No More Fat Mummy!

I can already hear you sighing as you’ve seen a fair few dieting posts of mine over the year, but I started a parenting class this week and it’s given me motivation that I’ve not felt in a long time!

I enrolled onto the class because it teaches positive parenting skills, which are strategies that all schools in the UK now have to use, so I want to mirror these at home to help keep things consistent for Chunk.

I also know that there’s so many things I do wrong within my parenting, or could do better, so I’m eager to find out different ways to deal with his ever-increasing and ever-escalating toddler tantrums!

During the first session, we looked at who we were as parents and role modelling. I wrote a goal to lose some weight, because I don’t want him growing up thinking my current snacking and portion sizes are the norm. I was a fat child, and I did experience bullying for it, so if I can minimise the amount of things he can be picked on for, I will try my best!

I’ve tried quite a few times since he was born to lose some weight, trying things such as Slimming World, detoxes and slim fast, but I’ve given up quite easily or not been able to afford the weekly sessions. And as for exercise… now I’m self employed it’s even harder, because I work at night when he’s asleep and the 12 hours he has at nursery, and there’s no way he will let me do an hour’s fitness DVD! Now it’s getting warmer I have no excuse not to take him for walks and to run around big parks, so that’s one way of fitting some cardio in.

I woke up today feeling determined to stop making excuses for myself and to actually do something about the diet. No more night time snacking- that’s my biggest downfall. It’s probably a mixture of boredom (no other adult to talk to and Chunk’s in bed) and comfort. If I’m ever fortunate enough to meet someone again, I will have somebody to snuggle with, talk to and to take Chunk out so I can do some fitness DVDs in peace, but right now I have to find ways to make sure I lose the weight and tone up without losing my sanity.
I’m also limiting snacking during the day to twice, and making sure these are low calorie snacks.

Due to having quite a few tubs left of Slim Fast in my cupboards from my last failed attempt, I’m going to use these up (2 shakes a day plus a dinner), and hope that my stomach shrinks back to a normal-portion sized area. At that point I can then reintroduce my three meals a day, but they will be healthier and smaller, as I will fill up quicker. I really don’t want to lose the weight and put it back on straight away which is common with those types of fasting diets!

Today went better than I expected, because I kept busy to avoid my cravings- work, work, work! I also tried to drink a cup of green tea everytime I started to feel myself dreaming of biscuits and bread.
It’s now night time and I’m really feeling like I want a bowl of cereal, so to ease this I had a cup of low calorie hot chocolate.

After a few days, I’m going to start doing some yoga/pilates DVDs every other evening to start strengthening my muscles. Yoga is great as you work hard and it does tone you up, but you don’t feel knackered or sweaty whilst doing it!

Any tips for how to keep my motivation up would be so useful guys, as I really don’t want to quit this time!

Follow me on Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook