Diet. Die it.

I'm never fad dieting again. I had tried it a couple of years back and it left me moody and deprived. I felt like I had no control over what I got to do, mostly because what I do is usually food related!
I find it pretty funny that I posted a recipe and then a post on dieting. I don't know what it is about food guilt, but it's a sonofa.
I had a baby 5 months ago, I lost the baby weight and magically I've gained 10 lbs since a month postpartum. Thats 2.5 lbs a month, and that's a mean realization. 10 lbs? I don't see a reason for this, unless I'm pregnant again and I just don't know it- as unlikely as that is. I only gained 26 lbs with Eliana, so 10 lbs is kind of frightening!

I'm going to set some goals and every Sunday mark my progress.

1. One cup of juice, one cup of milk, the rest is water. I drink far too much juice, it's empty calories, tons of sugar, and my affinity for chocolate milk has gotten out of hand. 
2. One treat a day. I'm seriously snacking on something every couple of hours- and none of it is really healthy. If I have dessert, I had it. No midnight snacks, movie snacks, afternoon snacks.
3. Honey, not sugar. Tea with honey.
4. Less bread, preferably 2 pieces a day and no more. I eat a lot of bread for breakfast/lunch.
5. No CANDY. Baked goods, fine, candy is too much.
6. Walk/clean/work out daily. One out of three. And by cleaning I mean cleaning. 
7. One serving at meal time, make a plate and eat it. No more eating out of serving dishes on the table unless someone is over and I'm making a presentation.
8. We've been awesome with our greens lately, eating them almost every meal sans breakfast. I need to eat more fruit.
9. Two water bottles of water a day- I have a tall pink bottle that is 24 ounces. For the last week I've had 2 bottles of water and I've seen an improvement on my skin.
10. Decent lunch, small dinner twice a week. We like big dinners here, but for digestions sake we'll mix it up.
11. Biggest meal is breakfast. When I ate a hardy breakfast my milk was better, I felt better, I didn't have the urge to nap all day either.
12. 1-2 meals a week without beef or chicken. We very rarely eat beef, so to save money and help me introduce new protein I've decided to take meat out of my diet twice a week. 
13. Drink at least 4 ounces before a meal- drink when hungry. 

So, that's that. Here is my new and improved lifestyle, inshallah. I'm seriously hoping to stick to it and lose weight within the next six months. Let's say, by my daughter's first birthday I'd like to have lost 25 lbs. That's like 7 months, so it seems fair. If I lose more I'll be so happy. If I just make myself healthier, I'll still be happy. 

I'd like to lose weight before Eliana is 1 because my husband and I decided to try for another at that time, and I'd hate to be overweight and pregnant. I had lost 15 lbs when I got pregnant with Eliana so I'd like to do the same for the next one if I can.