Love-Hate Relationship with food

I have always had a Love-Hate relationship with food. I LOVE food and I HATE how it piles on the pounds. Will power is not something that I have a lot of when it comes to avoiding my pantry. Sometimes you have to say to yourself: "just take the time and look at what and how much you are eating." Normally I don't have the patience to log calories, but since I've been logging Maddy's feedings, it's become a routine practice and was easy to start doing for myself. I started on Monday and I'm doing well so far. I've discovered a few things about my food consumption thus far:

• I can eat waaaay too many pretzels. I could have easily eaten 400+ calories of pretzels in one sitting and not realize it.
  
• 2 Tbsp of hummus is actually plenty to eat with a whole cucumber. Before, I would just take the carton with me and eat more than I really needed. When I measured out 3 Tbsp (since I thought I'd need that much), I actually had some left over.
• A medium sized golden delicious apple has 80 calories which is more than I thought.
• I'm saving money on groceries because I'm not eating through my food as fast.
  

Since I've started my new eating regiment, I'm reminded of a process I went through during my freshman year at college when I had an addiction to bagels (Thanks to Time for a Bagel in Morris Plains). If you think about it, you can also use this technique when your trying to get over an ex or a crush. Read on:

• Step 1: Walk up to the bagel bin, open the lid and take half a bagel. Do this for only a few days a week instead of everyday.
• Step 2: After 1 week of eating half a bagel, repeat Step1, but this time, walk up to the bin and open the lid, but DO NOT take a bagel.
• Step 3: After a few days of opening the lid, walk up to the bin and just look at the bagels. Don't open the lid.
  
• Step 4: After a day or two, don't even walk up to the bin. Take a look from a distance and just keep walking over to the fruit instead.
• Eventually, you will not miss or even want a bagel anymore. Hopefully you will be able to treat yourself every now and then, but you many not even need to.
  

This worked really well for me and became like a mantra for any time that I needed to give something up. It did work with boys too!

Update: I still don't eat bagels, however I had a mad craving for them during my pregnancy and treated myself to a yummy egg white and bagel sandwich from Bagel Street in Plainsboro.

You won't find me tracking my weight online. I don't weigh myself and reserve that painful process for doctor's visits. Instead, I go by how my clothing fits. I'm currently 13 weeks postpartum and is has been 7 weeks since I got the OK to workout from my doctor (since I had a c-section). My upper body is always the first to slim down. My hips and that awful spare-tire are always the last to go away (and usually don't).

In addition to my calorie counting, I have been doing a variety of exercises. I found a routine called the 3-2-1 Baby Bulge Be Gone which Halle Berry and Jessica Alba both do. It's a circuit workout that can be done in about an hour or less. I tried it out last night and felt really good when I left the gym. I'll probably tweak with the strength portion, incorporating different moves that I've enjoyed in the past.

Wish me luck and I'll try to record my progress as I go.