Breastfeeding moms

[rhiannon74]

Hi!

My daugther's 6 1/2 months old and I want to jump back on the beach! I was on the beach before getting pg and lost about 40 lbs. I know I need to be careful. I was wondering if anyone's had any problems with milk supply or with baby refusing to eat. Thanks!
Ann

[theresamay]

Ann - I originally started SBD in April 2004, when my dd was 4 mo. It was very successful for me with no change in my milk or anything. I even did phase 1. Many people will tell you to start Phase II. I would suggest whatever you feel is best for you. The main points to remember are that (1) you have to make sure you are eating enough; it is easy to fall into "diet" mode and not eat enough. Once you start eating healthy, you are almost eating more, with the fruits and veges....
(2) make sure you are getting enough dairy. I think the program allows 2 cups per day. You will need to up that to 3 cups per day. I only actually had milk with my cereal (p2) and oatmeal (p2). I actually liked eating cottage cheese (with tomatoes or fruit) and FF yogurt (with Splenda or sf vanilla flavoring and nuts). I made sure to eat plenty of that.

I also started exercise very slow but still managed to lose. I would walk with my daughter in the stroller or front-pack carrier. I eventually started running (which I had done pre-pregnancy). I really think that the exercise was the crucial catalyst in my weight loss.

Of course, I tell you all this as I am coming back after a very unsuccessful holiday. I would not consider myself a very good subject. After the initial success, I became very post partum depressed, got obsessed and lost toooo much weight. Then, after anti-depressants helped me, lost it again. After I quit nursing and other family stuff you don't care to hear I yo-yo'ed on the plan. I would not say that I ever strayed too far from the eating but did quit exercising.

After too much info on myself, here are my general thoughts...
Yes, you can do it. Even p1. Eat enough, though. Make sure to exercise - if only a few times per week.

Theresa

[rhiannon74]

Thanks Theresa! Hope things look better for you in the New Year! I know how family things can throw you off. I'll probably do p2 but have a few p1 meals as there were some recipes I did enjoy. How did you find the time to cook? I'm finding that a bit difficult with all the chopping and stuff. Thanks again!

[kates]

I started P1 about 6 weeks ago when my son was 9 months old. I had a BIG drop in my milk supply by the end of the first week. I decided I wasn't eating enough, so made an effort to eat more. It came back pretty quickly with that, and with the help of an extra pumping at work and a little extra nursing on weekends.

I recently read in one of the books that Dr. Agaston recommends nursing mothers skip P1 and just start with P2. Probably a good idea. Personally, I'm glad I did P1--I think the strictness helped me get firmly on the plan and avoid temptations. Either way, I agree that it's important to be careful and not drop the calories too much.

Good luck!

[theresamay]

I agree with kates that P1 helped with strictness. This truly brought into the SB WOE. I didn't have the drop in milk supply, though. I think that would scare me into quitting... just persevere and drink more milk (or eat yogurt or cottage cheese). Also, remember that the vegetables you can eat are a good way to get in the food you need and great for the baby.

On the food preparation note, I have to say that I was a stay at home mom for the first 4 month on the diet (dd was 8 months when I went back to work). My husband is also a coach so in the late spring and summer his schedule is much slower as well. So, between the 2 of us, the food prep wasn't too bad. If I was starting now with the little amount of time I have, I might give up. Once I got used to it though it wasn't too bad. I try to make bigger meals on some nights, so we can have leftovers. I have also resorted to pre-cut "stuff". I buy packaged salad most of the time and baby carrots - partly because my 5yo loves these. Any way to get her to eat veges. I would also save the big meals for the weekend when I had time. I will make simple but healthy meals - fish and veges, chicken, etc. during the week - where I just have to stick the meat in the oven and some veges in the steamer. I would have to cut up the veges but that didn't take too long. Also, soups are great.

Breakfast was a different story, though, I got tired of making eggs every morning. I did some of the spinach quiche breakfasts and froze them. Those were good for us. I was relieved, though, to get to phase 2 so I could eat easy oatmeal or cereal. I need to get back into eggs - I didn't crave as much. I have also discovered other breakfast stuff in some of the stickies on the food forum. There are lots of things you can make to leave in the fridge for a quick breakfast.

I have to go to luncheon on Tues but after that I will do phase 1 again to get more fully ingrained in the WOE. Let me know how you are doing! Good luck! Theresa

[rhiannon74]

Thanks!

One of my big problems is finding sf/ff stuff that doesn't have aspartame in it. I wasn't crazy about it before I was pregnant and I don't want to eat it now while I'm breastfeeding. I can't seem to find yogurt that's sf/ff without aspartame. I live in the Northeast and haven't been able to find products like Blue Bunny.

I agree that breakfast is tough. My husband loves eggs but I'm not partial to them. When I was pg I had the biggest aversion to even the smell of eggs. I'm too nervous to go on P1 totally so I'm mixing the phases, some P1 recipes and some P2 recipes.

I bought the 30 minute recipe book and have also broken out the crockpot. Hopefully that will help me stay on track! Thanks ladies and good luck to you too!

[kates]

What is the concern with aspartame?
As far as yogurt is concerned, I buy plain fat-free yogurt and add some splenda to it.

[rhiannon74]

When I was pg I was told to stay away from aspartame. I can't remember the full explanation now but since I'm bf I continue to stay away from it. In general I'm wary of artificial sweetners.

[Sara06]

I'm breastfeeding too. I use fitday and altogh you aren't suppose to count cals, I'll be making sure I get 1700. I think even P1 is healtheir than most woman would normally eat, you just need to make sure you eat enough.

[vespachica]

Hi. I was on SB before I got pregnant. Now that I'm not pregnant anymore and breastfeeding, I'm thinking of jumping right into P2 but am not totally sure. For a while I also tried Weight Watchers' Core program which is less restrictive in some ways.

Since my milk supply is already tenuous I would like to steer clear of production issues. I guess my problem would be eating enough healthy foods for that not to happen.

Sorry, I'm babbling. I'd really like to lose the baby (plus) weight but not lose milk supply. Hopefully I can achieve that goal with SB.

Mary

[kates]

Mary--How old is your baby (how well established is your milk supply)?

I soldiered through my production issues mostly because it did get better when I ate more, and I knew my supply wouldn't matter much longer (will start whole milk after birthday and stop pumping then, only nurse for pleasure).

My supply has decreased somewhat again (less drastic), but I'm not sure if this is because of the diet or just a normal result of a restless 11 month old who is too busy to nurse for long. This may have been part of my problem the first time.

I think you can do this WOE and successfully breastfeed at the same time, but it probably requires a very slow and steady course with only a minor drop in calories at first. I don't think I realized how much my calories dropped since I wasn't hungry--I must have been getting a lot of calories from bad carbs that weren't really making me any fuller!

[Sara06]

I just did Day 1 today. I think I might have to skip day 1 as I only got 1053 cals. 2 pieces of fruit and a grain serving should bring me up enough I think.

[kates]

How is everyone doing?

[Sara06]

bad. Anyone else?

[kates]

Sara06--How's it going? I saw from a post you put on another section that you were struggling to get enough calories. Still a problem?
I'm having the opposite problem. Went out of town for a conference, and did my best but had to stray somewhat from the plan. Now I'm finding it hard to be strict about it again. It's a daily struggle.