Losing the baby weight

I'm sure there are some very lucky ladies out there who pop out a baby and then fit straight back into their size ten jeans but I am not one of them. I am a curvy twelve/fourteen on a good day and a wobbly sixteen on a bad day. I didn't go manically eating for two when I was pregnant but nor did I particularly watch what I was eating and as a result I was, post-birth, about eight kilos, or seventeen pounds, overweight. It was a shock, I can tell you, to no longer have a baby there to blame for the sheer mass of me. The baby was out and I was still a whale. I decided immediately that I didn't want to remain that way and so I gave myself a year to shift the lot.

I started slowly, drinking water by the bucket-load and eating lots of fish and fruit (I was still at that time trying to breastfeed so I was being super-healthy anyway). I've always found, though, that food is less important in my battle with the bulge than exercise, and so I started pounding the streets of my little village with Tommy strapped up in his sling. We must have walked a good two hours every day for the first four months, at which point I switched him to the pram and continued. I think we met every villager over that period and I even made some friends en-route. Such was my speed, one lady suggested I enter myself into an annual pram-walking marathon they hold in Bergamo. 

Tom was born in August and by Christmas I'd lost a stone. Hurrah! However, I repeat, Christmas. I was back in England for the holiday and eating myself silly. I couldn't help it! I'd been living in Italy and hadn't seen a wispa or a Richmond Irish sausage for months! New Year's day, though, brought the determination back and now, fifteen months down the line, I am back to my pre-baby twelve/fourteen. 

Having said that, I do not look as I did pre-baby. Good grief, no. Whip my clothes off and I have wobbles in all the wrong places. Everything is softer, although I have to admit I quite like the softness. I was never a sculpted goddess anyway and I suppose I'm enjoying getting used to the idea of being a mum. What helps as well, of course, is the fact that my husband still fancies me and tells me constantly. I'm a lucky girl!