operation non-maternity jeans.

yes, i'm aware i still haven't really updated about our trip to utah.  right now, my camera is out in the car and i'm just not in the mood to walk outside to get it so that i can upload pics.  call me lazy, but i just call it staying warm. =)

you might notice i added a new ticker below my header?  i have FIFTY pounds to lose to reach my goal weight.  (that would be my pre-baby, pre-stephen weight.  it may be a little ambitious, because i'm not sure how having a baby changed my body.  but it's my goal.  and my deadline is august 18 - christopher's 1 year birthday.)  two years ago, i did this same ol' song and dance.  lost about 40-45 pounds between february and september.  but, i wasn't married, i didn't have a kid, and i worked mainly 2-11 shifts as a cashier, which allowed me to have the mornings to work out.  i was also still living at home, and money wasn't really an issue because my parents bought my food - so it wasn't a big deal to buy 100 calorie snack packs, fruits, etc.

nontheless... c-man will be 5 months tomorrow and i'm still wearing my maternity jeans.  they've got.to.go.

i've tried lots of different "diets" and the best one i've found is the way i did it 2 years ago - just by watching my calories.  i started out counting calories, but once i got into the groove of things i coud pretty much tell what was high caloric/low caloric/good for me/bad for me, yadda yadda, and i only worried about calories when eating a new food or when i hadn't packed my lunch and had to buy something at work to eat.

basically, it works like this:

a healthy-ish cereal for breakfast.  (special k is my favorite.)

fruit, special k bar, or yogurt for a midmorning snack, if i'm hungry.  (this depends on what time i get up and eat.)

lunch is half a sandwich, (1 piece of bread, 2 or 3 slices of turkey or ham, and 1 small piece of cheese)  a piece of fruit or a yogurt, and a 100 calorie snack. (cheezits, cookies, etc.  you don't have to buy the expensive 100 calorie packs, either, just pick a snack and figure out how much you need for 100ish calories.)  when i was addicted to caffeine, i would have a diet mountain dew with my lunch, but i do pretty good now without caffeine. i pretty much just drink water. 

a snack between lunch a dinner - usually fruit, but i would also have a 100 calorie snack or a yogurt.

dinner would usually be whatever my parents were having - i just practiced portion control.  i would look at the calorie amount of whatever we were having and figure out how much i was "allowed."

another thing i would do for lunch (or sometimes dinner) is a salad.  i'm weird about salad though - i have to have some sort of protein in it, so usually i would have 1 piece of baked, breaded (occasionally grilled) chicken, lettuce, pickles, cheese (sometimes cheddar, sometimes feta) and ranch - and i would reeeeally try to use a little ranch as possible, but it's the only dressing that i like.  i would use that "spritzer" ranch and it worked just fine, and there's something like 2 or 3 calories in every "spritz."  easy enough.

the important thing is portion control, water consumption, EXERCISING, and just being aware of what you put in your mouth.  i would still eat pizza or mexican - but i would limit myself to very few chips and order a salad; or only eat 1 piece of pizza and have a salad alongside it.  you can still eat foods you love and lose weight.  and not pay an infomercial $200 to do it.

i L-O-V-E curves.  it really worked for me 2 years ago.  i went 4-6 times a week, though, so i am really going to have to discipline myself into going as much as possible again.  and once the weather is nice again, i love to walk and look forward to walking with christopher in his stroller.  i just can't get him out in the cold right now.  i'm also going to do the biggest loser game torture on the wii. my legs are hurting just thinking about it.

SOOOO why did i take all this time telling you all about this?  partly because friday was kelly's "show us your weight loss tips" day and partly because i'm holding YOU responsible for my weight loss.  i'm going to weigh-in every saturday morning and blog about how good or bad i did that week - both diet- and exercise-wise.  i'll announce how much weight i've lost and update the ticker.  i'm hoping that this will help me stay on track to reaching my goal weight in august. (at which point in time i might just admit how much i weigh now and how much i weight then.)  and by the way, stevo is doing this too!  i'm excited for us to get in shape and get healthy together.  we have a little boy who we need to be good examples for.  =)  no overweight parents for him!

FIFTY pounds to lose - here we GO!