I’ve been on the track to losing weight and getting in shape for god, at least a year now. In between that year I had a baby. Before that year, I probably pretended I wanted to lose weight but mostly just talked about it while stuffing my face. These days, I’m feeling pretty motivated. I have found the basic building blocks for recreating my eating habits and I know a couple workouts that work and a few I’d like to try.

I’ve lost about 30 pounds in the past year which is really pretty incredible. Throughout my pregnancy I counted just about every calorie and took good care of myself. My husband dragged me through countless walks that I whined and complained through but the end result is that now I can walk further – like a resistance weight has been removed. And I’m looking to do more. Thirty pounds is good but my husband has lost eighty. He’s been winning this battle long enough. I want in on that action and I happen to have another forty pounds or so that I’m looking to lose, at least.

So one of the ideas I had to keep myself on the right track and maybe even do better, is to start holding myself accountable in a public forum again. I am already sort of doing that. I’m using caloriecount.about.com to keep track of my calories each day and I have that linked up to my Facebook account so when I do really well I can brag about it. A few of my friends are doing the same and I am so proud of them and thrilled that they have been turned onto calorie counting, too, as I think it is one of the best ways to lose the weight. My husband is proof of that! But I was thinking the other day that my blog is just sitting here, waiting to be used for this. I have a community of readers (that would be you) at my disposal to cheer me on, offer tips and maybe even join in on the fun.

So I’m declaring Wednesdays, Weight Loss Wednesdays because I like alliteration and it happens to be Wednesday so it all just works, you know? I’m not sure exactly how this is all going to work. At the very least, once a week I will write a post about my weight loss efforts – how I’ve done for the past week and what my goals are for the upcoming week. I might close each post with a question for you guys to ruminate on – or maybe ask for your advice. If any of you want to join in on the weight loss, feel free to do this on your own blogs and let me know so I can cheer you on, too! Maybe I’ll even make a button for this if it seems like other people are into it? We’ll see, my attention span is about yay big you know.

So. For the past few weeks I’ve been reading The Baby Fat Diet, which I reviewed here and I’ve picked up a few tips there – like adding soy milk to my daily diet and using spices to, well, spice things up. I also picked up a copy of the latest Weight Watchers magazine and actually really enjoyed it. They have tons of tips and recipes and this month they had a TON of apple recipes which was very convenient since we just took a trip to our local apple orchard this past weekend. I made the decision to switch to whole wheat pasta after reading that it can save 50 calories in a serving and will be more filling, etc. I’ve been trying to commit to working out every day, but ugh yeah. That’s currently my hardest hurdle. It involves putting the baby down and finding the energy and not wanting to be doing something else. The usual excuses.

So I guess that’s what I’ll focus on this week. Exercise. I’ve got my trusty Wii Fit always up for a good time, a beautiful neighborhood to walk through AND a netflix account that has a few workout DVDs that I can watch instantly on my computer. These are a few that I’m thinking of checking out:

• 10 Minute Solutions: Kickbox Bootcamp
• Crunch: Burn and Firm Pilates
• 10 Minute Solutions: Carb Burner

Monday I worked out for 15 minutes or so with my WiiFit, and even finally tried some new exercises that I wasn’t able to do while pregnant or recovering from my c-section. It felt good, but it wasn’t exactly cardio-intensive. Last night I started to do the same but I think I started too soon after dinner and decided I’d better go digest first… and of course never got back to it. Today – today I will do better!

So I think that’s all for this week. Next week I will let you know how the workouts have gone, how I did with my calorie counting, how much weight I’ve lost since today and then I’ll set some new goals. Want to join in?

Leave a comment with your own weight loss story and goals and feel free to blog about it, too and leave me a link in the comments section below. OR – tell me your favorite way to exercise. Have you tried any of the DVDs I mentioned above?