Baby weight

I've lost a pound since the start of the competition and am down to 142.5. I think that's mainly due to the exercise I got yesterday cleaning out my closet. Frightening!

Anyway, I'm a new mom nursing a seven-week old (look at that hungry baby on the left!). Experts say nursing a baby burns calories and helps the post-pregnancy weight come off. (Unfair advantage? Sorry, guys). It's got to be true since I have actually found myself self-consciously exclaiming to waitresses, "Yeah, um, you'd be amazed how much you can eat when you're nursing a baby!" as I order yet more food.

It's also probably true since the first 28 baby pounds (uh-huh) came off pretty quickly. But I'm still carrying around a 12-pound souvenir from those nine months that seems to like me a lot.

Honestly, I'm not too concerned about losing weight right now. I'm more interested in getting fit again. But there are diet changes to be made. Other moms have told me how much they were able to eat while nursing, and then they stopped nursing but didn't stop eating. I don't want to do that.

So I've got to kick some of the bad, unnecessary, certainly-not-contributing-any-antibodies-to-my-breast-milk habits now. White chocolate mochas in the afternoon? Cheese almond danish from Pain Quotidien soon after breakfast? A chocolate-covered marshmallow cup after dinner? That means you.