Weight Loss After Two

Plateau.

That's what happened to my weight loss around the time Hudson was five months old. I extended myself some grace, because my hands were full, and I tried to have patience remembering the whole "nine months on, nine months off" thing. I kept waiting for the same super metabolism that I had after Phinn to kick in.

And I kept waiting, and waiting...

Still waiting actually.

However, I'm not waiting so passively any more. 

While I was being pretty good at working out and pretty good at eating healthy, I was being pretty terrible about snacking. During my second pregnancy, Hubs and I got into a bad habit of eating ice cream way too often, and that  habit has lingered - along with my love of dark chocolate and baked goods. 

But, I read something the other day: "abs are made 30% at the gym and 70% in the kitchen." BAM! It hit me. My eating habits are sabotaging all the hard work I'm doing. All of the results I was hoping to see from my running, Tracy Anderson DVDs (still loving her post-pregnancy DVD!), and Baby Boot Camp classes were being ruined by over indulging. 

I am working to change my eating habits, and luckily I have a great program called the Mother Love Fitness Challenge (MOLO) to help me get started. MOLO is all about setting goals for yourself and making little changes each week to help you not only reach your goal, but to change your habits for the long run. 

This first week, we started by giving up our BIG daily vice. Mine was chocolate. This isn't a permanent break-up, but I am hoping to get our relationship under control. I did find myself taking a bite of my son's cookie the other day. It was a chocolate chunk cookie that he had gotten after school, and I had only given him half of it. As soon as it was in my mouth, I remembered the challenge and spit it out. And all I could think of was the episode of Sex and the City where Miranda eats cake out of the trash. That's how bad chocolate and I have become. I am eating it without even really thinking about it.

I have read about some ways to set boundaries for yourself. If you're anything like me, the minute you deprive yourself of something, there is nothing you want more. For me, being completely restrictive would only set myself up for failure. 

One suggestion that I liked was to plan your indulgences into your week. For example, I know that Friday nights at our house are usually homemade pizza night, so I make sure my other dinners that week are healthy. That means doing things like skipping take-out and subbing spaghetti squash for noodles. 

Another tip I picked up was if you are going to indulge make it count. Skip the store-bought cookies and candy, the handful of chocolate chips, or in my case, the bite of your son's cookie, and wait for the opportunity to have something that you really want, something that is really worth the fat and calories like a homemade chocolate doughnut or your favorite dessert at your favorite local restaurant or a chocolate from Gearharts' on Valentine's Day (hint! hint!). 

Changing my eating habits is not going to be all about restricting what it is that I can eat, but it's also going to be about finding new ways to enjoy fruits and veggies more. When I started eating a vegetarian diet (well...pescatarian, because I do have seafood every couple months), I became aware of a lot of vegetables that I hardly noticed before; squash, kale, chard, fennel, beets, radishes - and I learned how to use them to make some really delicious (and some not so delicious) meals. 

These last five pounds have not gone anywhere, despite how hard I feel like I'm working. My pre-pregnancy clothes mostly fit, however, they're not nearly as comfortable as they once were. 

While there are some numbers I am trying to hit on the scale and tape measure, there's also a bigger reason. All the weight I'm carrying is lower abdominal fat, which can play a big role in health problems such as diabetes and breast cancer - both of which run in my family. Nothing can quite snap me into action as quick as the thought of having to fight cancer or even worse not being there for my boys.

So I'm going to be sharing more about my workouts, some recipes (even a few of my own!), and any other useful tips I pick up along the way. I'm going to work hard to find the balance between eating healthy, exercising, and indulging - because let's face it, life is too short not to have chocolate ;)