Aw, man! Kim, you just had to call me sweet, didn't you? Do you know how much time I've spent building up a solid reputation as a *****? :lol:

....but a sweet *****! (how's that for an oxymoron?)

My two cents:
a) adding new foods! - a very scary thing to do, as I agree that sometimes it is too easy to go overboard...at least for me. I am an all or nothing kind of girl so either I'm "dieting/watching what I eat".....or I'm just going for it...so for me maintenance is much hard than losing weight! And the closer to goal the scarier it gets - almost like a fear of success thing - so this is something I really need to work on. I have been off plan for a while now, but "experimenting" in a maintenance kind of way - trying not to gain back the weigth I have already lost - this is challenging but a good thing for me to do.

I would agree not to wait til you get to goal to add foods - this is a learning experience and you should add some of the foods you plan to eat (the good stuff that is) so you can see how you handle it - even if it means not losing weight for a few weeks - no rush - better to learn it properly than rush thru and be sorry in the end.

b) pregnancies/weight gain: Star you are correct in saying that the better shape you are in before becoming pg the better off you will be during labor and afterwards. In my experience I have noticed that it is not so much how much you gain as to what you put in your mouth! Most women forget that eating for two does not mean you are feeding a baby elephant...more like a tiny bird (you only need 200-300 cals extra in the first trimester and if you add in some dairy products that's about it!).

Those women that gained a lot of weight by eating "junk" food I noticed had a harder time losing weight that those who gained it by eating "healthier' foods (fruits, whole wheat pastas/breads, yogurt, cheese, etc)...of course you do get some nasty "cravings"....hopefully yours will be for healthier munchies.

With my first I also had gestational diabetes.....only gained 18 lbs, 2nd gained about 22 and 3rd about 25......so losing the weight was not a huge issue - just all that flabby skin and muscle was harder to get rid of. I think with your "belly dancing" experience you'll do just fine!

Froufy:)

Brenda - I can totally empathize with you about add back carbs. I have pretty much stuck to induction for the last 2 and 1/2 months and am getting closer and closer to goal weight and think to myself well what the heck should I do? I can't stay on 10 to 20 carbs for the rest of my life, but I am scared crapless that I will revert back to old habits....

As far as pregnancy goes.....

I got pregnant very young 19 with the first and 21 with the second and well I went from 123 to 205 with my first pregnancy and from 140 to 215 with my second- I was full blown bulimic with my second pregnancy talk about not being able to understand why I was gaining weight and just kept getting more and more anemic- by the time my daughter was born I was about the point of transfusion. (Doctors were completely baffled and I wasn't exactly forthcoming with the information that I was puking and using laxatives by the pack) Do not recommend this for anyone the eating d.o. or the fact of trying to carry a pregnany thru with one flaming up. Both of my children were healthy despite the fact I was destoying my body. I haven't carried a pregnancy since then though. Such is life! Would love to have more guess I will have to wait for grandkids.

Amy