For my family, the 4th of July weekend means we will be going SWIMMING!  And swimming means what moms?  We will be putting on bathing suits!

Now this can be a traumatic time for any mother of a baby!  If you have some anxiety about putting on that bathing suit, here are a few thoughts to hopefully encourage you:

1. Choose a bathing suit that is most flattering to your figure. This may be your maternity swimsuit. Use a cover up when you’re not in the pool. A sarong wrap that ties around your waist and covers up that post-baby belly works great.

2. Don’t focus on the way your body looks. Focus on having fun with your friends and family! Remember that almost every woman in the pool or on the beach feels conscious about her body too!

3. Set a goal for yourself to get back into your pre-baby bathing suit. Why not use that pesky bathing suit as incentive? It may take several months, but make it your goal to put your old bathing suit on next season. Here’s a video tip I made about this and you can see me in my old bathing suit.

You can get in your old one too with some work and determination!  Dive in with both feet moms!

Today’s Action Step:  How many pounds do you have to lose to get into your old bathing suit?  Set a reasonable goal (maybe dropping 2 pounds a week) and set a goal date to get back in your swimsuit.  Even if it’s in the dead of winter, you will be proud of yourself when you can put it back on! 

Want to win a free camouflage baby onesie for your “Major Miracle” or “Commander in Chief?”  My friend over at Beloved Mama is hosting a summer giveaway of my onesies so be sure to stop by her blog and enter to win! 

Thinking of these slogans in regard to weight loss…wouldn’t it be a “Major Miracle” to get your pre-baby body back or better?  To do so, you just need to be the “Commander in Chief” and tell your hands to put down those french fries and pick up a salad fork.  You can do it mom! 

If you need some gift inspiration to appreciate your husband this Sunday for Father’s Day, listen to my podcast about “What Your Husband Needs” this week.  You’ll learn what to give him that’s absolutely free and that for sure will be in his love language!

It doesn’t matter if chocolate is shaped like a bunny, egg, basket or chicken - this weekend, it’s time for restraint!  Just like bunnies multiply, the chocolate in your life will multiply too.  From getting Easter baskets ready for the children in your life, to Easter egg hunts, to Easter dinner - get ready to be surrounded by chocolate!

Here’s my advice moms as you continue to lose weight after baby (or at least MAINTAIN during the Easter festivities) - choose your Easter treat wisely.  Don’t just fall for popping in a peep, unless peeps are your total favorite!

You might think they’re gross, but I love Cadbury creme eggs.  So I will have one at Easter and enjoy it :)  But I’ll skip the other stuff. 

What will you enjoy this Easter?  Leave a comment and we’ll see which Easter treat is our favorite.

Have a blessed Easter holiday!   

You’re trying to lose weight, but then comes the beautifully wrapped truffles for Valentine’s Day.  What is the chocolate-deprived-because I’m trying to lose weight-mom supposed to do? 

 Here are a few suggestions: 

1.  Eat only dark chocolate. Give all your milk and white chocolate pieces away to your skinny friends. Enjoy dark chocolate that is at least 70% cocoa. Research shows that flavonoid-rich foods like dark chocolate may keep high blood pressure down and decrease your risk for heart disease. So as long as you’re indulging, make it dark chocolate.

2.  Give yourself a chocolate allowance. Enjoy 500 calories worth of chocolate throughout your Valentine’s celebrations, or have five pieces of chocolate, or one piece of cake. Decide beforehand what you are going to do. Indulge all at once by ordering that rich cake for dessert on Valentine’s Day or savor your chocolate over a longer period of time (like one piece of chocolate, five days in a row). But after you have your allowance, you are done. Finished. Just like when you were a kid and your parents gave you a dollar a week, once the dollar was spent, you didn’t have money to buy anything else.

3.  Get creative with the leftovers. Chances are you’re going to have some chocolate left after you’ve had your allowance. You can wrap chocolate pieces and give them away to your friends and neighbors with notes of appreciation. Or if your truffles came from your husband who doesn’t really want to see his hard earned money going to buy chocolates for the neighbors, you can put the chocolate in the freezer and have a celebration when you hit your goal weight.

So I’m at my family’s house for Christmas and have already enjoyed chocolate truffles, almond pound cake, sweet potato pie…do I need to go on?

Christmas is a grand time of celebration as it should be, but come New Years, there will be a few pesky pounds to deal with no doubt. Now is the time to set your goals for the New Year. How many pounds will you lose? By what date? What is your doable plan? Jump start your goal setting by listening to my podcast about goals and losing weight at http://www.losingweightafterbaby.com

Hot Tip Moms: Be specific with your New Years resolutions. Make up a doable plan for weight loss (i.e. I will walk every Wednesday for 45 minutes, eat desserts once a week instead of everyday). Reward yourself when you reach your goals.

I bought lots of truffles and wrapped them up for our neighbors to invite them to a Christmas party.  The good news was I was  spreading good cheer and giving away chocolate (instead of buying boxes for myself).  The bad news is that I popped a lot of truffles in my mouth while I was wrapping them up.  Plus, having these chocolates on my kitchen island gave me an incredible urge to open one of the bags and dive in!

Hot Mom Tip:  If you’re going to give away something delicious to eat, wrap it in something you can’t see through, or put it away in your house so you won’t have to look at it.  Staring at freshly baked cookies or homemade breads all day will not help you with weight loss. 

My son and I made our first gingerbread house yesterday.  The good news is that it was lots of fun.  The bad news is that eating parts of it was quite delicious.

Hot Tip for Moms:  Make eating the gingerbread house off limits.  Keep yourself and your kids healthier by using it as a decoration only.  After Christmas, if you want, you can eat a few pieces and then throw it away quickly.  If you can’t stand the temptation to pick at the roof, spray it with something gross to make you not eat it (like Lysol as long as you can guarantee your kids won’t eat it).