THIS is a tablespoon, Folks!

One Tablespoon of the DELICIOUSNESS known as Nutella on a Dixie "Cake Plate" with a plastic spoon to show scale.

Yes, I too needed reminded of this: A tablespoon of Nutella looks like the above picture. It doesn't anywhere NEAR resemble half of a 13 oz. jar.  Oooops.  I forgot.

So those of you who read my blog regularly, and yippee there are those of you out there, know that I have tried over the last few months to do a little thing called "Weigh in Wednesday" where I blog about my weight loss progress over the previous week, talk about what worked, what didn't etc.  I basically was writing it as a way to keep myself on track and keep me accountable to loosing the post baby weight and then some.  I was off to a great start, but alas, you may have noticed that I haven't posted a Weigh in Wednesday for awhile.

The lack of WIW posts coincided coincidentally with my discovery of Nutella (where have you been all my life frenemy?)   It took me a while to try Nutella, although I'd heard about it years before as I was embracing my hidden inner Italian Cooking Goddes and listening to Giada go on about her childhood memories of eating Nutella slathered on a piece of bread as an afterschool snack. I imagine it's been sitting on the shelves for at least 30 years. I only recently have seen a commercial for it on TV.  But what got me to buy it was my mom telling me that she was enjoying a jar of it...It's only 10 more calories than a serving of peanut butter, she said.

Um...I'm slightly addicted to it.  It is like eating heaven on a spoon. I do let the kids have it once in a while but mostly I hoard it for myself and as they are drooling before me I say something along the lines of: This is MOMMY's peanut butter.  Or No, you CAN'T have any because there isn't enough for everyone (and Mommy needs her fix).  If this is bringing on visions of a Lord of The Rings, Shmeegle (or however you spell it) type episode,  It isn't THAT bad. I wouldn't throw myself into a fiery pit for the stuff...but I may scratch your eyes out for it...maybe, probably, okay I MIGHT (I will).

I'm not going to blame Nutella for a weight gain over the last 3 weeks or so...even though it does call my name from the pantry, and relentlessly speaks to me from the counter, and begs me to just grab a spoon and dig right in and then like the frenemy that it is stabs me in the back from the garbage can...

I was going to go on and on today about the American skewed view of portion size...but you guys probably already know that we have been turned into people who have no idea what a tablespoon looks like, or a quarter cup...and don't even get me started on an ounce. (I hate when they give me a portion size in "ounces".  How, for the love of God, am I supposed to measure that out without feeling like I'm in a lab and should be wearing a white coat and goggles or something?)  And that there is a mass conspiracy to make us fat, and unhealthy to line the pockets of some fat cat who could give a rat's bum about anything else but making money.

Instead I wrote about Nutella. Go figure.

For those of you wondering...I'm up like five pounds over two weeks...Eeek.  Time to get back on track and dig out the tablespoons and the food diary.

Weigh-In Wednesday (a day late!): Accountability Counts

Well...4 weeks post baby today. I'm beginning to look forward to that 6 week appointment; the one that clears me for all activity and signifies the start of my serious consideration of my weight loss journey.  Dare I say I'm kind of excited.  My goal is to create a buzz that produces comments like this one "She looks great! I can't believe she has 4 kids!?!" All vanity aside though, I do want be healthy and fit for my kids, and my husband and myself.

My first serious weight loss journey began after I had Ava.  At one point I remember weighing less than I had in a long time but my body had changed so much and everything was just sagging.  It was gross and depressing to me to look in the mirror. At that point, I buckled down and began my love-hate affair with the tread mill, started lifting weights and threw in a little Yoga because it made me feel good. I joined weight watchers on-line and with the support of my mom and sister I was able to drop about 20 pounds. I felt great.

So I'm excited to get back to that place.  I thought I could use my blog as a motivator for myself.  I'm a little leery about sharing it with the world but I've been thinking that it could help because accountability counts. Am I going to want to post that I had a gain one week? Probably not...so to avoid that maybe I will try a little harder.

Right now I'm not doing anything but getting Chloe on a routine of some sort, and pumping.  I am happy to say that the first few pounds have melted away fairly easily. I don't expect this phenomenal weight loss to continue much longer, but I am going to wait until the 6 week mark to really concentrate on diet and exercise.

So part of this whole accountability thing will be to mark my progress and talk about what I am doing that works and what isn't working and measure my success...but we've got to have a jumping off point...so today, my first edition of Weigh-in Wednesday will come complete with stats...and (eek!) before pictures!

So at the height of pregnancy I weighed 172 lbs.  My pre-pregnancy weight was 130 lbs. My feel good weight goal is 120 lbs.  My ultimate goal is between 115-117.  I'm only 5'1" so this is a healthy weight for me.  I currently weigh 141.4 pounds, which means that I am already down 30.6 lbs!  YAY!  I still have 21.4 to 26.4 lbs to go.

Here are the lovely pictures!

Front View: Not too bad for 4 weeks post delivery--note love handles.

Side View: I look like I'm about 4-5 months pregnant here--but that's to be expected, I suppose.

Back View: Looking a little frumpy dumpy from behind--I'll be trying to change that!

So, I've got my work cut out for me.  The only thing I have left to do is take all my measurements. I will probably do that on the official start of the big fitness endeavor in two weeks!

By the way, if anyone would care to join me, let me know. It would be fun to have a diet/exercise buddy...We could all use a little push from a friend sometimes, so let me know!