Project Yummy Mummy

It's time to talk about the baby weight. Let's start at the beginning.

I was not one of those people who could wear a little extender on her jeans and put off buying maternity clothes until the third trimester. Not at all. In fact, I bought a couple pairs of maternity jeans before I even got around to spreading the news! So at my first OBGyn appointment I asked the nurse, who you see first, if I should worry about weight. She gave me a little lecture saying not to stress about it, just eat healthy food and they would touch base with me if things got out of control.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

As someone who's never been medically overweight, I've still erred on the side of curvy rather than svelte and spent a great deal of time trying to sway the results in the other direction. I was looking forward to not being fixated on the scale for a while.

Then the doctor came in. I didn't bother to ask the question again, but he took it upon himself to bring the subject up. His lecture was about how I shouldn't gain too much! Here's the kicker - he didn't reference the health of me or my baby in his warning. He only said that I'd have a harder time losing it. It was all about aesthetics.

In case there was any question, I chose to listen to the nurse. But the assholey doctor was right.

In a few days, my little one will be seven months old already. The baby weight that was supposed to just magically disappear through breastfeeding and pushing a stroller through the neighbourhood has remained firmly in place. Not that I'm not to blame! I think the people who promised me it would be easy thoroughly underestimated my commitment to croissant sampling and fatigue-induced carb binges. There was also that succession of chocolate-eating holidays (Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter) that fell during the earliest and most challenging (so far!) days.

But now I'm ready to pay attention to the scale once again. If only so I can stop wearing those same maternity jeans that I first bought. Other non-scale goals include:

- Wearing my wedding rings again (I'm so close! And I miss them.)
- Getting some professional shots of the family (Not so keen on full-length photos of myself at the moment.)
- Wearing all those other clothes in my wardrobe (They will seem like new again after all this time!)

Most importantly, I want to be a strong, healthy example for my daughter. And that means NOT having breakfast dessert. (Yes, you read that right.)

I'm going to use this space to work toward my goal, much like I used it originally to pay off my debt! Starting tomorrow, I'm going to weigh myself and post the number. (Gah!) Then I'm going to follow trusty old Weight Watchers, meaning I'll post how many points I have each day and how many I use. You guys will be my community, because I can't bring myself to go back to WW meetings. When you've done the program a couple of times, which I have, you cannot sit through the same lesson on how to order at a restaurant or deal with saboteurs. You just can't.

I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but have felt weird about being open and vulnerable about this online. But I need some support. And you guys were SO instrumental in helping me with my debt! Therefore... here we go...