I've lost quite a bit of weight already and I'm pretty proud of myself for that. That being said in most of 2011 I've been losing at a rate or 2lbs/month. It's steady weight loss so I'm happy about that and in many weighs I prefer that it's not too quick because I don't want to calorie count but rather really focus on changing my habits so when I do get to maintence it won't be as hard.
That being said... we want to TTC in the near future (around Christmas time) so I have about 5 months before that happens. Now if I keep losing at my current rate that would put me right at my prepregnancy weight for my daughter. I gained 65lbs last pregnancy and it's taken me over 2 years to take that off so I'd love to be down a lot further than that before getting pregnant. Add to that that both my mom and MIL gained 50lbs+ with all of their pregnancies so there could be a genetic component to that too (MIL is not someone who has ever struggled with her weight) because big babies are common on both sides. On the other hand, I DO know way more about health and nutrition now and hope to really watch what I eat this time around so hopefully the gain won't be as bad (but again, some gain is definitely to be expected!).
Now, if I lost 5lbs/month then I could be down 25lbs before we TTC and that's almost into the healthy BMI range! I'm going to drop all sweets for the time being to see if that helps some and am also contemplating doing the phase 1 of the s. beach diet for a bit to see if that could help. Thoughts?
PS. Calorie counting is extremely, extremely stressful for me. I do it every now and then for a few days to get an idea but I almost always overeat compared to what I normally eat. I do make myself aware of portion sizes and the number of calories in items but adding it all up makes me a crazy.