The Time Has Come

I think I've basked in my "I'm enjoying my new baby, I could carry less about losing weight" state of mind long enough. The time has come to shed some LB's. I have 15 pounds of pregnancy weight to still lose before I'm back to the weight that I was before having Ilah. But truth be told, I wanted to lose 25 pounds prior to becoming pregnant...but we ended up conceiving just weeks after getting married so there went that.

Now that I've put the above numbers out there, the math shows that I'm aiming to lose 40 pounds. Yowsers. That number seems so big to me. So unattainable. I know, I know...it's not 100 pounds - and there are people out there who are making a go at losing a lot more weight than I am and are succeeding at it....and that's part of my motivation.

But ya see...I couldn't even reach the ideal weight that I wanted to be at when getting married - and there's probably no other time in a woman's life when she wants to look the most physically amazing. I give into cravings so easily. I don't have a willpower switch. And if I do, it always remains off. Losing weight doesn't come easy to me. I'm not one of those people who associate words like "exhilarated", "freeing", and "mind clearance" to what working out does for me. I also don't consider [or think of] excercise as a stress reliever. To me, working out and losing weight is nothing more like a grueling undertaking. In fact, you would think that I would lose weight from the exhaustion of just thinking about losing weight. I'm an instant gratification person, so when I actually am putting forth effort to lose weight but don't see it instantly fall off {which is unrealistic, but what I want}, I get discouraged and say goodnight to trying anymore. I need to approach weight loss in a sensible way. And I'm determined to {say that 25 times Jessica}. I'm manually flipping on the willpower switch. That should make me lose at least 5 calories, right?

When it comes to my weight loss goal of 40 pounds, I'm all about slow and steady. I don't plan on going to any extreme measures to lose the weight. My weekly goal is 2 pounds. If I'm consistant with eating healthy, and excercising regularly - and meet this weekly goal - I will lose the weight in 4 1/2 - 5 months.

This week I officially started to eat healthy and enter into an excercise routine. I've done two days of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and I text'd my girlfriend afterwards telling her to send an ambulance! Ha! I'm determined to form a habit of making wise choices when it comes to food and am going to be conscious of only indulging on occasion, rather than making it the norm to do so whenever I want to - which is what I've been doing.

I frequently visit the Food Network website for new recipes and over the weekend I clicked on their healthy eating tab. There I discovered a great visual on what's considered perfect portion sizes:

One serving of meat is about three ounces, roughly the size of a deck of cards.

A one-cup serving of pasta or rice should be about the size of a tennis ball. You'll fill up faster on a serving of grains if you choose healthy whole grains whenever possible.

It takes about 850 peanuts to produce an 18-once jar of peanut butter, so a little of the stuff packs a powerful protein punch. Two tablespoons, about the size of a ping pong ball, is an appropriate serving size.

Vegetables from all colors of the rainbow are an important part of a healthy diet. A serving of cooked veggies is half a cup, or about the size of a baseball.

Dried fruit keeps longer than fresh fruit, but it also has 4 to 5 times the calories by weight. One serving of dried fruit is about 1/4 cup, or about the size of a large egg or golf ball.

When not covered in cheese and sour cream, potatoes aren't hard on the waistline and are high in potassium and vitamins C and B6. A perfectly portioned baked potato should be about the size of a computer mouse.

A few cheese cubes and some fruit is the perfect mini-meal between lunch and dinner. To make sure you're noshing on the right amount, roll some dice. A serving of cheese is one ounce, or the size of six dice.

Don't go for a cartoon-sized stack of flapjacks – one compact disc-sized pancake is the recommended serving size.

Those were all great visuals for me to see.

My husband is also wanting to lose weight as well, so we're doing this together - which is nice. Of course we love each other just the way the other person is but we both desire to feel better about ourselves...and would like to get back to looking how we did when we first met eachother : )