Guide for Dieting Stay-at-Home Mothers

I have encountered endless benefits of being a stay at home mother. Only one downfall pops into my head...not being able to lose weight.

Let me give you a little background. I stay at home everyday with 5 kids. Two of them are 4-year-olds, two of them are 2-years-old, and the last is 1-year-old. I have had a hard time disciplining myself when it comes to eating. I think after I eat. I find myself eating without even knowing that I am eating. I believe this is how I have gained weight since I have been home. Plus, it seems like I am always tired. So even when I get all 5 kids sleeping at the same time, I find myself trying to catch up on the sleep I lost the night before because of teething and potty-training.

I started really getting serious about dieting a few months ago. I realized that I can no longer just cut out fast food from my diet which is what worked before I got pregnant. If I want to lose weight now, I am going to have to stick to a strict diet and exercise. I have come up with some dieting guidelines to live by each day. I haven't tried some miracle pill or shake diet. I wanted to see if I could lose weight without these things. And I have. Without pills and shakes, I have learned how to eat properly. I bought a binder to keep all my journal pages in along with healthy recipes I find and like and some diet tips that I find on the internet.

Here are my guidelines:

-KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL. I have kept a food journal since I started my really strict diet. Everyday I write down what I ate, the calories in it, total calories/day, water intake, and the exercise I do. I created my own journal pages on microsoft excell. I leave enough room to actually write down accomplishments of that day and things I could have done differently.

-SET GOALS. I wrote down my short term goals and some long term goals. Just remember to set realistic goals.

-EAT BREAKFAST. I always have something with a lot of fiber or a lot of protein. I don't seem to get hungry as fast if I do this. If I want something that naturally doesn't have a lot of fiber, I add benefiber to it.

-HAVE A RECENT PHOTO AND A PHOTO OF THE WAY YOU WANT TO LOOK. I have a recent photo of myself and a photo of myself from years ago that I want to look like. I have wrote notes to myself on the back of them to give me inspiration to lose weight. During the day I put them on the fridge and before I eat, I take a look at the pictures and read the notes on the back to myself. This helps me to think before I eat. I don't pick out foods irrationally, I think about what the food that I am going to eat is going to do for my diet. If you don't have a picture of yourself that you want to look like, find a picture of someone else that inspires you. I also have a picture of me and my boyfriend in there and I wrote on the back of it, he has no doubt in his mind that you are strong enough tol ose weight, show him just how strong you are. This helps me when I am feeling like I can't do it anymore, or if I want to take a day off.

-SET TIMES TO EAT. In my journal, I write down what time I am going to eat which meal and what time I am going to allow myself to snack. This stops me from snacking every hour on the hour and helps me to realize that my next meal or snack is coming up soon.

-DRINK LOTS OF WATER. I drink 8-8oz glasses of water before I allow myself anything else to drink. I haven't cut diet pop out of my diet but if I haven't drank all my water for that day, I don't allow myself to have pop.

-EXERCISE. I try to exercise 30-45 minutes 5 days per week. I have been doing the wii fit which my kids love to do with me. I also have a mini-trampoline and jog on that while my kids watch a movie.

Well, I hope this article helps stay at home mothers lose the weight they have been wanting to. Good luck.
Tricia DePorter