Eating My Words

I've been having trouble finding time to post the past few days and I thought I'd let you in on why. Truth is, I've been counting points. Weight watchers points. Its true. I've become one of THOSE ladies. I swore it would never be me. I have always been the first person to insist that dieting only makes me gain weight and that I could never do it. And I swore even more strongly that I would never be the person standing at the food table at a party mentally calculating the number of points in a tablespoon of dip and a handful of chips. Oh, how we eat our words sometimes. Pardon the pun.

As mommies, no matter how perfect our metabolism or our workout routines, we all have to go on a diet at some point. Whether that just means avoiding mercury-ridden fish and unheated lunch meat when we're pregnant or counting calories to get our pre-baby bodies back, its a fact that mommyhood comes with a price. I've decided its time to pay up.

I love those little girls of mine and would gladly do it all over again, but pregnancy has not been kind to my body. Neither has full day access to a kitchen stocked with kiddie snacks. But I shall not blame the tots. I am truly imperfect in this area. I would much rather bake (and eat) Christmas cookies than go out for a jog. I really thought that trading running around chasing toddlers for sitting at a desk all day would be exercise enough and that the pounds would just melt away. Boy was I wrong!

There - I've admitted my imperfection in black and white for all the world (or at least the six people reading this blog) to see - I am on a diet. So, if you pass me at the food table at a party, reading labels in the supermarket, or in line at Chipotle, please excuse the faraway look in my eye. I'm just trying to figure out how many of my daily points I'm using up and how many minutes I'd have to run to undo eating those chips and dip. You may shake your head at me and think, "Not another one!" What I've realized though is that mommies deserve to take care of themselves too.

I'm really hoping that this imperfect mommy can stick with a diet this time - even if it involves counting points and eating all the fruit in the house instead of a bag of potato chips. Because when it comes to healthy body image, I know that raising girls is tough. And what they see outside the four walls of this house will bombard them with lots of bad ideas about what healthy looks like. I'm hoping to be an image that sticks with them. Not of a skinny mommy, but of a healthy one. I want them to see me exercising and eating fruit and feeling good about the way I look. Because that will speak volumes more than any talk I could have with them.