[Shorty28]

Hey Everyone!!!

I'm trying to start a new me. I live in Laplace, Louisiana. I'm a mother of a 3 1/2 yr old, and a 2 1/2 yr old. I'm hoping to find a weight loss buddy close to my area. My job entitles me to sit behind a desk at a computer 40 hrs a week. This friday is my last day in the office, come Monday I will be working from my house still at a computer 40 hrs a week. However, I'm praying that since I will be at home it will be easier to eat healthier and make time to exercise. As I'm sure everyone is dealing with, money is tight so I can not join a gym. I like walking. However, its hard to walk briskly with 2 small children in tow. I try time and time again to get motivated with no luck.

Today I put my pedometer on, to see how much I walk during the day. I know they say you should walk 10,000 steps a day for weight-loss. I'm probablly way under that.

Over the past 6-7 months, I have gained 2.5lbs a month. I have not eaten anything differently, so I'm not sure what is going on with my body. I want to try exercise and eating right before I go talk to my doctor.

The problem with healthy eating, is that I am extremely picky. I barely eat any vegetables, Only corn & carrots mostly.

Any advise is welcomed and greatly appreciated.

[Amba Dawn]

Well, I'm no where near you...but I do have 2 young kids (3 & 1) and I will offer some advice

As far as your eating--eat as healthy as you possibly can. If you aren't much of a veggie eater, then eat what you do like. Maybe try putting veggies in other foods so you can't taste them. Check out the recipe and veggie challenged threads--I'm sure you'll get some good ideas from there. Besides veggies, make sure you switch everything else to healthy stuff--whole grain pastas/breads, lean meat, etc. Count your calories--there are many websites that have free calorie trackers. I use livestrong.com, but there are lots more that you can check out. On livestrong (and I'm sure the others) it calculates your calorie needs to lose weight based on your activity level.

I'm a stay-at-home mom, so I understand how difficult it is to get exercise in. I don't have enough free time (or a babysitter) to be able to go to the gym. So I bought some workout videos...and they have been AWESOME. I usually try to get up before my kids wake up and do Leslie Sansone Walk at Home video....you can do a mile each morning and it only takes 14 minutes (19 minutes including the warm-up). In the afternoon when my youngest son takes a nap I do a more intense workout--usually a Jillian Michaels video. I think most of her videos range from 20minutes-45minutes. All of the DVDs I bought cost $9 at Walmart, so it's way cheaper than going to the gym too!

That is what works for my schedule, but I'm sure yours will be different considering you'll be working while at home. But find what works for you. I highly recommend workout DVDs if you can't get out of the house or to a gym.

Hope that helps!! Good luck to you!!