I saw an article today that ranked the “best and worst” Girl Scout cookies in terms of how healthy they were.  Naturally, the ones that I love {Samoas/Caramel Delites, Tagalongs, and Thin Mints} were not the healthiest options.  Good thing I don’t have to worry about being tempted by them over here!

I have set a goal for myself to lose 20 pounds this year.  I’m not going to post my actual weight on this blog, though.  Not for vain reasons {well, not entirely for vain reasons!} but really, because I know what it feels like to hear or read someone’s “start” weight and wish that it was your end, goal weight!  I don’t want someone to read my start weight and get discouraged – every person and body is different, and every goal weight should be different.

So – 20 pounds.  I’m feeling pretty good with that number.  When Joe was born, I lost all but 4 pounds of the baby weight.  I lost the remainder of that + another 2 pounds by the time he was just shy of 3 months.  Yes, it took me awhile to lose but I should note that during that time, I actually gained weight.  Whoever said that breastfeeding was the magic weight-loss bullet must have been a liar.

By the time we left for the States {mid-November} I had lost a further 10 pounds.  I’m not exactly sure about that number, but I know it was around there.  I gained 4 pounds during the nearly 7 weeks we were traveling, but I lost them again within the 1st week of being back in New Zealand.

I’ve since gone down another 4 pounds.  Reading back through this, it sounds like I’ve lost a lot of weight.  But really, aside from the pregnancy weight, I’ve only lost 16 pounds.  That’s really not a whole lot over a 7 month time frame {Joe is 7 months old}.

I’ve already lost 4 of the 20 pounds, but that still leaves me with a further 16 pounds to go in order to meet my goal.  I’ve been doing a number of things to help me meet that 20 pound mark.  For starters, I’m being more careful about what I eat.  I still eat chocolate and butter and bread {probably too much!}, but I’m pickier about when I indulge.  I’ve also been eating more veggies, grains, fruit, drinking more water, etc.  I don’t drink any soda, but I do like to have a cup {or two!} of tea in the mornings.  Before any caffeine, though, I make myself drink one big glass of water.  There are some mornings where I drink that water really fast because I really want caffeine, and other mornings where the glass of water stretches out for an hour or two.

I’m also exercising more.  I was a wuss in the exercise department for the first few months of Joe’s life.  I would use the treadmill several days a week, but spent about half of the time walking and only running for the last half.  Now, I run between 5 – 6km 4 times a week.  I’ve also been running 1 evening a week with my friend D as we train for our beach 5km, and have done a few times of baby boot-camp.  Baby BC isn’t anything fancy, and the babies aren’t part of the workout.  It’s run by a fellow new mum who was an aerobics instructor, and we only meet 1 day a week.  The babies all hang out on picnic rugs while we mums huff, puff, lunge, step, jump, and run around.

I still have a ways to go.  There are some days where I don’t do a very good job.  Last week was a prime example.  I only ran twice, and the 2 days that I ran were for less than 5km.  I saw the results of that when I stepped on the scale and saw that it hadn’t budged.  Hopefully, this coming Monday will show a difference!

What are some of your fitness goals for the year?  Do you have any advice for a relatively new mother who’s looking to lose a bit more weight?