Let's step back for a minute...when my oldest daughter was born in June 2008, I dropped most of the baby weight in two weeks. When she was just 2 1/2 months old, my husband and I went on Weight Watchers together. We didn't attend meetings, I just planned our meals and we stuck to our points allowance for the day and tried to stay active. Niether of us was going to the gym, but we took family walks together in the evenings and played in the back yard with the dog a lot. Within a few months we had both lost so much weight. I was about 30 pounds below my prepregnancy weight and back into size 10 clothes. I felt good about myself. I felt in control. I was happy. Then in April 2009 hubby went overseas and my bad eating habits all came flooding back. The bored eating, the lonely eating, the feeling sorry for myself eating. The pounds starting creeping back on. I was fully aware of it, but the more weight I gained, the more I beat myself up for it, the more I felt bad about myself, the more I ate. What a vicious cycle!
In early January 2010 I found out I was pregnant with daughter #2. Imagine my relief! I could stop beating myself up over the weight gain. Now it was ok to gain weight. YAY! I remembered how easy it was to lose the weight after the first baby so I wasn't worried about it after the second. What a mistake that was! I gained almost 40 pounds with my second pregnancy. Yes, she was a big girl weighing in at 8 pounds 6 oz, but most of that weight took up residence in my butt and thighs. Seriously, I used to "joke" about my butt looking pregnant before my front! Unfortunately it wasn't a joke...it was the truth. Yuck.
So here I am, over a year past the birth of my second daughter and I am starting the battle to lose weight again. This isn't the first time since her birth I've started this journey, but this is the time I'm going to win. I'm actually only carrying about 5 pounds more than what I weighed when I got pregnant, but I had already gained about 25 pounds before I got pregnant. Side note: This is the first time I'm putting it all into writing. Really, it's the first time I've let myself do the math. It's frightening to think I was about to gain 25 pounds in 9 months without being pregnant...it makes me nauseous to think about it.
Today I started following the Weight Watchers Points Plus program again. I'm not planning to go to meetings, just hoping to keep up the motivation to lose the weight for good this time.
So, what did I do to get started? First, I weighed myself. YUCK. I don't think I'll ever make friends with a scale! Then I sat down and made out my weekly menu. I planned all of my dinners, figured out the points for those dinners, including any sides. Then I looked at how many points plus values I had remaining for the day. My next most important meal is breakfast so I figured out what breakfasts I want to prepare for me and the girls, then planned lunches and snacks with the points that were left over. Oh, and I was sure to keep my 4 points per day for my coffee!!
My goals for this week:
- DON'T EAT OFF THE GIRLS' PLATES!!!! It's ok to throw food away. Don't eat it just because it's there. Most of the time I pick off of their plates, I find myself saying why am I eating this? It's not even good. That's just the habit I've gotten myself into.
- Drink more water. I've really been slacking on the water. I've been drinking a lot more diet sodas lately. I'll limit myself to 4 diet sodas a week. I used to drink 1-2 per day. (I had one today)
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