By the Pound

So…..uhm….how much weight did you gain?!?

That is probably one of the most common questions I get asked about being pregnant. From girls, and cyclists, and especially girl cyclists. And the question is usually asked with a grimace. Like extra pounds are a virus or a contagious disease or something. Actually pounds are probably even less desirable to cyclists than a virus. You get rid of the flu by sitting on the couch. You have to work your butt off to get rid of the pudge.

Norm and I at our anniversary dinner a few days before Tycho was born. Dont let the colour black fool you. There is 50lbs more of Wendy to love in that photo.

One of the few "full on" pregnancy shots of me just a few days before Tycho was born. And yes, that is Norm trying to get his arms around the bonus me.

Now that I have shed most of the baby weight (Thanks to my new Chariot!) I can come out of the closet and say that I gained almost FIFTY POUNDS during my pregnancy. Holy. Crap. All of the books & magazines said the average weight gain for pregnancy was 20-30lbs. Uh hello. I hit that mid-way. I am not usually a weight weeny. I can’t be. I am taller than most girls on the circuit and I am pretty dense so if I played that game I would waste away. I probably out-weigh the legendary “fillet” by 30+ pounds. But when the pregnancy pounds started adding up I wondered what I would tap out at. One morning Norm and I weighed in the exact same and he joked about finding a teeter-totter. ha ha ha ha ha – shut it. I think that was the same week I went into the midwife and saw that the last person on the scale weighed 126lbs – less than my non-pregnant state. I muttered something about midgets under my breath. But eventually I just had to embrace it. I was “eating for two”, if I went for a walk I was a hero, naps were prescribed and everyone said I looked great. How can you NOT embrace that?

Shedding the pounds with a little resistance training with my new Chariot.

Buuuuuut once Tycho was born (at just over 8 lbs), I was stuck with extra weight and a body that wasn’t good for breeding OR biking. The glow was gone. Time to get moving. I started with walking & swimming. Then graduated to hiking. Then added XC skiing & baby stroller boot camp. And finally I got up the nerve to start running & biking. I had to suck it up and ignore my bruised ego. January 2009 I was at the cyclocross world championships and January 2010 I was starting my run-walk program with a 30sec run for every 4:30 walk. Ouch. But the body is a pretty amazing piece of machinery and after 4 months I am only 5 lbs shy of my world champs weight. Now I am not saying that the distribution of that weight is the same (I missed the memo that when your hips open up for childbirth your ass follows) but it’s a start.