So I thought I'd tell you a little bit more about my plan. I'm basically following the Ultrametabolism plan, which is eating whole foods and healthy fats with herbs and spices that help heal the body and boost metabolism. It's a generous diet without calorie counting. It's heavy on the healthy fats like olive oil and avocado and nuts. What is not on the menu are breads, white rice, and dairy.  The only bread I'm allowed to have is a whole grain rye that has no wheat flour or that sprouted ezekiel stuff (blech).

I had a lot of success with this diet before, but found it very "real life" unfriendly. It's extremely difficult to eat out on this diet. Just try to order meal out with no wheat flour or dairy. I dare ya. Sometimes we go out for vietnamese food, which is ok, but I have to have white rice with it. There used to me a mediterranean place in town I could eat at, but it closed. Sigh. It's also impossible to grab a quick snack out. I have to plan ahead and take things with me.

There's a ton of cooking involved, which I'm able to do right now because I'm not working. I found it really hard this weekend, however, with the baby at home all day. Even with Daddy there, I found it difficult to block out a big chunk of time for prep work. Actually, I didn't find the time, and I wound up scrounging up a dinner of leftovers for myself and left DH to his own devices Sunday. There are a few quick meals on Ultrametabolism, but not many! It's not that they take long to cook, there's just usually a lot of prep.

Before the baby, I used to dedicate almost my entire Sunday to shopping and prepping for my diet. Now, that's impossible. I hope I can get in a good groove over the next two months so that I can adapt my plan to the real work world in August.

I've already adapted the plan a little. I'm adding calorie counting. I'm trying to keep it under 1400 calories a day if I don't exercise, and 1550 if I do. The program does have suggested portions, but doesn't specify limits--just eat when you're hungry kind of thing. I've found that I will eat way too much of something if I don't count calories, too. For example, the other day I made a grilled chicken and snow pea salad with a homemade tahini dressing. It was three portions, but I really had to stop myself after I had eaten half of it. It was soooo good, and my stomach hasn't "shrunk" yet to adjust to my new eating habits. I even found myself thinking about it all day! So sad. I also made this kick-ass carrot-ginger-coconut milk soup that I just want to gulp down. I've made myself pour it into small 6-oz teacups so I won't go hog wild.

I've been having that soup every day around 4 when I'm suddenly starving for dinner, but can't even think about dinner yet with a baby to feed, bathe and get to bed. That's another wrench the baby throws into the diet. I have to feed her when I want to feed myself! This leads to Mommy Mooching, as I call it, from Chandler's plate. "Oh, she's not going to eat that . . ."

I'm very proud of the diet I'm feeding my child. She gets plenty of fruits and veggies and has a pretty broad palate. She likes tofu and veggie sausage. I'm also trying to keep her away from too many processed foods, though she does get some at daycare. The foods she loves the most, unfortunately, are sweets--cakes and muffins to be specific. They are the only things she will ask for more of. Saturday we had to take a dessert to the daycare family picnic, and she had a bite of brownie, then grabbed for the rest and shoved the whole thing in her mouth, like it was trying to get away or something. "Oh, dear," I thought. "Not good. She's so young to have such a sweet tooth!" She probably responds to sweets so strongly because I don't give her sweetened food at home--unsweetened applesauce, low-sugar juice, etc. Also, she had yet to have a french fry. I've put an age limit of two until she can have fried foods. The only fried thing she's had is fried catfish, which she also loves like she loves cake. Hmmmm.

On a different note, I'm pondering cleaning out my weight log and putting in my new starting weight. Right now, it's interesting to me to see the down and up and down and up journey I've been on, but it still shows me 7 pounds in the hole because my start weight is from three and a half years ago! It doesn't accurately reflect my current progress, which is about 3.5 lbs lost this week. On the other hand, I'm tracking my food and weight in a program called Lose It! on my iPod, so I don't really need that weight graph. What do y'all think?

Next on Step Inside if You Care: The humiliation that is Ashley's return to yoga.

Oh, and here's a link to my adorable child's web site.