Can I still call it baby weight...

pinksprkly

New member
If the baby is now a toddler? I read somewhere that after a year, it is no longer baby weight - it's your weight. It's time. I need to get back to normal.

Here's my sitcho: Mom of two, stepmom of one plus (my stepdaughter's sister, who is not my husband's child, spends every other weekend minimum with us). I am finishing up my bachelor's degree and starting pharmacy school in the fall. When I was trying to get into pharm school, I put weight loss on hold in order to focus on getting perfect grades (admission is pretty competitive). Now that I have a good six months of low-stress time, this is my focus.

My stats: 5' 5", started at 160, am now at 151.5. Work out about 4-5 times per week (spinning/weights class/couch25K runs). Using the Livestrong app on my phone to track calories. Shooting for 130. I would love 125, but I would be happy at 130.

Biggest challenges: Time! With kids and the husband, finding time to work out (esp. weekends) can be tough. Also, I really like wine. I have to make sure to bank calories for that, or I go over.

Here we go.
 
Went to spinning class today. It is funny how the instructor really makes a difference. I went to a class that I do not usually go to, and I wasn't crazy about it. I like an instructor that gives a lot of guidance and feedback - what resistance you should be at, exactly how long each set will be, etc. The instructor at my normal class does this. Today's instructor did not. It makes me feel like I did not get as good of a workout.

Tonight is one of my perpetually challenging food events. Every other Friday, when my stepdaughter goes to her mom's house for the week (she splits her time evenly with both parents, switching every Friday), my husband and I get really amazing Chinese food and watch The West Wing (or whatever series we are working on). It is kind of like date night at home. I could just eat and eat and eat General Tao's tofu! So good. I struggle between trying to bank calories (plan for the indulgence) and winding up starving (and WAY overeating) or eating normally, hoping I won't eat so crazily that evening, but still definitely going over on calories. Then sometimes I think, "Hey, two cheat meals a month is not going to kill you - just don't let it derail you." I have gotten in the habit of using chopsticks - it slows me down.

The other issue is that I really have no idea what the calorie total of this meal is - we don't eat the most normal of Chinese food. I'll have to do some guesstimating - I wonder if chicken and tofu are similar calorie-wise.
 
Okay, so yesterday was an epic fail in the food department. It all started out innocently enough - I had a normal-sized sesame bagel at breakfast. I try to stay away from white flour items, especially at home. The husband and the kids really like the bagels, which is why I buy them. I probably have about one a week. I did have a couple of slices of Tofurky to balance out the sugar rush.

Then we made an unplanned trip to the mall. We live in MN and seldom go to the mall, so when we go, we tend to go big: the Mall of America. We were supposed to be going to a wake for a relative of mine (distant cousin, we bad never met). I misread the time, so suddenly we were all dressed up with no place to go. So we went to the mall. At lunchtime.

After toodling around for a bit, we decided to get lunch. We settled on a Mexican place with an awesome view of the theme park - the boys were enthralled and were little angels during the entire meal - a very rare occurrence. I had a Skinnygirl margarita, which led to another. I was starving and eating tortilla chips and salsa. I should have portioned out some chips instead of eating them out of the basket - I can only guess how many I ate. By the time my fajitas came, I wasn't even that hungry. I had one fajita (which isn't as bad as it sounds - it was only veggies and a little guacamole - our family is vegan so I couldn't load it up with sour cream and cheese). I also picked at the veggies in the skillet a little. If we weren't doing the Chinese food dinner, I wouldn't feel all that bad. The veggies were oily, but hey - they were veggies.

Ugh. That afternoon, I had a cupcake (small, no frosting). On a day like yesterday, the last thing I needed to be snacking on was a cupcake.

Then came dinner (after the kids were in bed). I had appropriately-sized portions of rice and lo mein, three veggie dumplings, and a large portion of General Tao's tofu. Two glasses of wine. I think I'll go add this up.

Then get my ample rear to the gym.
 
Circumstances like that are what make it difficult to lose weight really.
All the unexpectedness of it!
But today/tomorrow (Depending on your time zone :p) is a new day. Forget about yesterday and start again.
Don't beat yourself up about it we all slip sometimes :)
 
Thank you for the encouraging words!

Today (so far) has gone much better. I got my butt to the gym and took a weights class, then ran, even though I didn't want to. My eating has been much better. For dinner, we had another thing that I tend to overeat: roasted potato halves. I made a hearty salad to go along with the potatoes and tried to focus on that. Normally, I would eat minimum four potato halves, sometimes as many as six or seven. Today, I paid attention, realizing that I was full after eating two (and most of my salad), and I passed my plate over to my husband.

I have so many calories left that I can even have a little treat if I want one later. It feels so good to be back on track, and so quickly. So many times in the past, I have said, "I'll get back to it on Monday." Those weekend days can really add up after a while.

Tomorrow, I plan to go to spinning class. Weekends are sometimes tough for getting to the gym (husband has class), but it is spring break, so I am taking advantage of it!
 
Today has gone well. Hubby let me sleep in today (a rare occurrence), so I wound up skipping the gym. I don't feel too bad though - it is the only day this week that I didn't go.

I have been reading Dr. Fuhrman's book on childhood nutrition (the Eat to Live guy), and it has been fascinating and inspiring. I have slowly been letting my kids eat way too much processed crap. Pre-packaged Teddy Grahams are so much easier than cutting up and portioning from, yk? I am going to put a stop to that (and probably get healthier myself in the process). Took the kids to the grocery stores today (to save money bit get all of the vegan substitutes that I use, we have to go to both Whole Foods and another store because I can't afford to buy everything at Whole Paycheck). Bought lots of fruits and veggies. I feel like we ate fairly healthily before, especially compared to the standard American diet, but I want to step it up a notch.

Dinner tonight was great - split pea soup, tempeh bacon/dinosaur kale/tomato salad, and apples tossed with Meyer lemon juice, walnuts, spices, and a touch of sugar. Yum.
 
So, I have had some good and some bad in the past few days. For the most part, I have been eating lots of fruits and veggies. I chopped up and pre-packed fruits and veggies and put them in a bin in the fridge. Didn't buy any processed snacks. When it is all ready to go and all we have, I will happily eat healthy snacks!

One night I did slip and had an unnecessary snack of three roasted potato halves before bed, but if that is as bad as it gets, okay.

My workout schedule is all messed up this week. I missed Monday AM weights class (did Couch25K run instead). Skipped spinning on Tuesday because I wanted to make up the weights class, but the teacher didn't show. Gym was PACKED, so I just went home. This morning, I was really tired and feel like I might be getting sick, so no gym. I would normally suck it up and go later, but today is busy and there is no time. I will go to spinning tomorrow! I swear.
 
Ok, so last week wasn't so great in the exercise dept. One day - that is it! I was so tired, I just couldn't drag myself out of bed. Eating wasn't bad until the weekend - I had a night out with friends with a lot of wine, then a Taco Bell lunch the next day ( a 7 layer burrito, no cheese/sour cream and fiesta potatoes). I was doing so good with staying away from gross processed crap! I even brought a roasted potato salad over to my friends' the night before that was half kale (and well-received).

Went to weights class this morning, and ate pretty well. I stopped tracking calories, but I am thinking about starting again. It is so hard to figure out the calories in homemade things.
 
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