Stay at home moms of young ones. How do you do loose?

I have a 9 month old and 4 year old at home and no gym membership.
I'm strict with my calorie intake, and don't depend on exercise alone for weight loss (there are some days where it just doesn't happen).
I eat a small breakfast (a protein like hard boiled egg and a small fruit), small lunch (egg salad or chicken salad sandwich), minimal snacking, and decent sized dinner (heavy on protein and vegetables, minimal to no grains). I don't cook extra special meals for myself or have a separate eating schedule from my family because I'm on a diet.
I've lost 70 pounds with 6-ish left to go.

I work and do most all of the stay at home activities (cooking, cleaning, homework, activities). Good news is to lose weight you just need a calorie deficit. Exercise and activity increase NEAT so you could eat more but isn't necessary. Exercise is for physical, cardiovascular and psychological fitness. Get it in when you can but don't stress it if you dont. It took me several years to find me time (5am) to get in my workouts.
Weigh your food. Log everything you eat ans drink. Find a reasonable goal and stick to it (0.5-1 pound a week is good for most people). Have patience.

I had almost 3 year old twins, a 6 year old & 8 year old when I first decided to lose weight. Back then I walked a lot with my twins in their pram, and I put a cheap exercise bike in my living room where I had to walk past it constantly, which basically meant I used it in order not to feel guilty.

I organised for my husband to watch the kids in the evening too, so that I could get an extra walk in with my mother. I had to do it because she was coming. It was hard to leave the house! I was not a big fan of exercise at all, but I worked it in. My twins liked to copy what I was doing, so I found workouts on YouTube and did those, and let them do it too.

As for food - I started telling myself that I'm not a garbage can. If my kids don't finish it, it's rubbish. And the proper place for it is in the bin, not in me. It doesn't do me any good to eat of their plates, because I've had my own food. I think when this really sank in was a few years later though when I must have been slipping back into old habits. My son was maybe 5? And he said to me that he wasn't going to eat all his dinner because he was saving some for me to eat after. That's it. Cold turkey, and not the kind that I could mindlessly eat.

My husband and I both cook for the family, and we generally make healthy food that we can all enjoy. Sometimes they'll have something that I just don't want, and my go-to is chicken with a nice big salad and some sort of carb. Pre-logging and knowing what I'm going to eat in the day is key for me. I like to know when I'm going to eat and have something in my day to look forward to. This always works the best when I'm at home, although I can tweak and alter what I'm eating to make it fit.

Fast forward a few years... I'm maintaining at roughly 140 lbs lighter than I was back in 2011. I'm a qualified personal trainer. I do regular training sessions with my kids (now 8, 12 and 13) and my kids know about portion sizes, can use a food scale (although they don't often, despite thinking its fun), and know about eating all foods in moderation. I don't force them to exercise, they love it! They all play basketball, and I've been involved with coaching my son's team as well. Something that 300 lb + me never thought would happen!

It's been an evolution though. I had to remember and force myself to put ME first, and that meant relying on other people to look after my kids sometimes so that I had the time I needed. So I incorporated the kids when I could, and planned around them when I had to. I went a whole 18 months where I got the kids to kinder/school and immediately went to the gym. I worked from home for a long time (up to 60 hours/wk), but when I went back to regular employment I set my alarm for 4.50am and got up before the kids did so that I could get in my exercise. People thought I was nuts. Sometimes I thought I was nuts. But I got the results.

The time is there, you just have to find it.

I make time to exercise at home (even if it's late at night after I finally get my 3 year old and 9 month old in bed), and I eat what fits in my calorie goal. A lot of it is just being determined enough to say "no", and tossing leftover food in the trash instead of eating it myself. I drink a lot of water during the day too, so I'm not really hungry between meals.

First of all, never quit. M FP can help you be accountable if you're being honest and you're logging. Even if you are just gaining and losing the same amount, you can at least start to see a pattern and recognize some areas that you struggle with. Never give up on the process at all. Your health is worth it. Your little ones need you to stick around, and it helps if you are healthy and active with them.

I am a stay at home mom. My son is six, and he just started school in August. I started losing weight this summer before he went to school. It was tough, but I came up with a process that worked. We walked a lot. We went to the playground. We were active. I did very easy workouts that he could do with me. It's good for him to see me exercise and to learn healthy habits. The same can be said for food. I know sometimes it is tempting to eat with the little ones eat, or when they are eating, but we have to practice self-control. I didn't go on a fancy food diet, I just ate the right amount of the food that we normally eat. I have lost 60 pounds this way.

I'm going to request you to be a friend on here. I think you need the extra motivation and support, which I am willing to give. If anyone else would like to add me, feel free. We can all support each other.

I've belonged to YMCAs in several states and if I had kids would definitely join one. In addition to having daycare, they have lots of programs for kids and are very kid-friendly. Also, when I applied to be a yoga teacher at one I had to have a background check even though I'd be teaching adults not kids.

Stay at home mums please add me! Am a newbie and i can't believe I just discovered MFP this Feb 2017. It's amazing!
I have a 12 months old and pretty much do all the housework and get really really lazy to exercise especially with the winter.
I started using MFP last week after I finally decided it's time to loose the baby weight I gained. So far i wake up in the morning, have the lemon/ginger/kale/cucumber/parsleysmoothie..then go into loose Intermittent Fast till 1pm to 9pm. Somedays i dont do IF i just grab 4 Wheetabix biscuits in the morning with skimmed milk and then I calorie-count throughout the day.. Mostly chicken breast/green leafy salad for lunch and beans at night.
So far within one week I've been logging in and staying below 1200 calories every day I lost 3kg. I did go into deficit yesterday but oh well it just made me more motivated to get up today determined to do better. I don't keep track of my daily steps around the house but I plan to get a Fitness tracker.

I am a SAHM too and it's tough, I had to stop snacking when my son snacked, and stop buying the snacks like goldfish or alphabet cookies that I would just devour while Artie snacked lol. I buy fresh, frozen and canned veggies, so we ALWAYS have veggies with every meal, no excuses. Spinach with eggs, salad with lunch, roasted broccoli with dinner etc.

And I cook in a big batch and end up estimating how much I've taken from it, and I try to pick up more veggies and less everything else. It's not an exact science but right now it's working. Smaller plates help me have smaller portions. If I snack after Artie is in bed I enlist my hubby to make the snack and dole out ONE serving for me lol.

Activity wise, I have a Wii Fit that I exercise on during naptime, for 30 mins.but I don't fuss too much about it because I bought a fitness tracker, and my steps are 8-9k on a lazy day, and 12-13k on a busy day, so If I don't have energy for a workout, I let myself rest.

It's emotionally and physically tough to be a SAHM! But I'm determined to lose this weight and have lost about 8lbs so far, and I don't want to make any super drastic changes that won't stick.

I weigh my food. You get used to it. Just like using measuring cups and spoons probably seems needlessly slow and annoying to a home cook who is used to eyeballing every recipe.

I disagree with the posters who say not to eat what the kids eat. I don't eat exactly what they're eating every time, but I think it's important for us to eat approximately the same thing at mealtimes. I don't want my kids to grow up thinking they can only have kid foods, and I really don't want my kids to think that I need to eat some different food because I'm losing weight. Frankly, that sounds like a good way to give them a screwed up relationship with food.

(My kids are 10 and 5. I'm not saying parents should eat baby food of course!)