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@cyoung: Take it slow. Don't try to overhaul all of your diet and all of your fitness at once. Pick one thing in each area you'd like to work on. Focus on that and only that for one week. You may decide week 1 is going to involve a walk everyday and to log everything that goes into your mouth. Notice you aren't committing to walk a certain distance or to eat certain things. Your job is just to SHOW UP for the entire week.

When you got to week 2, you will have really great data for your week 2 goals. Are you ready to set a distance/steps/time goal for your daily walk? Are you ready to research quick, healthy breakfast ideas or perhaps ready to get a food scale off Amazon to reframe your idea of a serving? Your food log will help you decide.

Try visually tracking your progress. For each walk you get a marble in a jar or an x in a box. Put your tracker in a prominent place. Tell people who will support you. Don't tell people who won't help you create a supportive environment.

I have started and failed many times. I read Atomic Habits recently and this approach has been longer lasting, less overwhelming and more successful. Wanted to share incase it resonated with you.

@charm55: what timing do you use?

I don’t have advice but I struggle with the same thing. I think if I shelled out $$ for classes/membership that would be the motivation for me to be disciplined. I keep saying I’ll get to it when the kids are a little older...

@charm55: That makes sense! How much weight have you lost? Do you get dizzy?

@charm55: I think I might have you beat on the sweets thing.
What do you mean by "you learn to eat before you get full?" Thanks for explaining. I've been skipping breakfast lately and haven't really felt hungry.

@crazydoglady: Its a bit hard to explain, but when I eat I will now get “full” and want to stop eating long before I traditionally have felt full (ie stuffed). The fasting community calls it “appetite correction”. The idea is basically fasting will reset your appetite to its natural form. I never would have believed it (especially for me!) had I not experienced it myself.

Skipping breakfast is the easiest way to start. I just kept waiting an extra 30 mins to eat until I was at 16 hours fasted and then stayed with that schedule for quite some time.

This blog post kind of sums up where I am now... I started for the weight loss but now I don’t really care if lose another pound because I truly believe there’s other great health benefits.
http://www.ginstephens.com/all-blog-posts/fasting-we-came-for-weight-loss-but-stick-around-for-the-health-benefits

@crazydoglady: yep ! You can pick any 8 hour window that you like. During your fast you can have as much black coffee, water, unflavoured sparkling water, plain teas, etc as you like.... but you should refrain from anything with flavour (gum, mints, diet pop, cream/sugar in coffee etc). It optimizes the benefits and helps keep you from getting hungry during a fast. You can, of course, enjoy cream/sugar, diet pop, etc during your eating window.

@MamaBear87: this has been my hesitation since learning about this ... I’m still bf 4x a day. But it sounds so easy! I couldn’t find anything that gave specifics of what might hurt supply (and I’m sure it’s person to person). Honestly I could probably see benefit from sticking closely to 12hr like a normal human until I wean - no snacking after dinner ...

IF was what I wanted to suggest too! I had been doing that for a few months before I got pregnant. I also could never stick to ANYTHING (esp with kids, I just have no energy to be disciplined) but I felt like IF was a very very easy place to start.

@crazydoglady: I think 16:8 too. I def noticed weight loss, tho not drastic as I've seen in some people. My original plan was do stick with IF and get into a good rhythm for maybe 6 months, then tweak my diet, and lastly introduce some form of exercise. My plans just got derailed as I got pregnant probably 3-4 months into IF.

@cyoung: Oh gosh, at 6 weeks postpartum I don't think you should be so hard on yourself! I'm not saying you should eat garbage and not move your body - but I think there is still a LOT going on in terms of hormones and recovery that makes dieting or losing weight a bit out of your control. The lack of sleep makes you crave sugar and carbs. Nursing made my sweet tooth and my legitimate hunger out of control!

My advice is to be kind to yourself first and foremost. I will say the best thing I ever did to lose the baby weight was cold turkey cut out sugar... in everything. No ketchup. No fake sugars. No BBQ with sugar. Nothing. I dropped about 8 pounds in a month. Also, see a PT for safe ways to help start repairing your abdominal wall - so many exercises can make it worse.

For me, the jogging stroller is my god send. But obviously it doesn't work until the baby is old enough for it...Not sure how old your three are, and whether the oldest would be able to come along on a scooter or bike while you pushed the younger two....

For me, exercise just wouldn't happen if it was time away from DS... I choose my running routes to keep DS entertained There's a bike path along commuter rail tracks and usually a train or two speed by, which he adores. And then a nature preserve where we can spot some gophers, etc (he thinks they are bunnies, his all time favorite animal, I don't need to correct him ). Or run to a playground, stop and play, and then run back. Even in the winter, he loves getting out. We have this super warm sleeping bag and a wind shield for the stroller.

@cyoung: with three kids under three, you are a complete superhero! If that was me, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even manage to get dressed or shower, let alone working out