Diet Thoughts
I'm still breastfeeding the little baboo, and that means I get very faint if I don't eat plenty. It's nature's little way of telling me that dieting is foolish when you are even partially nutritionally supporting a young human. However, every time I take a step back from breastfeeding (first at nine months when she got good at eating real food, and then at 11 months when I stopped pumping), I've lost about 3-5 pounds lickity split without trying. My size 12 pants became way too loose the first time, and now the size 10s are starting to be way too loose. I did split a pair a week ago, but they were size 8 (and I would have lost my sh*t had I split a pair of non single-digit sized pants, because I am vain though still plump at the moment, also they were bought from Kohls for single digit dollars and the thread and material was probably very substandard. At least that's what I'm telling myself.)
But she seems to be doing great on cow's milk during the day, so I imagine I'll back off to twice daily feedings (I feed her maybe 4-5 times in 24 hours when I am home most of the day, and 3-4 times if I am off at work) in a couple of weeks. And then I'll be able to eat properly without collapsing in a faint heap, or begging the receptionist to take a break and go buy me some doritos at work (okay, I've never done that actually, but I've thought about it, and then I go home and eat carbs like it's Mad Max) - and this is when I have breakfast, snack of two cheese sticks + fruit, lunch, and a second snack of 2 cheese sticks plus fruit, or peanut butter and fruit, or you get the picture. Breakfast is most often cereal (I know) and 1% milk (I'll switch back to skim once I've done feeding the baboo altogether), or bacon and eggs (yum!), and lunch is usually chicken + carb + veggie - though yesterday I hadn't realized I was going to run out of meals and just took a large cooked chicken breast to work for lunch. The portion sizes are larger than I used to eat. But I am still starving at the end of the day, to the extent that last night I made 4 dozen oatmeal cookies (MOST of which are now packed in tupperwear).
But my idea, as I'm supporting the baby less, is to forgo any white flour or white sugar except special occasions, to never allow the evil of high-fructose corn syrup to cross my lips again, and to definitely ban all artifical sweeteners. I've been better at abstaining from diet coke since I took up serious tea drinking, and for the summer I make a big pitcher of unsweetened iced tea for the fridge every week. I'm not big on banning dairy unless someone can convince me otherwise (greek yogurt, people - someone convince me to give up greek yogurt - I DARE you.) I'm also really not drinking much at all without any wine in the house, and not being a big beer drinker except hanging out at sports events or at a party, or with relatives, or if it is a weekday that has a "y" in the name (kidding, I've had one beer in two weeks, and that was at a party). So that's good. For giving up diet coke, the best thing besides iced tea are those flavored seltzer waters. Not the ones with icky artificial sweetners, but the cool polar seltzer in mandarin orange, lime, pomegranate, cranberry, and whatnot. I pour the seltzer into my tall cut-glass fish glasses with lots of ice and fresh cut-up lime, and my life becomes very posh.
You wouldn't believe how easy it is to avoid major crap food by banning high fructose corn syrup. I'm not a big food craver or binger, so banning foods really works for me if I'm trying to eat better. For anyone without emotional issues/cravings about food, my first recommendation would be to ban HFCS, then move forward from there to beautify your diet. (That reminds me, I have to look at the peanut butter Mr. Bisous buys to see if it has the dreaded stuff in it. We've been giving Bisousette tastes of it, yeah, peanuts, I know, I'm really not convinced that keeping her peanut free after even 6 months old will make allergies less likely, and it might even make them more likely, so she's getting exposed to it, and either she develops an allergy or she doesn't, but I hate living with neurotic fear about things we don't have much control over, so I'll let her have a great source of healthy fats and protein for her beautiful brain and skin and muscles and bones).
I may have to start counting calories or something, or cutting carbs more if another 5 pounds doesn't come off after the next two weeks. But until then, lets hope the weight-loss after breastfeeding gods are still smiling on me.
Posted by bisous
at 12:01 AM EDT
She looks so much like a little girl, with the some of the roundness and baby look fading into the past. But I must say, 11&3/4 month olds are altogether more fascinating and amazing than their younger counterparts. Six months ago she was learning how to sit up, and four months before that she was figuring out that her hands actually belonged to her. Six months ago: 
It's really quite amazing. 
(hummingbird feeder recipe: 
She seems to be thinking; "Will this thing hold?" But it is impossible to tell. Babies her age babble all sorts of interesting things known only to them. 
