Weight loss

sjfowler1381 wrote: »

I'm a mom of 4!
I have like 50lbs to lose to get back to my before mom body. But my before mom body was really thin and I Carly ever ate anything. I'm struggling to figure out how to lose weight, maintain a good weight, not be over weight. And not eat too much or too less. And how the heck do I help my kids as they grow older to have a healthy balanced idea of food and healthy eating patterns?!
Thank you.

Hello! I'm also a mom (of six.) Currently working on losing pregnancy weight, then another 15 lbs or so to get to my goal. I lost about 60 lbs before getting pregnant with #6, and am basically doing the same stuff again (and keeping it up after reaching my goal). My baby is still mostly breastfed so I'm going about it slowly to avoid losing milk supply.

Weight loss is simple in one respect: you just need to eat fewer calories than you use in a day, so your body makes up the difference from the stored fat in your body. How you do that is up to you and different things work for different people. I think the best way to start is to figure out how to track with reasonable accuracy what you really eat. The MFP food diary is a great tool to start, then you can fine tune as you go.

I don't know what your style of eating is like now, but I'll tell you what I do as the primary cook in our home. I grew up eating a lot of processed foods and did not learn much about cooking. Most people in my family of origin are very picky, overweight, and have limited cooking skills. I tell you that so you know where I started when I began living on my own. I stay at home so I do have more flexibility than many, but I make most of our foods from scratch. We eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. We have a small family garden and the kids help plant, weed, pick, and prepare and preserve what we grow (this makes them much more interested in eating it!) We also participate in a CSA program and get to try lots of produce that way. I'm a big fan of supporting local farms so we also buy most of our milk, meats, and grains locally. (There was a huge benefit here because we weren't rocked quite so hard on food prices last year. Where we live I have the flexibility to find farmers who charge fairly instead of engaging in prestige pricing, and build relationships with them - my kids know the people who grow and raise most of their food.)

I did not learn how to do all of these things overnight, but these have been good goals to work towards. Canning has been my latest adventure. Next up is cheese making. You don't have to do any of this, of course, but I think it's to my kids' (and my) benefit to see the work that goes into food and to see that it can be fun, too. My older two children are each responsible for making dinner for the family once per month. Right now they do simple things like breakfast for dinner, or baked meats and vegetables. All of my children (except the baby) can help in the kitchen at least a little, including with dishes.

We do a lot of activity as a family. Walks are common, around the neighborhood and maybe short hikes in the warm months on weekend afternoons. I look up county and state park event schedules - many fun outdoor activities and they're usually free. The gifts my kids get for birthdays and holidays are usually books or sports/play equipment. We do watch TV sometimes but it's rare. We don't do video games (there's nothing objectively wrong with them, but IME they're just too hard to moderate and too expensive for the benefits.)

I'm also not an ogre about it. My kids do eat chicken nuggets and ice cream on occasion. They're allowed likes and dislikes (though they have to be polite about the latter.) But mostly I try to cultivate an attitude of adventure and gratitude around food, and a sense of responsibility about taking care of one's health.