Future health

Occasionally, my mind does wander into the not-so-distant (hopefully) future, when I will be trying for, and then pregnant with my third baby. I wonder how my pregnancy will fare - will I get diabetes again? How will the birth go? Will I be low risk? And if I am, will I choose a home birth again?

I am more aware than ever that my eating habits are slowly improving, I still struggle occasionally, and mostly with treats, I binge on them rather than spreading them out and making them last. But my meals are more healthy, I make a lot more food from whole ingredients, and very few things from heavily processed ready meals. I think the closest I get to those are the sauce jars, perhaps tins of baked beans, and other things like that. A new favourite of mine, and healthier alternative, is mashed cauliflower. It is a delicious alternative to potato, and I am quickly preferring it. I hope that there are lots more things that will gradually seep in and that as well as losing the final third of the weight I would like to lose, I will also become a healthier person. That any future pregnancies will be healthy ones, and that I pass down healthy habits to my children.

I hope I can make this vessel of life the most healthy it can possibly be, both for my future and that of my children. To think I am now the weight I was when I was around the age of 20, that over the last seven or eight years my weight crept up and down and up again to probably almost 17 stone at the height of pregnancy with Robert, and that in the last eight months I have lost almost 3 and a half stone, with maybe a couple of stone lost with the birth of Robert and between pregnancies, I should not scoff at the changes I have already made. My weight loss could have been greater, had I not had sticking points, but in a way I am glad that I've had them, as I think they have taught me as much or maybe more than managing to lose the weight I have done. It has shown me that I can maintain a weight by watching what I eat and allowing a few treats, and maybe going a bit OTT on occasion, but not as a matter of course. It has shown me how important it is to carry on eating healthily. It has shown me that I don't have to give up if things get slow, that I can just keep treading water and eventually I will get back the insentive and courage to carry on losing weight, without shooting back up the scales and un-doing all the work I've put in.

This weight loss journey might be as long as some people's, but it is still a fair amount, and one that I think will take me a year in total to complete, I think that to have stuck to something for this length of time is something I couldn't do several years ago. Becoming a mother has prepared me in some respect, patience is needed for both. Becoming a mother has spurred me into doing this, I want to be healthy for my children. I hope I can continue and that it will help me and my children to be healthy for the rest of our lives.