Tuesday 30 June 2009

Baby fat

I am a firm believer in the fact that, whatever those wafer thin celebs would have us believe, it's not until your youngest child is at least two years old that you can even begin to tackle the big belly that is the unwanted byproduct of babies. Unfortunately for me, every time my boys have reached that magical age I have found myself pregnant with another one, if not immediately, pretty soon afterwards.

When my middle boy was two I did actually start to eat less and exercise more, which I am told is the secret formula for dissolving chocolate induced calorie intake. I sweated away on treadmill and exercise bike and subsisted on celery and cottage cheese and my waist size did shrink a little accordingly, but then I found myself on holiday in the home of junk cuisine, the US of A and staring that tell tale blue line in the face. Cue stuffing my face on portions designed to satiate the appetite of a giant. I came home with a belly that suggested I was five months, not five weeks pregnant.

Cooking up an excuse not to shed the pounds this time round will be trickier as even I don't think I can really justify having a fifth child just to justify my chip consumption. I had decided to allow myself the indulgence of waiting the twenty months until my twins are two until I tackled my tummy, until my other half ruined it all and decided to diet all by himself.

Every time I pop a naughty but nice treat, just thinking about how good he is being makes me feel guilty. Not that I think this is entirely a bad thing, but it's alright for him. He sits in splendid isolation in a office bereft of treats like choccie biccies, crisps and an untold mountain of sweeties I have confiscated from the boys for the good of their teeth. Not to mention the fact that children's tea time sadistically coincides with the moment my tummy's rumbles reach epic proportions. Who can resist those leftovers when its hours since lunchtime and supper seems aeons away?

It's that age old problem for the stay-at-home mum, how to look like a yummy mummy when everything around you conspires to turn you into a mum with a tum. Still when the first thing your sons say when asked to describe you is that you have a big belly, perhaps its time to break my own rules and start to slim down before my youngest boys are out of nappies and eating for themselves.

The first problem I have set myself to solve is how, by the end of a day when I can hardly muster the energy to summon a takeaway, can I can prise myself from watching the contestants whip up a feast on Celebrity Masterchef, to actually make one of my own, and just to make it even more challenging, one that forgoes all things fun and fattening, while remaining tasty?
Suggestions on a postcard please....


3 comments:

  1. Mothership wrote a great post about diets the other day
    http://motherhoodthefinalfrontier.com/2009/06/27/the-last-diet-youll-ever-need/

    My only suggestion would be - forget the diet, concentrate on the exercise. So load the double buggy with twins, bags and lots of baby paraphenalia. Go and walk round a park, preferably hilly. Then lug it round a supermarket. Superb workout, and you haven't even had to join a gym....

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  2. I so know where your coming from , 3 pregnancies in 3 years has left me fat and misrable (im around 80lb heavier than i was before i got pregnant first time around almost 5 years ago) .
    I managed to lose some between my 2nd and 3rd but ruined it all with the pregnancy.

    Im currently on another attempt of loosing and actually doing good, for me its all about timing - if its the right time it will help .

    What i do is just cut back , little changes. Writing down what i eat really helps, like i was having soup and a cheese sandwhich for lunch . This week im having weight watchers soup (about half the calories) and a spead cheese sandwhich (saving about 1000 the amount of cheese i eat) . I have had a few treats but i had one cake instead of 3 ...

    Good luck

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  3. Definitely making your own food will help, you know what goes into it. I don't see why being a SAHM means you have any more energy to cook than a working mum, so take one of my WM tips: make batches of lovely soups and veggie pasta sauces and freeze them for use later. When you're really exhausted you can just microwave them and you have homemade, healthy meals. Planning is the key! Good luck!

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