So according to a new study in February’s American Journal of Preventive Medicine, women with a partner and a baby gain more weight than “all the single ladies”… (breaking out into song)… seriously? There was a need for a study on this?? Did someone get paid for this study? … They did… didn’t they! I am in the wrong field.
The study found that over 10 years, single-childless women gain 11 lbs, but add short 3 letter titles like Mrs. &/or MOM & you can gain double.
Julie Fagan, M.D. is quoted as saying:
Single women “may gain less because they have more time for exercise,”
*tap* ..*tap* hello?… Is this thing on?? *tap* tap*
The study goes on to say things we’ve pretty much all heard before like Sleep depervation, mindless comfort food eating, eating on the go etc etc… but I thought I’d help the study out by giving them a little moreinsight as to why A Complicated Mama , like myself is FATTER post hubby and KIDS
- Accepting tasty treats from sweet faces & little hands. Sometimes, Princess will come over to me with a cookie or piece of chicken nugget and say “Ma-NA’ which I’ve translated to mean “here mommy, you look hungry- have a tasty treat cause I love you”.. and how can I say no to that?
- Hunting for Happy Meal toys. The Complicated Boy recently found out that McDonald’s was giving out Alvin & The Chipmunk toys in their happy meals, so every time we went out to do exchanges and shopping he would say “If I’m a good boy, we can go get McDonalds and get the other Chipmunk, right Mom?” …well, listen- I’m not ashamed to admit, bribery is one of my key parenting tools and I use it often. The boy is a quick learner, and has since learned how to use this tool on HIS terms… and it works. We now have the entire Chipmunk collection.
- Baby lbs weigh more than regular I-just-ate-too-many-brownie lbs. … It’s true and I’ll tell you why… because even after you start losing some, your body is now so stretched out from those kids hanging out chillin’ in right between your hips… you now have more body mass to cover. Ok, Ok… thats not a MEDICAL fact, but my hips are for sure stretched out by my second child who carried LOW for the majority of the pregnancy, I am the poster child for the term “Child baring hips”… and the wider they are, the heavier I feel when I can not squeeze into my pre-pregnancy jeans…. 16 months later ((sigh))
-Turning into the taste testing chef. When we’re responsible for the cooking, we are also responsible to make sure we’re not poisoning our families. So we taste (needs more salt), and taste( yup! thats good), … (wait, was it really good? I should probably try it again) ..and taste…. and then sit down for dinner with the family.
- When i was single, I was eating less & “killin it on the dance floor” a whole lot more…. in addition to the gym. I’ve tried to adapt and bust a move to Yo Gaba Gaba… but “There’s a party in my tummy– so yummy, so yummy” only reminds me to eat.
… Im sure the list can go on and on… but those are my top line reasons, and I need to go find myself some breakfast cause the diet muffins I baked this morning were a complete failure.
So while I stuff my face chomp down on some nutritious breakfast, weigh in & help this study out … do you feel the hubby and kidlets have made the scale go up up up? … what are your reasons?
