Postpartum body

I've heard it said that the three months following birth are like the fourth trimester for the baby, and I think that's well and truly over now. RJ is super-interactive and grabby and wanting so badly to eat real food (no, he can't have it yet, nyah nyah nyah), and he's really definitely not in that spacey-baby-staring-at-ceilings trance anymore. I also think it's pretty much over for me, too, as I really feel like I've recovered from the pregnancy, which is fair, because it started about a year ago!

The biggest respect in which I am feeling back to normal is weight-wise. I'd made it down to my pre-this-pregnancy weight just by trying to be sensible and breastfeeding, but then we went and did one of those grown-up things we'd been meaning to do for a while and finally got life insurance straightened out. That means we need to have an exam, and that in turn means that I need to make it under their weight cutoff of 175 to qualify for their "ideal" rates. This incidentally corresponds to my happy comfortable weight maintenance range of 170-175 from pre-two-miscarriages (I didn't try to lose weight after them because weight loss has in the pass messed with my fertility in major ways, and I was obviously trying hard to get and stay pregnant).

Given that I had three weeks, it seemed like it should be doable to tackle the 7-8ish lbs, with maybe an extra lb or three to allow for things like clothing and the insurance person's scale being different from our bathroom scale. (It does make me happy that we switched to a more pessimistic bathroom scale than we had previously, though!) I'm happy to say that two weeks in, I've dropped 10 lbs and thus I think it should definitely be possible to qualify for the "ideal" rates for the life insurance by carrying on as I have been for another 7 days. I might not even have to resort to wearing the lightest clothing I own, as determined by weighing underwear, skirts and shirts on our food scale.

After that, I will go eat a pastry, possibly at the newly-opening Snapdragon which is run by 2 out of the 3 members of the Monkeytree, and which will reunite me with the cinnamon rolls I wanted so much to eat all throughout pregnancy with RJ. And before then, too, really.

The nice fringe benefit is that now I fit into all of my prepregnancy pants again, not just the most forgiving ones, and I'm feeling very much back to normal when I look in the mirror. Yeah, my stomach isn't totally back to its previous shape, but it's quite decent for having recently housed an absolute chunk of a baby (who is even more chunky, now nearly 20 lbs).

The trickier part is my cholesterol, actually. My total cholesterol needs to be under 210, which is something that I'd previously regarded as a cinch (my level in late 2010 was 127)... but either the postpartum period or breastfeeding (unclear which is the culprit) can really ratchet up the cholesterol levels, especially the HDL ("good" cholesterol) levels, such that it's not unheard of to have your cholesterol levels double. Well, crap, because I'm definitely postpartum and breastfeeding, and 127*2 > 210.

So, yes, it was time to severely restrict the intake of cholesterol and saturated fat, which is a bummer, because many of my favorite diet/weight loss foods contain those substances in nontrivial quantity (eggs, especially).

Given that I know that many of the grandparents reading this blog have similar concerns (read, all of them), I find myself motivated to share a super-awesome recipe for pancakes, here in the quantity for 2 servings, or 1 very hungry person who wants to stuff themselves silly with pancakes with some leftovers for the next day or to feed to one's toddler.
1 cup oats
1 cup reduced-fat cottage cheese
1 generous teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup egg whites or egg substitute (I used Egg Beaters, but if you have something to do with egg yolks, then by all means go for it)
Optional: 2 tablespoons milk (or less, to adjust consistency)

Process oats in blender until ground into flour. Add other ingredients and process again. Add 2 tablespoons of milk if you like thinner pancakes. Heat up nonstick frying pan, and dollop small bits of batter to make wee pancakes which you cook in the usual manner - wait until bubbly and mostly cooked, then flip to cook other side. Serve with syrup (sugar-free if you're me!) or jam (ditto!).

Next time, will experiment with adding some leavening to try to make slightly puffier pancakes, but these are delicious and dense and creamy. They're not quite like regular pancakes, but if you regard pancakes mostly as a vehicle for syrup or other toppings, they more than do the trick. Nice combination of carbs and protein, and you could up the fats by either frying them in some oil or smearing them with peanut butter.

(And if you are Jolly, you can eat them spread with Nutella, totally defeating the whole healthful point.)