Progress, Not Perfection

Carré Brennan Otis Sutton shares her personal journey and insights on losing her post-pregnancy baby weight and avoiding the tabloids.

During my pregnancy, the last thing I wanted to deal with was outside pressure to look and feel ˜fabulous." It certainly was not how I always felt. Often times, I was shocked by the endless stream of comments regarding my weight and changing body. I thought my pregnancy would be a private time yet somehow I was on display.

Certainly now, postpartum, I cant help but be baffled by the pressures that I witness new mothers facing. Absurd headlines on every newsstand document and cheer as the new "celeb" moms lose the baby weight fastest and mock those who seem to keep on the baby weight. The race to "lose the weight"™ has become a national obsession.

I admit that as I neared my due date, I too was starting to wonder how I might shed my extra pounds when a miraculous thing happened: a week before my estimated delivery date my husband and I were in one of our favorite restaurants in Mill Valley, when all of a sudden my water broke which began seventeen hours of labor. Let's just say that somewhere between midnight and the arrival of Jade, (out of that deep mysterious jungle of a journey), a new woman arose. This new woman didn't feel like taking on the madness of the world's demands.

Call it perspective-or the aftermath of actually pushing an 8.2-pound baby out of me-that the only thing that seemed to matter was the health of my daughter and the wellness and balance of our family. A radical change had occurred. I no longer came first. I realized that I had to consider what impact my choices would directly have upon my daughter.

I decided that in my time, in my way, I would reclaim my body. And once again, it seemed like a first time for the journey of weight loss. In my refusal to keep up with the trends of the tabloids, unwilling to subject myself to the demands of attaining "six week postpartum perfection" I was in need of some help. Previously, when I have had to lose weight there were a great many "shortcuts" I had learned to take. Weight loss through detox, weight loss through excessive exercise, diet, fasts, supplements; but, none of these familiar options could apply because I was committed to breastfeeding. I was more than aware of the number of mothers that actually did forego breastfeeding so that they might take certain measures that they couldn't if they were nursing. That just wasn't an option for me.

For the very first time in my life I would have to take the longer road, (one that I used to find exceedingly boring), because there was no immediate gratification. This was new ground and I was going to need help. I would need to research all the "tweaks" a woman might be able to do that were healthy, yet effective for the breastfeeding mom. After nearly a year of sharing my body with my daughter, I definitely felt I had the right to start looking and feeling great.

When Jade was three months old I crossed paths two women I had heard about through the grapevine. Heather Morgan and JJ Virgin are dynamic women who partnered to create the company Nutrition On Location. Together they work with a varied assortment of professionals including actors, directors, writers, and performers who are generally on location or just trying to keep up with 15-hour days of grueling work schedules. JJ and Heather are like super heroes of the health brigade who assist others in fine tuning their diets, achieving goal weight, and balancing health. There is no "guessing" in their approach to balance and weight loss, it is in fact quite scientific.

Upon meeting these gals on one rainy day outside of San Francisco (JJ had flown in for a visit) I was particularly struck by how fast JJ moved and by how precise and serious she was in her evaluation of me. She was a no nonsense blond that stood a lean 5' 11" and although she had only one inch on me she seemed to tower far above. Incredibly accomplished and a 25 year veteran of the health and fitness industry, I realized she meant business.

The first step was ordering an extensive blood panel, checking for food sensitivities, yeast and bacterial overgrowth, and an assortment of other concerns that would determine the state of my general health. This process would be the fastest path to delivering me to optimum health, which in turn would allow my body to then shed the weight I had gained during my pregnancy.

Ahh, now I am sure everyone would like to know that number! I gained 50 pounds. I started at 148 pounds, so yes, that had me nearing the 200lbs range. I never thought I would see a scale tip near the 200lb mark in my life but it did and near the end of my pregnancy that truly just became a number. I was beginning to realize that the task at hand was not just the shedding of my baby weight but in fact curbing some serious eating habits I had picked up during my pregnancy. The Udo's dark chocolate omega oil bars would have to go, as well as the after dinner in front of the TV munchie-fest.

I was going to have to want this, really want to take this particular road to shed the weight in a healthy way. I knew there was an easier way out but there it was again, that question that kept coming up: was I willing to fully experience this process without the unhealthy shortcuts I had taken in the past? I would forego the liposuction that I knew many mama’s scheduled alongside their c-sections, knowing that there really is no short cut for healthy permanent weight loss. I would pass on all of the other radical measures I knew were available to me.

Making a decision to fold my own advice into action, I decided to slow my expectations down and work on a steady plan with the help of JJ and Heather. A slow and steady pace would get me to where I wanted to be. And somewhere I had heard that its about the journey, not destination where we find the greatest gifts of all. Keeping with the theme of wanting to send the right message to my daughter, I have decided that it's all about progress, not perfection.