Yeah, OK, it's time. Grrr....

Good morning!

Ok, so... I gained 50 pounds during my pregnancy with Jordan (Hey, it beats the 60 I gained with Logan!) so I already knew I'd have a long, hard road ahead of me to get the baby weight off. However, I learned with Logan that it does, indeed, come off, it just takes time. (Took me 3 years the first time!)
I vowed I wasn't going to really worry too much about it until I was done breastfeeding because I know that my body holds on to 10 pounds or so while I'm nursing (at least it did last time)and I breastfeed my kids for a full year.
By the way, I scream "BULL SPIT" (well, you know what I really want to scream...) to all those celebrities that say they lost 60 pounds in 4 months through breastfeeding alone.
Whatever.
Anyway, here I am 6 months post-partum, and up to now, the weight has been dropping pretty steadily, albeit slowly. I've been losing 3-4 pounds a month on average, and now I have 20 pounds to go to get to my pre-baby weight (146). The problem is, the loss has stalled. I had a goal to reach the 150s by the time Logan returns to school the second week of September, and I'm not going to reach that goal.
The reason? I haven't tried. Not one bit. I haven't watched what goes into my mouth at all. I've indulged in all my chocolate cravings and so on. How could I expect to reach a goal if I don't put any effort toward it?
So, it comes down to this: It's time, yet again, to track my food. I know from experience it takes a few weeks of tracking to get a good feel for what I should be eating every day. After that, I tend to be good on my own, until I reach the next plateau.
So, though I DESPISE tracking my food--it seems so obsessive and frankly, it's annoying--I am going to try to do it for a while, because I know I've been taking in more calories than I should.
I track using sparkpeople.com. It allows you to input favorite foods and search for others, keep track of your water intake, exercise and other factors. It's nice because it's pretty easy to use, even for a tech dummy like me, and it allows you to customize a program to reach your personal goals.
I should add, I am NOT dieting. Dieting while you're breastfeeding is stupid, plain and simple. Your body needs a lot of calories to make food for your baby, so if you are nursing and dieting and I hear about it, watch out because I'm going to come pound you into the ground!
No, what I'm doing is taking the calories I need to eat to lose weight when I'm NOT nursing (1400-1600) and adding an extra 500 to them, which is what "they" say you should add when you're nursing. That means I should be eating in the 1900-2100 calorie range each day, and if I truly feel hungry, I'll eat a little more. I'm also going to try to make all those calories as healthy as possible. I have been allowing far too many treats lately and need to nip that habit in the bud before these 20 pounds take up permanent residence.
So, that's that. I'm tracking my food. Yay. Just the thought of it makes me crabby.