Hi!  My name is Leah Segedie, and I’m the Chief Mom of Operations of Bookieboo, a social site and online magazine for moms into fitness, weight loss, and healthy living.  Before I started up Bookieboo, I was an everyday mom with a new baby and very overweight.  When I walked into the hospital to have my son, I weighed 253 lbs. and was very anxious about motherhood.  After gaining about 70 lbs. with my pregnancy, I thought a lot of the extra weight would disappear after I delivered.  Boy was I in for the shock of my life when I got home and was only 12 lbs. lighter.  When my son was about three months old, I started a weight loss journey that would take me to 149 lbs. and a new healthy lifestyle. 

I’m proud to be able share with you some tips that I have created from my own weight loss.  They were created with the everyday mom in mind. 

1. Take baby steps.  Don’t try to do everything at once.  Fit the changes into your lifestyle with your family slowly.  When you do too many things at a time, you will overwhelm yourself and then may get frustrated and quit.  When you make these lifestyle changes, take them one step at a time.  After you are comfortable with the changes you made, make some more.  The trick is to be in a constant state of growth and challenge, but without doing too much.    
2. Make mini-goals instead of outrageous goals.  Instead of saying you want to lose 100 lbs., tell yourself you want to lose 5 lbs.  Just focus on those 5 lbs. and when you accomplish your goal reward yourself with something that has nothing to do with food.  Then focus on another 5 lbs.  Doing it this way will build your self confidence and give you the belief that you can lose weight.  When you have a lot of weight to lose, most of the trick is believing you can do it.  .
3. Build reinforcing habits to keep yourself accountable.  What I mean by this is create a system of checks and balances that keep you accountable to what you are doing.  You need to weight yourself daily or weekly and record it and then get yourself measured monthly and record it.  Then look back at your progress frequently.  I still look back at my progress today to remind myself of all the hard work I’ve accomplished.    
4. Give yourself permission to not be perfect.  Losing weight is like running a marathon.  Very few of us intend to win, instead we just want to finish.  It’s the same with losing weight.  Just focus on finishing instead of having to be perfect.  As women, we tend to expect perfection with weight loss.  When we have a moment of weakness, we beat ourselves up instead of realizing that these things happen.  If you have a bad day or weekend, just get back up and keep going.  You are NOT going to be perfect.  And if you fall down, don’t beat yourself up about it, just start new. 
5. Make some new friends that are skinnier or into fitness and nurture those relationships.  This was easy for me because I was a new mom and needed to make other mommy friends.  I choose mom friends that were into fitness or were a lot skinnier than me.  Making new friends will keep you focused over time and reinforce your new healthy lifestyle.    
6. Keep a food/exercise journal.  This is very important!  You need to always be conscious of what you are eating and how much you are exercising.  If you don’t you will start to gain or slow the losing process.  I stopped 6-7 times while I was losing weight and gained a couple pounds.  But remember if you stop, don’t beat yourself up, just start doing it again. 
7. Plateaus will happen, but you can overcome them with patience and some hard work.  Usually when you hit a plateau, your body has become adjusted to what you are doing, so what you want to do is throw some things in your routine that will shock your system.  Start a new exercise or make the one you are doing harder.  This may be a good time to do more strength training exercises to build muscle.  Muscle helps you burn calories, so they are always good to have.  Plus, the more muscle you have the skinnier you look.  You may gain a pound, but that added muscle will boost your metabolism and kick you into high gear.  Also, change what you are eating, but be careful to watch your calorie and fiber intake.  And always drink plenty of water. 

For more information on weight loss, fitness, nutrition and how to raise healthy children, check out Bookieboo, a social site and online magazine for moms into fitness.