That's Fit

My mom always has tricks for determining if someone is having a boy or a girl. When my sister was pregnant, her overly swollen feet meant she was having a boy ... she ended up having a girl. When my cousin was carrying her baby quite high, my mom was convinced it was a girl ... wrong again -- she had a bouncing baby boy. And when my other sister had terrible sweet cravings during pregnancy, my mom also predicted a girl ... and finally my mom was right.

Old wives tales abound when it comes to determining the sex of your baby. But now scientists have come across a way of determining whether it's a boy or a girl that sounds suspiciously like an old wives tale.

Researchers studied over 220,000 pregnant women and determined that if you're heavier at the start of your second pregnancy than you were at your first, there's a higher chance that you'll have a boy. They aren't clear why, however. One researcher suggests that environmental contaminants that are linked to male births may also build up fatty tissue.

It all sounds a bit flimsy to me. And it's certainly not a reason to pack on pounds if you want a boy or go on a crazy diet if you want a girl. Call me old-fashioned, but if I were pregnant, I think I'd trust an ultrasound more.

How many moms fit into their skinny jeans a year after the birth of baby? I sure didn't. Luckily I wasn't alone. Babycenter surveyed 7,000 new mommies about their bodies. 'New' means these moms had babies just a few days old to 2 years old. Here are a few highlights:

• Weight Loss Expectations: Sixty-five percent of new moms expected to shed pregnancy weight by their baby's first year, but only half of the moms with 1- 2-year-olds had accomplished this feat. It truly is a tough road -- I finally lost it, but had to pay money to hop on the Weight Watchers scale every Saturday morning to pull it off. After that I'd have a big breakfast -- with hashbrowns -- then start counting Points all over again.
• Tummy Woes: Eighty-seven percent of women say their stomach still hasn't returned to normal. My girlfriends across the country consistently report thanks to stretch marks (for some) and pregnancy's final-month-ultra-stretch, their abs are not the same.
• Pregnancy Weight Gain: Forty-two percent of moms surveyed gained more than the recommended limit of 35 pounds. Herein lies a major obstacle to losing the weight -- if you eat wildly during pregnancy and gain too much weight, it'll be tougher to take off later. Only 32 percent of the survey's big gainers lost their pregnancy weight within a year compared to 50 percent of moms who gained less.

Body image wasn't too stellar for survey-takers either. Over half admitted their body image has worsened since motherhood. But there's definitely good news here -- healthy eating and physical fitness is ever-ready to rescue pregnant and new moms. Go for it -- fitness fans everywhere applaud your efforts!

I breastfed both kids -- my firstborn for nearly seven months and my second for 13 months. Why the difference? I had this fantasy that if I stopped breastfeeding I'd lose those last stubborn pounds. So I switched my first bundle of joy to the bottle and watched the pounds simply stay there. It wasn't until I joined Weight Watchers and started eating less and moving more that the pounds came off.

According to this study in the American Journal of Epidemiology cited in Women's Health, I should have been sleeping more. Women who slept five hours a night were three times as likely to retain 11 post-pregnancy pounds as women who slumbered seven heavenly hours each night. Sleep-deprived cells releasing more appetite-stimulating hormones or stress hormones may be the culprit.

Granted, switching to the bottle did allow my husband to help with middle-of-the-night feedings -- our first did not sleep through the night until 11 months. But I do have a bit of regret I stopped breastfeeding so early in hopes of instantly losing the weight. It just didn't work. Diet and exercise ... and maybe more sleep over time did.

Former Bachelorette Trista Sutter seems to have it all these days -- a handsome hubby, courtesy of the show, and a cute little baby boy, Maxwell. But one thing she doesn't have is the body she had pre-pregnancy -- she's currently carrying 10 more pounds than she'd like on her 5'2 frame. But she's determined to shed the weight by 2008 and she let US Magazine in on her secrets. Here are some highlights:

• (On Ryan helping her with the diet.) "If I eat something that I shouldn't, Ryan shakes his finger at me and says, 'Uh, uh, uh!' He's been awesome, 100 percent supportive. He watches Max when I go to the gym and is constantly saying that I look great."
• (On her least favourite body part) "My belly. It has a layer of fat, which, of course, your body has to put on, but it's blubbery and I hate it."
• (On losing pregnancy weight) "My friend said that when I came home from the hospital, I'd be back in my old jeans. Fifteen pounds did fall off immediately, but the fact that it's been three months and I'm still not in them is a bummer."

As people, and later, as parents, we set many goals for ourselves throughout our lives. Many of these goals are met and subsequently replaced by newer, often grander goals. We enjoy challenge in our lives--it makes us faster, stronger, smarter--kind of like the bionic woman.

But sometimes, every so often, a goal takes on a life of its own. Sometimes it becomes too large and looms out there in front of us as the golden carrot we will never reach. These goals become so enormous and encompassing (especially as we use all our energy to strive to meet them) that everything else gets left in the shadow of that giant goal.

And most of the time it's those smaller things, and the smaller goals, that are just as if not more important than the big goal.

When I first decided to run the New York City Marathon it was really for no good reason. I'd never wanted to run it in the past. I never had that strong desire that haunted my dreams. I enjoyed running, liked being fit, that kind of thing. But never once did I say my dream was to run a marathon, let alone the biggee in NYC.