Hey Everyone! :)) I am a new Mom who is trying to shed my pr

Start small, small changes gradually cutting back will help you stick to it, don't put anything on the I can't have list, just I need to have less and less often list.

Carry healthy snacks and water with you at all time so you don't buy fast food. I always keep healthy choice meals under 400 calories in the freezer for days when cooking is not going work.. Nutri-grain waffles with turkey sausage or egg beaters for breakfast.. I have 2 yr old twins and a 7 yr old so, I've been right where you are.

Let me know if you need more specific help with meals and snacks..

I set small goals, like 90 days, I'm going to buy a new dress and go out with hubby. You can say in 5 months I plan on looking hot in a bikini again. You can do just set 30, 60, 90 day goals, new shoes, pedicure, highlight, etc something you consider a treat.

My food diary is open so you can see what my days look like.. Try to eat 3 meals 300-400 calories, 203 snacks 100-200 calories a day. Drinking 64oz of water is a must, limit sodas..

Invest in a crockpot, you can leave it an forget and get a healthy meal for the whole family without slaving in the kitchen all day. Stock you frig with fresh fruits and veggies for snacks, or low calories protein bars (zone, fiber one plus, luna and luna minis. Popcorn in 100 calories bags.. I try to cook with olive oil instead of butter, vegetable oils..

15 Ways to cut calories:
Changing your eating habits is sort of like falling in love. Some things you don’t much like, but you can live with—knuckle-cracking, a nose ring—while others are just deal breakers, like snoring or preferring Everwood to 24. Rest assured. These simple food substitutions are pain free and hardly noticeable. You won’t believe how easy it is to shave calories from your everyday diet—and you’ll absolutely love the results. All you have to do is eat fewer calories than you burn and you’ll lose weight. (We’re not even talking about exercising here. Just cutting down on calories!) It’s a simple matter of mathematics. One pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories. To lose a pound a week, you have to consume 500 fewer calories a day. Here are a few simple food substitutions that you can incorporate into each meal that not only add up to big calorie savings at the end of the week, but improve your overall health, too.

Breakfast
Coffee
2 Tbsp. half and half = 40 calories
2 Tbsp. skim milk = 11 calories Calories saved: 29

If you can’t bear the shock of going straight from half and half to skim milk, you can ease your way by reducing the fat content gradually: 2 Tbsp. whole milk is 19 calories and 2 Tbsp. of 2% is 16 calories. Once you get used to drinking skim milk, though, whole milk and even 2% will seem unbearably “thick.”

Cereal
1 cup whole milk = 150 calories
1 cup skim milk = 90 calories
Calories saved: 60

Eggs
2 eggs = 150 calories
4 egg whites = 60 calories
Calories saved: 90

You’ll want to double up on the egg whites. (This goes for baking, too. In recipes, replace whole eggs with twice as many egg whites.)

Toast or bagel
1 Tbsp. butter = 100 calories
1 Tbsp. fat-free cream cheese = 30 calories
Calories saved: 70 1

croissant = 320 calories
1 slice whole wheat bread = 70 calories
Calories saved: 250

This one’s a no-brainer. Go ahead. Smear your toast with fat-free cream cheese!

Lunch Sandwich
1 Tbsp. mayonnaise = 100 calories
1 Tbsp. mustard = 15 calories
Calories saved: 85 1 oz.

cheddar cheese = 120 calories 1 oz.
fat-free cheddar cheese = 45 calories
Calories saved: 75

Salad
1 Tbsp. ranch-style or 1000 Island dressing = 80 calories
1 Tbsp. blue cheese = 60 calories
1 Tbsp. fat-free ranch dressing = 16 calories
1 Tbsp. fat-free Italian dressing = 14 calories
1 Tbsp. lemon juice = 4 calories

Calories saved: up to 78 Try sprinkling lemon juice on your salad instead of drowning it in fattening creamy dressings, and save 78 calories per tablespoon. Or at least opt for fat-free Italian and save 66 calories per tablespoon. If you can’t live without that crumbling of blue cheese, try cutting the portion in half.

Dinner
Lasagna / Casseroles 1 cup ricotta cheese = 430 calories
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese = 340 calories
1 cup 2% cottage cheese = 202 calories
1 cup fat-free cottage cheese = 160 calories
Calories saved: up to 270

Substituting fat-free cottage cheese for whole ricotta cheese saves you 270 calories per cup. Try replacing half the cheese in casseroles with fat-free cottage cheese as well.

Hamburger dishes
3 oz. 80% lean ground beef, broiled = 235 calories
3 oz. ground turkey breast, broiled = 100 calories
Calories saved: 135

Though ground turkey breast isn’t as tasty as hamburgers, it’s a great substitute in sloppy joes, chili, and sure, even lasagna.

Pasta
1 cup cooked pasta = 189 calories
1 cup cooked whole wheat pasta = 173 calories
Calories saved: 16

You’ll get almost three times as much dietary fiber with whole wheat pasta (which will make you feel fuller with less) and save calories per cup to boot.

Baked potato
1 Tbsp. sour cream = 26 calories
1 Tbsp. reduced fat sour cream = 20 calories
1 Tbsp. plain, nonfat yogurt = 9 calories
Calories saved: up to 17

Topping your spud with a tablespoon of yogurt instead of sour cream saves you 17 calories.

Sauteed veggies
2 Tbsp. corn oil = 240 calories
2 Tbsp. canola oil = 240 calories
2 Tbsp. butter = 200 calories
2 Tbsp. vegetable broth = 35 calories (approx.)
Calories saved: up to 200

Steaming is best, but if you must sauté your veggies, do it in a little vegetable broth or even a bit of fruit juice. Dessert If you’re crazy about baked goods—cake, muffins, brownies, cookies—sorry, you really should cut back. When you do prepare them on those few occasions, do yourself a favor and cut out half the fat (butter, oil, shortening) and substitute the other half with unsweetened applesauce or yogurt—neither one alters the flavor much and saves loads of calories. And cut one third to one half of the sugar, sprucing up the dish instead with spices and flavorings (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, or nutmeg, or vanilla or almond extract). Chocolate cakes or brownies can handle the flavor of pureed prunes or mashed bananas. But all of these substitutions are a little tricky, and you’ll need to experiment with different ones to achieve the texture and taste you like.

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter = 800 calories
1/2 cup plain, nonfat yogurt = 70 calories
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce = 52 calories
Calories saved: up to 374

If your recipe calls for half a cup of butter, use a quarter cup instead along with a quarter cup of yogurt or applesauce, and save 365 or 374 calories, respectively. If it’s ice cream you can’t live without, think twice before reaching for the nonfat frozen yogurt instead. You might not be saving that many calories. If you can hold yourself to just half a cup, it’s not so bad. But check out the labels on ice cream bars, too. You’ve got built-in portion control with those.

Here’s a little rundown:
1/2 cup ice cream, vanilla = 135 calories
1/2 cup nonfat frozen yogurt (Ben & Jerry’s) = 120 calories
1/2 cup nonfat frozen yogurt (Stonyfield Farm) = 100 calories
1/2 cup nonfat frozen yogurt (Haagen-Dazs) = 100 calories
1/2 cup sugar-free vanilla ice cream (Breyers) = 80 calories
1 bar - raspberry sorbet and vanilla yogurt (Haagen-Dazs) = 90 calories
1 bar - vanilla ice cream with fudge coating (Healthy Choice) = 80 calories
Calories saved: up to 55

Once you get used to making healthy substitutions, you’ll see what a cinch it is to do. And we’re not even talking about exercising! Throw that in, and you’ll burn calories faster and develop muscle that’ll increase your metabolism, so you’ll burn even more calories by doing less. But it’s all about the calories. The fewer you consume, the more stored body fat you’ll burn.

Portion Control
*This is what helped me the most was learning, I was eating healthy just too much of it. **
Visualize the objects listed below, and match their equivalents to standard serving sizes when you are planning your meals, eating out, or grabbing a snack:
Two cups of mixed greens are two baseballs.

One cup of raw vegetables is a baseball.

A half cup of cooked vegetables, rice, cereal, couscous, bulgur wheat, beans, tofu, or low-fat cottage cheese is a cupcake or muffin.

One medium baked potato or sweet potato is a computer mouse.

For vegetable or fruit juice, 8-10 ounces is about three-quarters of a soda can.

One medium piece of raw fruit is a tennis ball.

One cup of berries or chopped fruit is a baseball.

A fourth of a cup of dried fruit is a golf ball.

A half of a whole-grain 3-ounce bagel, a half of a whole-wheat English muffin, or a half of a whole-grain hamburger bun is a hockey puck.

One whole-wheat pita or one whole-wheat flour or corn tortilla is an average-sized saucer.

Four whole-grain crackers are four tea bags.

Two low-fat whole-wheat pancakes are two compact discs.

One cup of milk (skim, low-fat, 1 percent, Lactaid, acidophilus, soy, rice, and nut milks) or one cup of plain, low-fat, sugar-free, or soy yogurt, is a baseball.

An ounce of hard cheese is a tube of lipstick.

One vegetarian burger or patty is a lid to a mayonnaise jar.

One tablespoon of oil (olive, canola, flaxseed, peanut, sesame, walnut, or other oil), salad dressing, mayonnaise, nut butters, nuts, or seeds is one checker.

When it comes to meat, I recommend 4 ounces—roughly the same size as your checkbook or a deck of cards—as part of a healthy meal.
You can use my system to mind your portion sizes at restaurants, where everything is supersized. By the way, I love it that restaurants are now serving bigger portions! That means I can take half my order home for a meal the next day.
There are other ways to pare down those large restaurant portions: Order an appetizer with a side salad. Split the meal with a friend. Or ask for half an order, with a double order of veggies on the side, as your main course. Another trick I use is to ask for a doggie bag as soon as the server delivers the entrée. Cut the portion in half immediately and place it in the doggie bag, or have the server wrap it up for you. If you let it linger on your plate, you might be tempted to finish off the whole thing.
There’s a definite connection between obesity and obesity-related diseases and the inflated serving sizes at many U.S. restaurants and eateries. It’s very easy to overeat and get fat as a result. So, by all means, go easy on portion sizes. Eat until you’re satisfied, not stuffed.

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SuzanneRogers- Thank you so much! That is seriously helpful.

Cflexen- I am in the exact same place you are my daughter was born the 27th of May. So I feel I can no longer use the excuse that I just had a baby is why I still look 6 months prego. HA. My husband is military and gone alot so I can really only work out at home. So I'm finding it hard to get motivated to do the workout. But this site has really got me into it (I know only the first week, but I feel I'm on track) I like being able to put an exercise in and see the calories burned. And this is the only site I've found that I can type in any foods I eat and it has the information in there. YAY!!! And it seems everyone is truly supportive!!

Suzanne Rogers, Your information is so helpful!!! Thank you, I really needed someone to lay it on the line. I keep trying all these different techniques and nothing was happening. So thank you again!!!!!!!

I read a monthly online magazine thats free called Fitness Dynamics I really like it. I would post think link but I guess you cant do that on mfp, message me if you would lilke it.

So helpful! Thanks

Hi! My name is Rachel. I'm a new mom too! My little boy just turned 4 months old. I can totally relate to pretty much everything you said. Lol. It's really tough with a little one sometimes to find the time to exercise or make healthy meals. A couple things that I have found that has helped me so far in the meal department is: A) casseroles, Precooking some of the food for the coming week ( pre brown the meat for tacos, pre chop the vegetables) C) the crock pot!, and D) letting go of the notion that I have to put a gourmet meal on the table, simple is fine. Sandwiches, soup, salad, all good! and E) I made a list of healthy options at all the local fast food places so if I really don't want to cook or have the time I know what to get without hunting for calories. Hope this helps!