Dominica May

Once upon a time, there was a university student, unpopular in high school, and didn’t care too much about her appearance…

When I was in university, I ballooned up to a weight of around 75kg. Despite this large figure staring back at me on the scales, I didn’t think I looked any different than I did at 65kg, which is about what I weighed in high school. Still, even 65kg at a height of 160cm is classed as overweight when calculating the BMI.

In around November 2003, I went to see a homeopath, who helped with advice about eating better. Exercise wasn’t the issue; I walked 45 mins to and 45 mins from uni every day I had classes. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of me at 75kg, but I do have a photo from Christmas 2003, not long after I started losing weight that I’ll use for comparison.

After a while on a better diet, I got down to around 60kg before I went overseas in July 2004. Then working at Burger King in the US Nov 2004-Jan 2005 pretty much brought my weight back up at around 65kg. I was still around 62-63kg by the time I got married in April 2006. Perfectly content, though, I didn’t feel the need to explicitly diet or try to lose more.

Since then, though, I got pregnant. Morning sickness brought my weight down to 58kg in the beginning, until Doyle started growing enough to affect my weight in the opposite direction. As soon as I gave birth, I was back down to my wedding day weight, and since then breastfeeding has affected my weight in perhaps too positive a way. There’s no other explanation for it but breastfeeding – I haven’t changed my diet or exercise program (of which I have none).

My weight has been affected so much with pregnancy and now breastfeeding, I basically have to have my rings resized. Last night my wedding ring almost fell completely off, but luckily I caught it in time.

I’m not necessarily advocating getting pregnant and having a baby in order to lose weight, however. I seriously doubt all new mums are affected in the same way. I’m merely discussing how I’ve been positively affected by this situation – even if I will have to pay money to have my rings resized so as not to accidentally lose them.

Before (Christmas 2003):

After (June 24, 2007):