The baby weight!

If your figure, after birth, hasn't bounced back as Victoria Beckham's or Katy Holmes' or many of the other celebrities did, then join the club, the "fat fighting" club. It's no secret that after a baby you are likely to gain weight, you eat, in some circumstances, you get on the scales to be told that you should do so "one at a time"! This is normal, this is having a baby. To be able to be at one with your "Boost Bar", "Star Bar", "Findus Crispy Pancake" or your 32oz steak and chips. It's no longer "what I want", it's "what we want and what we NEED"! Applaud yourself as you eat, regard this as time that you can do what you will, and REMEMBER, that whatever you put on, you can lose, just takes will power (which I managed to eat in my first pregnancy) and self control.

How boring are these diets? When oh, oh when, oh when will there be a diet that let's you eat what you like, when you like and however much you like of it, whilst losing weight? That's the sort of weighting game I like to play. Alas, as such a thing does not exist, it is true, the only way to do it is to eat less and exercise more, and that is so depressing it's not even worth getting your head round until you've had another biscuit/slice of cake and thought about the pros and cons of being thinner and those of being "rounder".

I put on about 5 stone with my first baby and really didn't look radiant, I looked like there was another human inside me trying to get out. My stomach literally entered the room before I did and bending over was simply something that I had imagined myself doing in some other life. I told myself that I was pregnant, although, to be fair, it was very obvious, and that's how it was. However, after having had the first baby, I could still on wear my pregnancy clothes and clothes that I had once warn looked like clothes that I should be putting my child in. UH OH, I was no longer pregnant, I was fat.

I tussled with weight a little bit, lost half a stone here and there, then ate and drank that all back on in an afternoon. I cried about it, I laughed about it, I got cross about it and then lost the half stone again and then got pregnant with the second child and just made sure that I wasn't 5 stone over weight, just a mere 3. But it was fun, and had I not had such appalling heart burn I would probably have put all 5 stone back on. Then the day came, I saw a photo of my giant head leering over a pint and my massive horse thighs bulging out of the pregnancy jeans and arms that looked like squashed Ginsters slices, I was hideous, I knew it and not a moment could pass without that image flashing into my mind, so I ate yet more until January when I had signed up for Lighter Life. A diet not for the feint hearted, but I just wanted to lose it quickly and was prepared for the expense. After 4 weeks when that got too much I moved to Slimming World and lost another stone. Then I went to a nutritionist to sort various ailments out and she reset my body with a 5 day juice fast, where I lost another 7lbs. I still have 7lbs to go but I no longer look like I have swallowed 3 other people and pregnancy clothes are now for pregnant women, not just pregnant women and me.

Long and short, you can do it, determination and will power are the key, but Christmas is nearly here, so as the mug in the kitchen cupboard says "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may diet!"