No diet for me but Applered I LOVE your avatar! LOL

Important milestone today - I'm half way in terms of weight lost - 8 kg gone. If you think what 8 kg of fat looks like that's quite something.

I've also now got a six pack.

Granted, I'll have to wait till the end of the diet before I can drink it.

Sadly, although I'm half way in terms of weight lost, I'm not half way in terms of duration of the diet. I've been on it for 6 weeks, and I think I have another 8 weeks to go, given I'm consistantly losing 1 kg per week. It may well be longer than this, as maybe the last few kg's will be harder to shift.

I say sadly because although I'm still motivated to loose the weight, and will do so, I'm really bored living this way. Some days I would like to go out and have a nice dinner. Much more frequently I would like a glass of wine or whiskey. Must be careful not to indulge as often as I did when I finish the diet.

Don't deprive yourself completely, it increases the dangers of relapse afterwards. Try finding ways of accomodating the two things. If you want to have a big dinner, go ahead, but do it right after a work-out, when your metabolism is spiking and your muscles could use the protein. Or perhaps have a lighter lunch earlier in the day, so your total calorie intake for the day is not excessive.

I'm not so weak that I'll become a fat drunk the moment I finish the diet. I wrote that it's boring, not that I'm desperate for a drink.

Anyway, the sooner I finish the better, and relaxing the diet now will only prolong it. I still go out, but just have soup and salad.

Think you have done really well to stick with it, but the point you raise here is one i have struggled with for a while. I have read every single post here from those that have the simple cut the crap and do the work through to the more complex chemical analysis of body fat.
My feeling or conviction is that the lifestyle change required to loose those kilos can sometimes deter the individual. I decided i needed to lose weight so i did all those recommended things combination of reduction of alchohol (i used to drink every day now i dont) excercise (i box twice a week) and no eating heavily in the evening etc etc. The kilos are still there but that may be my age.
However the required additional restriction of lifestyle required to lose kilos is not acceptable. I have done all the heart blood pressure and cholesterol checks and i know exactly where i am inside, but there seems to be no option for the weight loss.
So for those that are relating to that Im with you!

I wish to find what is the best thing to do to lose weight after the birth.

Because let's face it, with a toddler and a newborn, I won't have time or energy to go to the gym. I won't! I will already struggle to survive the day and hope for some sleep maybe, at night.

So cutting junk food and smaller portion.... Anything else? Should I cut cheese? bread? pasta? What am I going to survive on? It is not like we will have plenty of time to prepare a good steak and salad, etc... Not for the first few months at least.

Any suggestions are welcome. But really, I tried and I know it, exercice won't do it because I won't be able to do it, not for a while anyway.

My extremely unscientific conclusion is that some reductions in lifestyle are simply not worth it. Food isn't utilitarianism alone!

I can totally understand this and it would be refreshing if all people in your situation would have such a levelheaded attitude. I realize that having no kids, no pets, and a (relatively) stress-free job, the free time I have is definitely a luxury. A colleague asked me for exercise advice a while ago and I told him that I liked doing cardio in the morning: waking up a bit earlier, say 7, doing it until 8, and heading to work. His words: "I wake up at 6:30, have to feed my kids, get them ready the school, and barely have time to get to work for 9 o'clock." Quite a reality check. I had to dogsit my parents' mutt a while ago and was stunned by what an autonomy and free-time killer it is. Still, no one is forcing you to have kids or pets, and if you ask most people who do they wouldn't have it any other way. Take the good with the bad and take responsibility for your decisions, and no one will criticize you for it.

So there are definitely restrictions for many people that I'm not denying. At the same time, from my experience if most people who whine about being overweight spent the time they do complaining actually doing something about it, it would solve most of their problems. When I began the process of weight loss a year ago, after some analysis I needed to come terms with the fact that I had more free time than I thought. I just spent it doing unproductive things. If you can spend an hour in front of the TV every night, you can take 2/3rds of that time to do 40 minutes of cardio.

Well I reckon that if a woman that has just given birth to a child feels pressure to suddenly make herself elgibile for Miss Switzerland, then there is something terribly wrong. The answer is that you shouldnt feel the need to lose some pounds, you should be looking after your family and recovering from what must be (although I don`t have any practical experience) an incredibly traumatic time. So its open season on whatever you want to eat and sod them all, worry about it next year and good luck!

Im not sure if you thought I was whining. i most certainly wasnt, more I was saying I refuse to stop wining, if its to lose some kilos. But a good point anyway. I do my boxing at 06h30 incidentally.

No, that's exactly what I said, you have a levelheaded attitude about it and not complaining. You're already doing a decent amount, analyzed the situation in your head, weighed the pros/cons of doing more, and decided against it. As long as you own it, it's all good.

But there are people (I'm sure we all know some), whose lifestyle consists of complaining about how overweight they are and doing nothing about it. Same with people who want to quit smoking and seem to talk about nothing else but wanting to quit, between puffs. The utter lack of self-analysis is tiring, to say the least.

Once you're over the initial few weeks, have you thought about going for long walks? One can go in the buggy and the baby in a sling wrap thing.

For my wife, going for long walks was one of the pleasures of maternity leave and you're lucky as summer is coming up so it will be warm enough to be out for a few hours.

I believe most people have a natural weight - some people stay slim, some average, some chubby.

I also believe it's important to be healthy - so check blood pressure, cholesterol levels, eat healthily, do some exercise. But ... if your weight is not changing, then it could be you're at your natural weight and it will take too much effort to force it (plus it will revert back as soon as you relax your regime).

Being healthy is important; being a set weight isn't.

And what about doing it for me?

Having kids means not thinking much about yourself from the moment you try to conceive. You spend the next nine months to think about the baby who is growing inside of you and you make already sacrifices for his own good. When the kids are there, it is no more time to sit and read or look at yourself or spend on yourself. You pass the kids first, because they are now the priority.

So for me, to go back to my weight is the only thing I can really do for myself. But believe it or not, it is also good for them:

When I am at my healthy weight, I feel much better in my skin, in my head, I sleep better, I have more energy and can give more of it to my kids.

I don't want to lose weight to be the next Miss Switzerland (I wouldn't want to take their dream away by crushing them all with my natural hotness! ).

If its for you then of course its fine. as for your last comment, well i gather nobody would dispute that (not if they wanted to type again anyway)

Don't believe everything writted on internet! And I am an inoffensive kitty, I promise!

So any tips on what I should cut down or what I should take care of in my specific post-baby situation?

To tell you the truth, I'd been dreading going on a diet, and the more weight I gained the more I dreaded going on a diet. But actually, it's been easy. I've lost weight far easier and quicker than I thought and I'm not hungry - just board.

I am not normally a fat bloke. I should be thin, but for the past 4 years, I've been very lax about eating and drinking. Sweets that come my way, huge meals, and especially the past year - beer, that I never used to drink.

I think when I get to my ideal weight I won't have a problem maintaining it. I will stick to low carbs mostly, and will indulge less frequently, and enjoy it more when I do.

Yourself?

Boy do I HEAR you, hun! The one thing that I can say about trying to lose weight after baby is to first nurture your soul (which I regret not doing). Sounds cheesy, but after baby's born and those hormones drop no matter how much weight loss might happen the wiggly bits stay and make you weep in memory of what once was and can never naturally be. If you're good to yourself in other ways (walk, meditate, eat good chocolate...) you may be in a better position to lose weight. Perhaps there should be a Mrs Switzerland (prize going to the happiest woman with the wobbliest bits).

Low/no carbs is working for me, and I haven't done a lot of excersise. I haven't found it difficult/time consuming to prepare the food, and I'm the worlds worst/least motivated cook operating from a temporary kitchen.

I haven't just had a kid though.