7:45 or 8. Pump, do makeup, and eat a breakfast bar or someithing like that in the car while my husband is driving. Get to work between 9 and 9:30. Work til around 6, pick up the kids, get home between 7:15 and 7:30. Feed kids, get them to sleep. If we didn't have leftovers available to eat while feeding Ian then cook dinner and eat after they are both down for bed. Load the dishwasher, switch milk from pumping bottles to feeding bottles to take to daycare tomorrow, make lunch. It's now between 10 and 10:30 pm. Most of the reason I signed up for the Discovery Heatlh Body challenge was to get the 8 week free Bally's membership. The idea was to go during lunch. So far I've made it a grand total of twice. I have an elliptical and several good toning tapes at home - I just hardly ever use them.

Hmm... reading over that I don't know if I'm really asking for help exercising or if I'm venting and asking you guy's to tell me that it's ok, I really can loose weight without exercising. Maybe you can tell me how to motivate myself to go to the gym during lunch. (My gym bag is in the car but once again I didn't make it out of the building today).

Gretchen
Mom to Ian (10/21/02) and Kate (10/11/04)

[psophia17]

Wow - first off, with your schedule, I'd start really, really small. Trying to load up on working out and dieting at the same time when you hardly have time to sleep is not something I'd be up to, that much I know.

In any case - as far as I know Weight Watchers accomodates for BF with their system, and you can follow the program online. I'm having big success with WW currently, and before I got PG I had lost 30 lbs on it, so if you can follow the plan it definitely works. I believe that lactating moms get 25 additional points per day, or at least that's what the deal was during my first round of WW.

The other thing is that I found if I tried to diet while I was BF, my supply went down bigtime, so I'd be really careful not to diet too much.

HTH, and good luck, and get some sleep!

[gitapet]

Thanks! I appreciate being told that I'm not just imagining that my schedule is very full and chaotic. I'll check out WW.

I don't want to lose very quickly while BF. I'm thinking that if I can consistantly drop 1/2 to 1 pound per week then it won't be very long until I'm back to pre baby # 2 weight. (I'm only 5 pounds from there) The trick will be to keep it up until I get back to pre baby # 1 weight (~20 # away from current). Even at half a pound a week I would be there before the end of this year. Since I doubt that I'll be nursing that long I might even manage to speed up at some point. Of course, while my pre #1 weight was the lowest in the last decade, I'd love to get down even to the weight that I found shockingly high my senior year of college (46# away from my current weight).

Gretchen
Mom to Ian (10/21/02) and Kate (10/11/04)

[nfowife]

The current WW plan has 2 different diets: Flex-points and the Core plan. The Flex points plan is where you get a specific # of points per day (depending on your current-not goal- weight), plus 35 extra bonus points for the week. If you're nursing you also get up to 10 more points per day (depending on how much nursing you're doing). The other plan, Core, is based on a list of foods you can have in unlimited amounts plus a weekly bonus point value (I'm not sure if it's 35 though) for stuff that's not on the list. I don't think you get more with that for nursing, since you can eat unlimited amounts of lots of different foods, so you would just have to eat more of those foods to keep your intake high enough to maintain your supply.
I remember in the past that you couldn't do the flexpoints nursing plan using WW online because they didn't allow for that option; but you can register for and use the message boards at weightwatchers.com and ask there; they have a mommy board. If you don't need the constant support you can also join at an in-person meeting but just not go back and follow the plan at home, too.
WW is a great plan! I can't wait to go back on it after my baby is here!

[gitapet]

I just came from the WW site. Sure enough, they don't allow you to sign up on the online version if you are nursing. I'm guessing they want to be able to eyeball you and make sure you aren't losing too fast. The actual meetings are the only option if you are nursing. Of course, the meetings cost a bunch more than online (not good when both people in the family are getting laid off) and require you to actually show up.

Realistically - do they give you enough information at your first meeting that you can follow the plan fully or do you need to keep coming back for the "additional materials every week" that was mentioned on the website?

Gretchen
Mom to Ian (10/21/02) and Kate (10/11/04)

[psophia17]

I've been doing WW without the benefit of the meetings since December, using the info available at Dottie's Weight Loss Zone. That might be a good place for you to go check out the message boards - www.dwlz.com - they have tons of other supportive options, too.

Personally, I found the meetings to be good for support and to be held accountable to someone for my weight - whether I gained or lost that week. But I've been doing it accountable only to me and the ladies in MommyFit since Christmas, and that's working just fine.

I think you would be fine going to one meeting, getting the books and info, and then doing the program on your own.

[nfowife]

I think it is totally possible to follow the plan after going to one meeting, using the internet (like the WW message boards, Dottie's weight loss zone-great site!, and other message boards- people are very helpful and will answer any questions you have). The online program is really just an online diary where you keep track of your points- I always just did that using a tiny little spiral notebook in my purse (writing down my points as I go about my day), and an online point calculator (which they give you a manual slide thingy at your first meeting and it's actually a simple math formula you can do in your head-
points= (calories/50) + (fat grams/12) - (fiber/5 maximum of 4 grams of fiber can be counted)
So, a food with 300 calories, 6 grams of fat, and 3 grams of fiber would be 5.9, or 6 points). Most of the lean cuisine type lunch meals have the points printed on the box already for you.

Best of luck!

[Karenn]

WW has worked really well for me too. I think you could easily follow the plan after just one meeting (provided that you have the will power to stick with it- that's what I was lacking!) A girlfriend of mine did it that way. The extra materials are mostly recipes or tips on exercising.

Ironically, no one at the actual meeting knows that I'm nursing. No one cares either. I think sometimes the ladies who weigh me in are actually a little disappointed for me when I "only" lose one pound each week. They don't realize that I don't really want to lose more than that.

[erbono]

I had great success with WW after my 1st, lost 20 pounds on it. This time around after my ds I have been doing it on my own. I use www.dwlz.com a lot and log onto some of the message groups to chat. I am doing the flex points. The first time around I did winning points.

You give yourself 2 points per nursing/pumping session up to 10 points max per day. If you want to do the online version just fib about nursing and add 10 points as activity per day, or if you nurse less whatever that number would be. I know a lot of girls who do it.

I began again Jan 1 and have lost 10 pounds so far. :-) Journaling your food is the most important part!

Good luck!
Erica

[gitapet]

Thank you for the info re how many points to add for nursing and that it is possible to add it as "activity" if doing the on line version. I think I'm going to go sign up on line and do it that way. There are some features of the on line version, such as having a huge database of point values for foods at your fingertips, that really appealed to me. I also liked being able to save a list of "favorite" recipies and figure the points value of your own recipies by typing them in (I think I saw on the on line tour that you could do that). That and, of course, the fact that I tend to spend a lot of time on line anyway making an on line diet the best choice for me.

Thank you to everyone for your help and support. If I find myself actually carrying through and dieting you may see me showing up on the weekly check in list on this board.

Gretchen
Mom to Ian (10/21/02) and Kate (10/11/04)