So my last “physique update” was in August 2019 (click here to view that post). I actually did go on a third cut after that but I never posted about it.

All in all, from March 2019 to March 2020 I went on three cuts and lost a total of about 40lbs (approx 220 to 180). I ended my third cut right before the COVID quarantine because I didn’t think I could handle the mental stress of cutting and the mental stress of a pandemic at the same time, which turned out to be a good instinct. While on maintenance, I lost a few more pounds and found myself comfortably sitting between 175-180.

I was so surprised to discover that maintenance was easy to, well, maintain. Sometimes I felt like I went nuts with junk food but I didn’t gain anything back for the almost-year I was maintaining. I tried to stick to the 80/20 rule where 80% of the time I ate on-plan and 20% I ate whatever. Fortunately Bren is into that RP Life(tm) too, so it was pretty easy–we eat our chicken ‘n’ rice during the week and get takeout for dinner on Friday (bonus: support local businesses during the lockdown).

After I went to all the trouble to lose that weight, I went and got pregnant. 😛 I actually kept my app subscription for the first trimester because your overall caloric needs don’t change much during that time, although your macros do. According to the RP Pregnancy and Breastfeeding book (which I bought, obviously) there is some evidence linking high-protein diets with lower birth weights (lean babies??). So based on the advice in that book, I had planned to keep my overall calories the same but reduce the protein and fill the gap with carbs.

That was of course until the first trimester sickness hit me and I wasn’t eating much at all. There was a period of about two weeks where literally all I ate was bagels, saltines, yogurt (protein!) and canned soup. I could not tolerate meat or vegetables unless they were hidden in soups. The day I was able to eat meat and veg (albeit hidden in a cheesy quesadilla) I actually texted my mom and a couple friends who had recently been pregnant to brag about it. Eating food like a champ!

Once that all passed I was coming into the second trimester, when your caloric needs do change (but not as much as you think–only about 300 calories more per day) and obviously I was starting to gain weight. I didn’t want the app to yell at me so I paused my subscription. I made it 325 days on maintenance–almost a year without gaining anything back.

I’ve been eating pretty intuitively–I eat more carbs in general but still try to get protein with every meal. My lunches for work are basically RP-style (chicken, rice) but for breakfast I eat a bagel (a whole one! not even 0.7 of a bagel or whatever the app always wants to give me) and for dinner it’s usually some protein with rice or pasta.

Oh, and the frosted mini wheats. But that’s more of a…fiber thing.

I’m 21 weeks in and I’m about 8-10 pounds up. I’m not sure what to count as my starting weight because I actually lost a little weight during the first trimester, what with being too sick to eat. At any rate, my doc is not concerned with the rate of weight gain.

By the way–I was too lazy and cheap to buy a new wardrobe after my 40lb loss, so I sort of already have maternity clothes in the sense that everything I own is a little too big anyway! Or it’s athleisure and stretchy. Hooray!