Losing the baby weight

Operation Lose Baby Weight has commenced. It commenced on Saturday the 7th of September to be precise. I was looking at myself in the mirror and decided it's time to get back to my normal weight. Naturally, I have a plan. It's nothing complicated or expensive, it's very simple and easy to stick to.

With Chai I put on 30kg's. I lost 17kg's in the first three weeks then due to eating crap I put weight back on. After three months I decided I was sick of being overweight so I started losing weight and it took me six months to get back to my pre baby weight. From memory, when I decided to start losing the weight I had 20kg's to lose. 

This time I only have 10 kg's to lose so I'm hoping I'll get back to my pre baby weight a lot quicker. I'm not expecting dramatic weight loss in a short period, I'm expecting gradual, health weight loss. With Chai I lost 500 to 700 grams every week and I'm hoping for the same loss this time.

Here's my plan:

1. Drink more water. For the last few days I've been monitoring my water intake and I've realised that I'm not even drinking a litre a day. Granted, I do have a glass of juice and a chai latte most days, but even with that, I'm not drinking nearly enough. I am going to make sure I drink two litres of water a day, especially considering I'm breastfeeding. 

2. Stop eating lollies and chocolate. I have a sweet tooth and when I'm tired I eat chocolate or lollies to give me energy. This is going to stop. I'll still eat chocolate, but I'll limit myself to one square of Pana or Lindt chocolate a day and only if I really feel like something sweet. 

3. Eat less. I'm going to reduce my portion sizes and eat less than I have been, I know my meal sizes have been too big. I'm also going to stop eating when I'm no longer hungry, instead of finishing everything on my plate.


4. Eat only when I'm hungry. I'll often find myself eating because I'm bored, because something looks good or because Chai hasn't finished his meal and I don't want the food to go to waste. From now on I'm going to eat because I'm hungry, not because it's meal time or because I don't want the food to go to waste. 

5. Eat more fresh fruit and veggies. When I'm tired I get lazy and I'll eat pre packaged meals. I get the healthy ones, but they really don't compare to fresh food. To make this easier I'm going to wash and chop up all my veggies, divide them up into meal sized portions and put them in plastic bags. That way when I need something to eat I can just pull out a bag of veggies, put it in the steamer and it'll be ready in 15 minutes. 

A few other things I'll be doing to make things easier are:

• Cooking a large meal and freezing it so that I can just defrost and reheat it when I need something. 
• Make and freeze little quiches and sausage rolls. These are perfect for snacks and great for Chai to eat too.
• Eat a bigger breakfast. When I'm breastfeeding I get quite hungry. I've never been a breakfast person so I find I'm hungry an hour after having breakfast. To stop this I'm going to start having oats with Chia, LSA, yoghurt and fruit in it. That will keep me full for longer and stop me snacking.   

I'm going to allow myself one treat a week. When I was losing the weight with Chai my treat was a hot chocolate with two marshmallows and a whole row of chocolate. I'm not sure what my treat will be this time, it'll depend on what I feel like.

Whilst I'd like to say that I'll exercise, in all reality I probably won't. I'd love to go walking a few times a week, but with Chai refusing to go in the pram, walk or ride his bike exercising is a little difficult. I do get out and about with Chai, we go to the park, kick the ball around, play chasey etc so that will have to be my exercise. 

Do you have any tips to help me lose my baby weight? If you do, please let me know in the comments below.