October, November and December are the worst months to continue my Post Preg Hot Mom Bod weight loss journey because of all the family gatherings that include delicious home cooked meals, desserts and alcohol. October has already caused problems with my goal of losing 10% of my weight, there was very little lost in this month due to very little tracking and very little planning. How am I ever going to stay on track? I need a plan and I need a goal!

{Here is where I stand as of this morning}

Starting weight on 8/7/12 = 193 lbs

Weight on 10/30/12 = 179 lbs

Total loss = 14.4 lbs

I can see where you might think, “Wow, great job” and that is appreciated but the frustration lies in the results of the entire month of October.

Since October 16th I have essentially stayed the same weight only gaining and losing .2 or .4 which has been the “October” plateau in my Post Preg Hot Mom Bod weight loss journey. The good news is that I KNOW this is my current dilemma giving me the opportunity to do better in November and December.

{The Plan to get me through the holidays}

Tracking – I have the mobile app and I’m almost always attached to my iPhone which should make it VERY easy for me to track all that enters my mouth. I just need to remind myself that no matter if I go over my allotted points or not that I still need to track.

Calendar Organization – Most of the time I have a good idea as to what parties are coming up when and should plan my week accordingly. If I know of a party on Friday and Saturday in one week then I really need to watch my points earlier in the week and save up for the appetizers and alcohol at the party.

Eat at Home – When family gatherings and party mode starts to take over the weekends it will consume the “extra points” I build up to eat for that week. And I know this because of my Calendar organization! But the only way I can really stay on track is for George, Abbey and I to eat at home and make WW friendly meals that keep me on track for the beginning of the week.

Exercise – OH boy, this is getting harder and harder to do! Abbey is still going to bed between 7:30 and 8:00p each night but now it is pitch black by 8:15p and running by myself at that time is frowned upon by George for obvious reasons. I guess I’ll be creating the mini-home-gym downstairs for some cardio and strength training during the week and try to squeeze runs in on the weekends. Any suggestions here besides joining a gym are much appreciated! I have been teetering on whether or not I’ll sign up to run the 10K portion of the Flying Pig, I want to make my decision by tomorrow before the pre-registration price goes up. This will require serious dedication but I’m up for the challenge. Anyone else running this?

The bottom line is that I need to plan! All my great weeks of weight loss thus far have come from good planning and tracking everything I eat. These are such simple ideas but so hard to put into practice while chasing a toddler (how many activity points do I get for this part?) and maintaining a full time job. Ahh… work – life – balance, that will most likely be another post! Feel free to comment with any of your holiday weight loss survival tips and tricks, support and encouragement are also extremely important in my Post Preg Hot Mom Bod journey.

Oh yea, I guess I need a goal! Well, I would say “not gaining” is a valid goal but that doesn’t help my weight loss bottom line. How about this….my new goal will be to lose my 10% by Abbey’s 1st birthday (November 22nd) which will bring me to 174.1 pounds. That is only 5 pounds, I can do it!