I’ve Gained Weight During My Wife’s Pregnancy

Almost a year ago I had a little heart to heart with my readers. I opened up about a bout of depression that I had been facing about my weight and overall health. It was very difficult to open up and share with total strangers but at the same time it was freeing.

I spent a great deal of time and effort eating better and working out. I dropped over 35 pounds and felt amazing. I had my routine and it was working for me. About three months ago I hit a bump in the road and have managed to put a large portion of the weight back on.

Life got in the way, it happens. At least thats what I tell myself…

It all started when my wife was forced to switch to a 12 hour shift. My meticulous routine was interrupted and suddenly I didn’t know how to react. My 4:00am gym sessions stopped (because I was home alone with our daughter) and the days I was scheduled to be in the office went from fixed to rotating.

For a little while I made it work. I went from going to the gym 5 days per week down to 3. I tried mixing up the routine to accommodate the flexible schedule but in the end I found it difficult to juggle all the pieces. One missed gym session turned into two. Two turned into three. Three turned into an entire week.

To make matters worse, my wife is eight months pregnant. I don’t say that as a way to make some kind of lame excuse. When a pregnant woman says “I feel like having pizza” or “Can you go pick up some ice cream” you can’t exactly say “No hunny, I don’t want to get fat”.

So, over the past three and a half months I’ve slowly packed on the pounds. It probably didn’t help matters that I stopped weighing in months prior to that. When I finally did summon the courage to hop on the scale it was a classic “Oh Shit!” moment.

You know what the weird part is in all this… I’m not upset. I thought for sure I would get depressed if I gained back the weight I struggled to take off but I’m okay with it. Not in a defeated sort of way where I’ve given up, I know what worked and I’m confident that I can get back to where I was just a few short months ago. Sure, dropping the weight will be a lot harder than putting it back on but I’m up for the challenge.

In an odd sort of way I feel a little guilt over all of this. Right before my wife found out she was pregnant she was working hard to loose weight as well. She was seeing a personal trainer and even talked about joining my gym and lifting weights with me.

While my wife was home growing a baby ,I felt bad for continuing to hit the gym knowing that all the excitement she had about joining me was going to have to be put on hold until after she recovered from the delivery.

Maybe that is part of the reason I never resisted a pizza or ice cream run?

Whatever the case, I plan on getting my health back on track. I’ve been prepping meals (breakfast and lunch) and trying to be moderately healthy for dinner. I’ve lost a couple of pounds with diet alone but I miss being in the gym.

I’ve been squirreling away a couple bucks here and there, saving up to buy a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield. I may just take that money and visit my friend Bobby Pritchard over at Custom Fit Training. I don’t think I’m ready for personal training at this point (too much too soon) but a punch card for some high intensity cardio group classes might be right up my alley.