Breastfeeding. The miracle diet prescription.

They say, a picture speaks a thousand words. I think they meant, pounds.

That was mummy, pre-pregnancy.

And then, this is mummy plus you at 28 weeks.

And mummy plus you just days before you were delivered.

That is a total net gain of 25kg. T.W.E.N.T.Y freakin F.I.V.E kilograms.

And you were barely 2.8kg at birth. Much to mummy's dismay. No prizes for guessing where the weight went.

You see, mummy developed a very orderly eating routine for fear you may not be getting enough nutrition (read: plain greedy). I was binging on LARGE servings of junk food, bubble tea, and pretty much having something in my mouth every other hour. The seven meals a day obviously had to end up somewhere. I mean who in the world bothers about keeping trim and fit when they're pregnant right?...

Because my weight gain was so appalling, I decided even before giving birth I HAD TO do something about it, post-delivery. i drafted gym plans (and mind you I ain't no gym bunny), demanded for marie france slimming packages, campaigned for supports to demand for it with me, and had all sorts of fad diets at the back of my mind. But it turned out, god was feeling charitable.

He was when he made breasts for Eve.

I recall being extremely determined to breastfeed. Even though my supply was quite low the first few days (which explains why Conrad got very frustrated whenever I tried to latch on...I mean imagine you were the dude, and you had to work that hard for that miserable amount of dough, you would be pissed too wouldn't you), I stuck diligently to a three-hour pump schedule (even through the night) in order to build up a sizable supply. And boy, it worked like a charm.

By the second month, i was producing a good 1.2 to 1.4litres of milk a day. I was officially in the league of cows. And this amount of output was definitely drawing on the fat reserves I had build up over the 38 long weeks.

That's mummy at the end of month no.2.. I was one of Auntie Elise's Jie-meis when she got married to Uncle Jonathan. I felt pretty cheated though. She was not supposed to get married till year-end but had it brought forward a good half year cause Uncle Jonathan was gonna get posted overseas. I didn't have time to lose all my baby weight before fitting myself snugly into this cheongsam. But, I had lost a commendable 15kg by then.

And that is mummy with YOU at 4 months. All 25kg has gone into making food for you. I am proud to announce, I have banished all that baby weight. Sans any extreme physical activity or dieting (in fact I still need machiam I was still pregnant).

p.s. I'm still breastfeeding but my weight loss have since, stopped. Charity has its limits.